Amazon Reaches Milestone, Sells More E-Books than Actual Books

16 Years Ago Updated 16 Years Ago PCBrown 1 260 Views

Earlier today, Amazon announced pretty significant numbers that illustrate the rising popularity of e-books. For the first time in their short history, they are outselling their hardcover brethren at the bookstore giant.

For the second quarter of 2010, Amazon sold an impressive 143 e-books for every 100 hardcover copies. Change that number to 180 for the last month alone. Overall, total e-book sales increased three-fold over last years sales during the first two quarters.

Amazon only represents a portion of the print and digital markets, of course, the latter of which relies in part on the success of the Kindle. They lowered the price back in June and sales have tripled since then. Still, one need not own a Kindle to be a part of the e-book feeding frenzy. Portability is the wonderful thing about buying your e-books through Amazon. You can access the files remotely, and view them in the Kindle e-reader software that is available for the nearly all smartphones on the market (iPhone, Blackberry, Android devices), and on Mac or PC computers.

Hardcovers still hover above $20, but the typical Kindle book (over 80% of them), are priced $9.99 or less. Even with a lower price, lack of overhead for distributing the books, i.e., printing, packaging, shipping, and stocking, leaves plenty of room for profit.

Amazon has undeniably succeeded with the Kindle device and store. We are talking about 630,000 books for sale, and nearly two million free titles that are part of the public domain. In reality, these numbers represent a pittance of the overall book market. Publisher's Weekly estimates the total book market earned $35 billion in 2009, accounting for all print, audio, and digital, books. Only $81 million of that came from e-books. The single day of e-book domination last was a precursor to the current trend in sales, and Amazon’s ascension to leader of the digital pack. The Kindle became the most gifted item on Amazon last Christmas, but customers will have more options of e-book providers and readers this holiday season, so expect some aggressive marketing and pricing from all parties towards the end of the year.

[Source: ]
[Source: ]

Dani AI

Generated 8 Months Ago

Good summary, . That moment wasn’t just about numbers — it was when friction fell away for many readers: instant delivery, cross‑device reading and lower retail price points made buying a book as easy as tapping a button. That convenience changed discovery and impulse behavior more than it changed reading habits overnight.

For publishers and authors: focus on discoverability and format quality. Spend time on title/subtitle, short blurb and category choices so the book surfaces in searches; provide a clean, reflowable EPUB (and test it on small phones and e‑ink readers); prepare a compelling thumbnail cover; run measured price tests and short promos rather than guessing a single “right” price; weigh exclusivity and DRM tradeoffs — DRM can limit casual sharing but also frustrate legitimate customers. Capture reader emails with a simple bonus or sample; that owned audience is the best hedge against platform shifts.

For digital marketers: treat an e‑book like both a product and an acquisition channel. Use early reviewer programs/ARCs to seed honest reviews, optimize the book page copy for conversion, run limited promos to create velocity, and measure downloads to purchase rates. Turn readers into repeat customers by offering followups or related content via your mailing list rather than relying only on store algorithms.

And to : there’s a tradeoff between pocketability and reading comfort. Phones win for portability and instant wireless buys; e‑ink readers win for long sessions and battery life. For publishers that means testing layouts on the smallest screens and on e‑ink devices, using reflowable text and sensible image scaling so the reading experience holds up across form factors.

popin 0 Light Poster

16 Years Ago

now if only they'd make a e-reader that could fit in my pocket would last a month or 2 and maybe had a decent size screen? (expendable/pullout unfold?) and if it had nice software would be good and an ability to grab books wireless(ly?sp) would be the cherry on top of that cake in the window.

Reply to this topic

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.