It’s official. Barely 6 months after stating its Kindle e-books were outselling its selection of hardcovers, Amazon announced it sold more ebooks for the Kindle e-reader than paperbacks in 2010. Founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos states, ““Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com. Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year, so this milestone has come even sooner than we expected.”
Kindle had a banner year, with the release of its Kindle 3 dramatically boosting sales of ebooks. Since January 1, 2010, U.S. customers purchased 115 Kindle e-books for every 100 paperbacks sold. Kindle e-book sales increased their impressive stance, outselling hardbacks a whopping three-to-one.
Now, with the launch of the “Buy One, Read Everywhere” Kindle apps for such devices as the iPhone, Blackberry, iPad, PC, and Mac, I fully expect the gap between sales of traditional books and e-books to widen dramatically.
Amazon noted it did not count the sale of free Kindle volumes in the statistics. This fact would increase the e-book figures dramatically. In addition, hardcover and paperback volumes that did not include/offer Kindle editions were included in the tally.
Currently (January 2011), about 810,000 e-books are available on Amazon (for an average price of $9.99 or less), compared to 630,000 volumes in July 2010. Amazon has clearly established itself as the dominant force in the e-book market.
2011 is the Year to get Published!
So what does the sales of e-book have to do with you? Everything. Epublishing is easier than ever and with the plethora of information available, you have no excuse NOT to get yourself e-published.
Check out these posts to get yourself organized and on the way to e-publication.
- Enter the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2011 to Win a Penguin Group Contract
- 2011 is Your Year to be ePublished!
- Super Easy DIY Kindle eBook Formatting is Here!
- Roz Morris — Book Manuscript Editor on How to “Nail Your Novel”
- DIY eBook Publishing Timeline — A Realistic Guide
Photo: The Book Trailer Manual by Darcy Pattison – Visit her website “The Book Trailer Manual” for insights into creating an effective book trailer.
