From Publisher's Lunch:
Reporting that ebook sales in the US rose 5.5 times during 2008, the company [Lagardere] declared revenues–yes, actual revenues–of $4.7 million. Based on our rough estimate of Hachette Book Group's total US sales for the year, that means that even with the exponential growth, ebooks comprised less than 0.75 percent of sales.
[…]
We appreciate having an actual fact to reaffirm our continuing contention that mainstream media and Wall Street analysts alike have vastly overcovered and over-responded to the near-term impact of the Kindle and other consumer ereading devices and platforms. The growth rates are quite high and clearly the expansion of players and consumer options will fuel this market further, but it is currently tiny.
And yet I still want a Kindle. 🙂 But, yes, I'm not an ebook connoisseur at all. I don't like reading on my computer. I have to read my drafts that way, and friends' drafts that way, so I don't want to read a book for leisure. The Kindle, OTOH, I thought might help me branch into ebooks a bit. Hmm, still very interesting that this technology isn't spreading the way people once declared it would. As I saw on a Tweet from Stephen Fry recently, (paraphrasing) Kindles and ebooks won't replace real books any more than elevators replaced stairs. It's simply another tool to use, that's all.
What are your thoughts?
Maybe the next generation will boost the e-book to the same levels as print books. They may be the ones who’ll say, “Paperback book? What’s that?” just like my kids shake their heads when I talk about black-and-white TV and the time before the VCR when you either watched the show or you missed it.
Marilyn
I respect ebook writers, and it’s obviously a growing market, but it’s still a small market.
Maybe once the price of Kindle’s and other quality readers drops a lot, we’ll see that fuel the market some.
Could be, PM! I still think regular books will remain, same as stairs. 🙂
PC, that could be. I know I simply don’t read ebooks because of the format. If I had a Kindle (been hinting to the hubs), I think I would.
More confounded doodads to learn how to use…. 🙁
Your tech use amazes me, Lynn!
I think it’ll come down to convenience. I’ll be one of the crazies whose entire house is taken up by books that could all be contained in a little device (and truthfully I’ll probably have one of those too) but when it comes down to it taking the stairs is good for you (well your eyesight anyway) but I like elevators too 😉