These are certainly compelling numbers - particularly Kindle sales as compared
with hardcover sales, a trend with first began to manifest itself last spring.
Not exact matches
However, ebook
sales are still ahead of what it was a year ago,
with Amazon claiming they are selling 112 ebooks to every 100
hardcover books sold via their store.
While traditional publishers (actually, the top end publishers) are fighting over business and legal issues, like any big business, you adapt and work
with what works — eBooks still represent a minority in
sales, but it is rapidly catching up to print, and by all accounts, has already passed
hardcover (which has been in decline in a slow death since the advent of paperbacks and trade paperbacks in the 40s and 50s).
For our Special Evening
with Paula McLain, attendees will receive a copy of her new
hardcover, LOVE AND RUIN, a day before on
sale!
And any readers who don't buy the YA trend can't argue
with these numbers: In the first half of 2009, adult
hardcover sales were down 17.8 %; children's / young adult
hardcovers were up 30.7 %.
According to a new report by Nielsen paperback
sales accounted for 42 % of all book
sales, followed by
hardcovers with 25 % and finally eBooks
with a paltry 23 %.
«How I came to love the Price Fixers» —
with their sweet talking about a bigger cut for all while the largest cut is in availability and attractiveness of the e-book and dreams of
hardcover sales rising from the dust.
The AAP is beefing up its monthly reports
with data from many more publishers — 1,149 for January 2012 compared to under 100 in past months — and more detailed reporting on specific genres: Children's / young adult e-book
sales are now broken out and religious book
sales are divided by
hardcover, paperback and e-books.
In the United States,
hardcover sales alone were 300,000 copies for «The Girl
with the Dragon Tattoo» — which was only released in the U.S. in September of 2008 — and the trilogy has sold nearly 17 million copies.
This leaves us mostly
with paperbacks and
hardcover books, both of which, according to a Guardian article, are suffering «dramatically» (I don't see a 6 % decline in paperback
sales during a recession as dramatic, but that may just be me).
Mass market paperback
sales have declined significantly over the years,
with loss of non-bookshop
sales outlets, but
hardcover sales have risen dramatically as the price differential has fallen.
You can publish a paperback
with an ISBN for distribution, a non-ISBN paperback version to sell specifically on Lulu and your author site, an ebook for
sale on all platforms, a dust jacket
hardcover you can sell either through distribution
with an ISBN or solely on Lulu depending on demand for
hardcover, and on top of all of this, you can always create a unique version to sell by hand at an event, perhaps featuring a special foreword, bonus chapter, or teaser for another book still in the works.
Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.'s collected edition of Kick - Ass, their creator - owned mini-series from Marvel Comics» Icon imprint, was the best - selling graphic novel for the month of March
with the Kick - Ass Premiere
Hardcover, customer interest and
sales fueled by the forthcoming film adaptation from Stardust director Matthew Vaughn.
Sadly, PW also seems to have stopped providing as much detail on breaking down print book
sales (
hardcovers, trade paperbacks, etc.), although they did reveal that print book
sales «plunged» in June,
with trade paperback
sales down a whopping 64 %, adult
hardcovers down 25 %, and mass - market paperbacks down 22 %.
February figures showed steeper declines in some print categories,
with adult
hardcover sales falling 43 per cent to $ 46.2 m and mass - market paperbacks down 41.5 per cent at $ 29.3 m.
Hardcover sales are great for your big fans, since they are a great product (if you have the space) that lasts a long time (although I don't know if this is a good example, since I don't know how much extra you make off hardcover sales), donations, book signing tours, speaking events... I'm sure there are many other ways to maximise both revenue and fan goodwill, with the benefit that all of these add - ons are all piracy
Hardcover sales are great for your big fans, since they are a great product (if you have the space) that lasts a long time (although I don't know if this is a good example, since I don't know how much extra you make off
hardcover sales), donations, book signing tours, speaking events... I'm sure there are many other ways to maximise both revenue and fan goodwill, with the benefit that all of these add - ons are all piracy
hardcover sales), donations, book signing tours, speaking events... I'm sure there are many other ways to maximise both revenue and fan goodwill,
with the benefit that all of these add - ons are all piracy - proof!
While e-book
sales have been leveling off as they absorbed the replacement audience for mass market paperbacks — because e-book prices are cheap in mass market territory — the sector of e-books that have been selling the best are the first - run new bestsellers — the ones
with the highest e-book prices initially (although those prices come down over time, just like a paperback edition and the e-book prices are lower than
hardcover and trade paper usually.)
Hardcover Sales Bump for the Holidays Hardcover sales are doing well this holiday season, even with the growing popularity of eb
Sales Bump for the Holidays
Hardcover sales are doing well this holiday season, even with the growing popularity of eb
sales are doing well this holiday season, even
with the growing popularity of ebooks.
Fairly brutal numbers across the board,
with only a slight (2.1 %) increase in young adult
hardcover, flat adult trade paper
sales, and decreases in the other categories, including a dramatic 54.3 % decrease in mass - market paperback
sales.
April
sales in the children's / young adult category fell 12.6 %
with ebook
sales plunging 51.6 % in the month and
hardcover sales off 12.1 %.
The beginning of the this latest round of teeth gnashing and chest beating began
with the news that e-book
sales for the first quarter of this year surpassed the
sales of
hardcovers.
If he wasn't making out better on his ebook
sales than he was on his
hardcover sales, then he had a shitty contract deal
with his publishers, because Amazon offers much better royalty rates for ebooks than you'll get from a traditional publisher for
hardcovers.
This is not too surprising, since the growth of e-books is most likely to impact
sales of mass - market paperbacks, as MMPs are the least expensive print offering, their release is delayed after
hardcovers (as some publishers do
with e-books), and most closely filled the role that e-books are starting to fill for people: day - to - day fiction reading, as opposed to
hardcover cookbooks, graphic books, or bookshelf display items.
The May 2011 e-book
sales stats bring
with them the announcement that, so far in 2011, e-books are the # 2 format, behind only adult trade paperbacks, and ahead of both adult
hardcovers and adult mass - market paperbacks.
And the bookstore will save money
with smaller stores, a wider selection of titles, and more focus on high - profit
hardcovers, gifts, and food
sales.
I have a YA
hardcover with Random House, and I do get royalties on ebook
sales.
The Corrections was an enormous international bestseller,
with translations in 35 languages, American
hardcover sales of nearly one million copies and nominations for nearly every major book prize in the country — Franzen was awarded the National Book Award for this novel.