Some schools are now forcing students to use e-textbooks.
E-books captured 11% of all book spending last year, up from 7% in 2011, Kulo reported, while e-books accounted for 22% of units in 2012, up from 14% the prior year. In 2010, e-books accounted for only 2% of spending. Despite the gains made by digital, paperback remained the most popular format last year, accounting for 43% of spending, down one percentage point from 2011, while hardcovers represented 37% of dollar sales, down from 39%.
The growth in the e-book format last year was one of the factors that increased e-commerce’s lead as the largest channel for book sales, Kulo noted. Online retailers, led by Amazon, accounted for 44% of sales in 2012, up from 39% in 2011. The gains made by online retailers came at the expense of bookstore chains, whose market share fell to 19%, from 26% in 2011. As consumers buy more e-books they also tend to buy more print books from the same outlet—a trend that has cemented Amazon’s position as the country’s largest booksellers, Kulo said. According to the Bowker data, Amazon captured 31% of dollars spent on all books last year, up from 26% in 2011. Despite the chains’ loss of market share, they were the only other channel besides online retailers to have a slice of the book market that was bigger than 10%. Together, chains and online retailers accounted for 63% of spending in the year, up from 56% in 2009. Independent bookstores had a 6% share of spending in the year, the same as in 2011.
Kulo also noted that the Kindle remained the most popular reading device among e-book buyers in 2012, although some members of the Kindle family gained share while others lost ground. Kindle e-ink devices fell from a 43% share in 2011 to 40% last year, but the percentage of e-book buyers who reported owning a Kindle Fire, released in fall 2011, rose to 20% in 2012, from a low base the prior year. Despite a bad holiday season, Nook was used by 15% of e-book buyers last year—the same level as in 2011. Ownership of iPads remained relatively low among e-book buyers at 19%, up from 15% in 2011. The Kindle family, by a wide margin, was also the most popular group of devices used by e-book buyers to download e-books in 2012, with 55% of the e-book buyers using either the e-ink or tablet versions. The Nook, which held second place, was used by 14%. Tablets, including iPads, came in third at 13%.
More data relating to buying trends and consumer book-buying behavior will be included in the upcoming edition of the 2013 U.S. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors Annual Review, to be published by Bowker in June.
ePublish a Book » Journal » US sees stronger ebook sales, but growth slows
Electronic books provided 23 percent of US publishing revenues in 2012 but sizzling growth rates have eased, according to industry figures released Thursday. The Association of American Publishers said ebooks gained ground in all categories — adult fiction and nonfiction, young adult and children’…
Once you’ve written a book or ebook, there are several other products you can create very quickly directly from it that will exponentially increase your profits with very little work. And most authors overlook one or more of them so here they are: audios, special reports, ecourses, video-coaching programs, and high-end coaching programs.
The easiest thing to do after you’ve written your book or ebook, is to record it. It only takes as long as it takes to read it. Then, you’ll want to edit it. And, if you want to, you can find royalty-free music and add music to your intro and outro or have someone do it for you. You’ll also need a CD cover if you want to deliver it as a physical product, and a 3D graphic representation of it for both a CD and/or download. (You can find them at www.fiverr.com for $5 each if you’re short on cash.)
Next, you can create special reports. These can be free or low-cost reports that are used as lead generators to create interest in your book or ebook. What I suggest doing is, looking through your completed manuscript for a whole section that can stand alone. If you find one but you think it has too much good information in it, then you can remove some of it. All, it takes is copying the section into a new word document, creating a new, eye-popping title, and having a cover created and it’s ready to go!
Or, you can take the idea from a section and rewrite it, if you don’t want it to be the exact text as in your book or ebook. These can be created in a couple of hours since you already have all the information you need to do it.
Another great way to create a new product from your book or ebook is to turn it into an ecourse. You can chunk it into lessons, in which case, you would charge for it. Or, you can chunk it into lessons and remove some of the details and give it for free as a lead generator. (Or, give part of it in lessons as a lead generator.) It shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours to remove the text you want to take out and upload it into an auto responder sequence or hire someone to do it for you-which is what I recommend you do.
You can also up sell people from your book or ebook to an ecourse, in which case you should add additional information to the ecourse version. And again. This shouldn’t take more than a few hours to complete.
You can also take your chapters and turn them into a video-coaching program. You can either talk each lesson into a webcam or video recorder. (Be sure to use a teleprompter, so you don’t look like you’re reading it.) Or, you can use PowerPoints, in which case you just add them to the audio that you’ve hopefully already created. Or, again, hire someone to do it for you! You can also add music and/or graphics to your presentation.
And my favorite-turn your book or ebook into a high-end coaching program. It’s actually already done! You just have to recognize it. It’s there in your Table of Contents! And it can sell from $997 to $2500 for group coaching and $2,000 to $5,000 or more for individual coaching-as long as it’s a “How-to”
Turn each chapter into a module or lesson. Add an action plan at the end of each one and a study guide with an answer sheet and you’re in business!
Each book or ebook you write can be turned into a whole funnel of products for your business with very little effort. So, make it easy on yourself, and create several from every ebook or book your write! You’ll work less, make a lot more, and get your message out to a lot more people!
Interactive Books Are Getting Better all the time.
Sales of eBooks, and book delivered to an e-reader like the Amazon Kindle are skyrocketing, and there is more video uploaded in the time it takes to read this short post than you could watch in a week.
Text or mostly text books will be a around for a long time to come, but why not present your information in a way that is more engaging to the reader.
Mike Matas shows off one new title for the Apple ipad in this TED Talk video.