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January 2011 – eBooks dominate hardcovers

03.19.2011, Uncategorized, by .

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) just released their January 2011 sales numbers.

 

eBook          – JAN2011 – $69.9M  :   JAN2010 — $32.4M
hardcovers   – JAN2011 – $49.1M  :   JAN2010 – $55.4M

 

Sometimes it is easier to see in a simple graph:

photo.JPG

The blue line is eBook sales from Jan 2010 to Jan 2011.

The red line is hardcover sales from Jan 2010 to Jan 2011.

 

This speaks volumes for what is happening to book publishing.

eBooks outsold hardcovers by over $20,000,000!

A year ago, hardcovers outsold eBooks by over $20,000,000.

 

These numbers don’t include the explosion of self-published authors. The majority of their sales are eBooks. The Kindle bestseller list is littered with self-published authors so the sales volume must be significant.

 

Any publisher that has not embraced eBooks and added as an integral part of their launch strategy is missing out. eBooks are the drivers, invest there.

 

Why do some still insist on focusing on the hardcover sales when at the same time making the eBook an afterthought?

 

Why do some publishers not put their smartest people on the eBook marketing but keep them on the HC? Ideally it would be combined, but many have not done so yet.

 

What is holding publishers back from embracing eBooks?

 

If not now, when?

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