eBooks … By the Numbers

E-book Sales: First-half 2010 Sales Top Previous Years' Year-end Figures

Year-to-date sales (through June) of U.S. trade e-books sold through wholesale channels show an increase of more than 204 percent (totaling $179.7 million) over sales through June 2009, according to recently released statistics from the Association of American Publishers (AAP), compiled in conjunction with the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Sales for the first half of 2010 exceed total-year sales for any previous year for which trade e-book sales statistics were recorded.

For the month of June, trade e-book sales were $29.8 million, a 119-percent increase over June 2009 ($13.6 million).

The complete statistics, historical data and information about the numbers can be viewed at: http://www.IDPF.org/doc_library/industrystats.htm

Editor's Note: This data does not include library, educational or professional electronic sales. The AAP and IDPF encourage trade publishers to share their e-book sales figures with the AAP for the trade e-books sales tracking program. To submit your data to the AAP, contact: Richard Barclay, Management Practice Inc., at RBarclay@MPIWeb.com.

Puttin' on the Gloves: Kindle 
vs. iPad

"'Early evidence suggests some Kindle owners are buying iPads and beginning to shift a portion of e-book purchases to Apple's iBookstore,' writes Marianne Wolk, an analyst at the Susquehanna International Group, in a report to clients at the end of June," according to an Aug. 7 article, "E-Book Wars: The Specialist vs. the Multitasker," in The New York Times.

According to The Times, "Wolk says, iPad users 'are buying a lot more books than we expected, with 5 million e-book downloads in the first 65 days, roughly 2.5 per device,' comparable to the estimate of three books per Kindle for the quarter."

The article reports that Apple has sold 3.3 million iPads since its introduction in April, while Amazon continues to conceal its Kindle 
sales figures.

Original Short: Random House Children's Books 
Launches 99-cent E-book-only Short Story

Random House Children's Books (Randomhouse.com/kids) is, for the first time in its history, releasing an e-book original, "The Death of Joan of Arc: A Lost Story from the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" (Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers/$0.99), written by New York Times bestselling author Michael Scott.

The story is available exclusively in digital format and is the newest addition to Scott's series "The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel," which has sold more than 1 million copies to date in North America.

"Readers who love a series are always eager for more information. Michael Scott's fans clamor for any new details they can get while they wait for the next novel," says Beverly Horowitz, vice president and publisher of Delacorte Press. "The original e-book is a wonderful way for an author to connect with his readers and keep them entertained until the release of the next book in the series. The e-book original is short, but satisfying."

Reidy Ready for E-book Growth

According to an article in The New York Times (Aug. 11), "Carolyn Reidy, 
the chief executive of Simon & Schuster, said in an interview that e-books currently made up about 8 percent of the company's book revenue. She predicted that it could be as high as 40 percent within three to five years."