Ebook Trends: The Year of Living Digitally

After years of obscurity, the e­book has become a full-fledged disruption for publishers—supplanting print sales in North America and Europe, and threatening to do so throughout the developing world. Influenced by rapid changes in handheld, portable devices, as well as new pricing and supply chain models, e­books represent both problem and opportunity for publishers. Rather than attempting absolute predictions, it may be more helpful to assess the current situation—and the many remaining obstacles to e­book adoption and profitability—all with an eye toward discovering ways for publishers and their partners, at least in theory, to thrive in this new environment.
There’s no need to detail the history of e­books, except to point out a specific turning point: Amazon’s 2007 combining of E Ink devices with its enormous e-commerce potential. The Kindle phenomenon transformed e­books from novelty status into a viable consumer trend, especially for narrative text reading. The big question today is whether the tablet trend marks a similar, fundamental transformation in e­book consumption, or just an incremental step in the process.

Trends in E­book Adoption

A growing body of research confirms the rise of e­book reading and the displacement of print in the minds of consumers, especially in the U.S. In December 2012, the Pew Research Center found that 23% of Americans 16 and older had read an e­book in the past year—up from 16% the year before. Over the same time period, the share of those who read a print book declined from 72% to 67%. [1]

The impact of digital formats is especially noticeable in adult trade books, where e­book revenue grew from 13% of publishers’ total revenue in 2010 to 30% in 2011, according to BookStats. [2] This was mostly at the expense of mass market paperbacks, which fell from 33% to 24% during the same period. Other sectors, like juvenile trade books, are also showing increases in e­book use and corresponding declines in print. This is not happening at the same pace as it is for trade publishing, but is likely to do so as ereading device usage becomes more common.