One
would think most books that sell as an e-book would also see good sales in
print and vice versa. But it turns out there is a huge difference in what sells
well digitally vs. print.
A Publishers Weekly examination of
January-March 2013 bestsellers shows the top selling print books, as tabulated
by Nielsen Bookscan, and top-selling Amazon Kindle Books, reveals only four
books made both Top 20 lists.
What could be the reason for this?
1.
E-books
are very cheap so perhaps the older, more affluent reader tends to buy print
and the younger, tech-friendly reader prefers cheaper digital.
2.
All
of the e-books on the list are fiction. Perhaps the e-reader gives the casual
reader of novels a certain convenience or comfort but for those reading
non-fiction, print may still be the preferred medium.
3.
The
study only reflects the top sellers and not all books, so perhaps the results
don’t give a comprehensive picture of purchasing habits.
4.
Further,
the study didn’t compare all e-books – only those sold on Amazon’s Kindle. In
fact, several titles on the e-book list were from Amazon Digital Services and a
third of the Kindle books are self-published. No self-published books made the
print list. Digital, with its low-cost books and almost zero production/print
costs, is flooded with more self-published authors.
5.
Nielsen
Bookscan, at best, captures 75% of all print book sales but Amazon Kindle
captures 100% of all its digital sales, so there are bound to be some discrepancies
when comparing things.
None
of this means anything, yet. The best path to publishing is to simultaneously
release a book in as many formats and versions as possible – hardcover,
paperback, audio, e-book, enhanced e-book/vook. You want to make your book as
widely and easily available to people as possible. Once you limit yourself to a
single format or vendor, you limit your success.
Maybe
someone can do a further statistical analysis of the book market – and sell it
as an e-book, paper book, and audiobook.
GREAT
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this
blog are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book
promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed
in the third-person. This blog is copyrighted material by BookMarketingBuzzBlog
©2013
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