Bowker confirms e-book sales flattening out

[kamas716]

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javabird wrote:

With all the free ebooks being offered on Amazon and B&N, I wonder if book "sales" are just flattening because people are getting so many free books. In other words, ebooks are being downloaded but not as many are being purchased.

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I would fall into that category.  Of the over 100 eBooks I've downloaded, only about a dozen have been paid for, and the majority of those are under $4.  Free Fridays and the Gutenberg Project have been my way of expanding my reading.  I'm excited to start PG Wodehouse soon.

[Doug_Pardee Distinguished Bibliophile]

The AAP statistics on e-book sales in January are out. We've now had four straight months of double-digit growth. Following seven months of e-book sales at the reporting publishers running around $80 million per month, January broke out to about $129 million, which is in line with January sales jumps in prior years (50%-ish increase vs. December sales).

Note: some news outlets are reporting e-book sales were up 49% year-over-year. That figure is for adult trade e-book sales. Starting this month, AAP is reporting child/YA e-book sales separately, and those accounted for almost 20% of all e-book sales in January with almost five times the sales this January as last January (AAP measurements). Also starting this month, AAP is reporting religious e-book sales separately. My figures combine those so that they're comparable with the earlier months.

• +112% in October 2010
• +103% in November 2010
• +165% in December 2010
• +116% in January 2011
• +202% in February 2011
• +146% in March 2011
• +157% in April 2011
• +160% in May 2011
• +167% in June 2011
• +105% in July 2011
• +116% in August 2011
• +101% in September 2011
• +81% in October 2011
• +70% in November 2011
• +72% in December 2011
• +73% in January

The January e-book "sales bump" did appear this year, as big as ever. However, a big part of that bump was in child/YA e-books. Now, will sales stabilize again for the year, or what? And will the Harry Potter e-book sales be reported to AAP?

[Doug_Pardee Distinguished Bibliophile]

The AAP statistics on e-book sales in February are out. After four straight months of double-digit growth, we've dropped (barely) into the single digits. February sales fell back below the $100 million (US, wholesale) mark to $92.5 million, almost 30% below January's holiday-driven sales high.

• +112% in October 2010
• +103% in November 2010
• +165% in December 2010
• +116% in January 2011
• +202% in February 2011
• +146% in March 2011
• +157% in April 2011
• +160% in May 2011
• +167% in June 2011
• +105% in July 2011
• +116% in August 2011
• +101% in September 2011
• +81% in October 2011
• +70% in November 2011
• +72% in December 2011
• +73% in January
• +9.9% in February

The 9.9% figure is from AAP, based on adjusted sales figures for February 2011. When comparing the two unadjusted figures, the increase is only 2.4%.

Last February's sales were unusually high, and made for a difficult standard to meet, On the other hand, this February saw the release of the Harry Potter e-books. Were those sales reported to AAP?

AAP now breaks out e-book sales into adult, child/YA, and religious. I'm still looking for the breakout figures, but AAP states that "the C/YA eBooks segment again showed impressive triple-digit gains in both monthly and YTD comparisons." This leads me to suspect that sales of adult e-books were down significantly.

[MacMcK1957]

Just to clarify, each of these figures are compared with the one-year-ago sales for the same month.  On first glance it seems to look like sales have been increasing 100% per month, which is obviously not the case.  On average, each month has been around 100% up from a year earlier.

But I think the main problem with drawing any conclusions from this is that the year-ago sales figures for February were grossly high, for whatever reason.

It might be more interesting to see the raw numbers rather than the year-over-year comparisons.

[keriflur]

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Doug_Pardee wrote:

AAP now breaks out e-book sales into adult, child/YA, and religious. I'm still looking for the breakout figures, but AAP states that "the C/YA eBooks segment again showed impressive triple-digit gains in both monthly and YTD comparisons." This leads me to suspect that sales of adult e-books were down significantly.

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There was a short article about the increase in C/YA last week:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/children%E2%80%99s-ya-hardcover-sales-up-72_b51129

The article also states that this is in part due to adults reading YA titles.

[RHWright]

Oh, and the HP books came out in late March, not February.

So even if they do report them, it won't impact until the March figures. And it was very late March (around the 28th?), so a better chance of seeing impact from that one set of titles would be April.

[Sun_Cat]

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keriflur wrote:

There was a short article about the increase in C/YA last week:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/children%E2%80%99s-ya-hardcover-sales-up-72_b51129

The article also states that this is in part due to adults reading YA titles.

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"Also noted was the escalating trend of Adults reading YA titles, particularly in eBook format. [emphasis mine]"

Because it's easier to conceal what you're reading? Easier to borrow from your kids? Very interesting!

[MacMcK1957]

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keriflur wrote:

The article also states that this is in part due to adults reading YA titles.

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My 60+ sister has been pushing the Hunger Games series to all of her friends for the last few years.  My wife has middle-aged friends who have actually taken the Twilight vacation tours in Washington state to see where Bella and Edward hooked up.  Some series (Sookie Stackhouse, for example?) are impossible to even define, having huge adult and YA followings.

[patgolfneb]

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Sun_Cat wrote:

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keriflur wrote:

There was a short article about the increase in C/YA last week:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/children%E2%80%99s-ya-hardcover-sales-up-72_b51129

The article also states that this is in part due to adults reading YA titles.

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"Also noted was the escalating trend of Adults reading YA titles, particularly in eBook format. [emphasis mine]"

Because it's easier to conceal what you're reading? Easier to borrow from your kids? Very interesting!

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For me it is the samples. In the bookstore YA titles are risky. Some are aimed at a valley girl reader level and some are very good books, sometimes simply written, or just books that have young characters. Samples let me see which ones I might enjoy. The fact that they don't deal with things from an adult perspective makes them escapist, and even though my children would disagree I remember what it was like to be young. I guess some nostalgia is involved?

[patgolfneb]

These figures make me wonder if devices like the NT and Fire generate the same level of e book sales as earlier devices. Apps are sold on smart phones also, so unless tablet makers and google spill, the sales of books and apps per device is tough to determine.

[keriflur]

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MacMcK1957 wrote:

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keriflur wrote:

The article also states that this is in part due to adults reading YA titles.

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My 60+ sister has been pushing the Hunger Games series to all of her friends for the last few years.  My wife has middle-aged friends who have actually taken the Twilight vacation tours in Washington state to see where Bella and Edward hooked up.  Some series (Sookie Stackhouse, for example?) are impossible to even define, having huge adult and YA followings.

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LOL, Sookie Stackhouse has graphic sex and a protagonist in her twenties.  It's definitely adult, even though a lot of teens are probably reading it.

I love that the stigma of reading YA as an adult is going away.  There are so many better YA books out there than the Twilight series, and the breadth of the genre is huge.  Every adult genre (except the adult ADULT genre, LOL) is available in YA, from horror to romance to thriller and mystery.  I'm 35 and probably 75% of what I read is YA.  (I write YA too.)

A few recommendations across genres for those interested - no Sweet-Valley-High-type titles in this list:

Anna Dressed in Blood (horror, tho not all that scary IMO, but still awesome)

Infinite Days (vampire, but NOTHING like Twilight, and so much better)

The Mortal Instruments, beginning w/ City of Bones (Harry Potter-esque urban fantasy)

Texas Gothic (mystery - quirky, Nancy Drew- and Scooby Doo-type fun in Texas)

Divergent (dystopian - I don't read dystopian, but the reviews and fandom on this are huge)

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (fantasy with a literary feel)

Anna and the French Kiss (romance)

The Book of Blood and Shadow (supense - I didn't love this one, but lots of others did)

The Blue Sword (classic high fantasy, Newbery honor book)

[MacMcK1957]

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keriflur wrote:

LOL, Sookie Stackhouse has graphic sex and a protagonist in her twenties.  It's definitely adult, even though a lot of teens are probably reading it.

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Teen fiction isn't what it used to be.  Even though they're not explicitly marketing it to teens, there's a huge teen fan base than considers graphic sex (and violence) to be routine.

[A_Wilson]

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keriflur wrote:

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MacMcK1957 wrote:

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keriflur wrote:

The article also states that this is in part due to adults reading YA titles.

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....

A few recommendations across genres for those interested - no Sweet-Valley-High-type titles in this list:

....The Book of Blood and Shadow (supense - I didn't love this one, but lots of others did)

The Blue Sword (classic high fantasy, Newbery honor book)

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I love the Blue Sword.  I read this when it was first published, got a copy of it when it was paperback (several times as I wore it out a few times over), then it was my first purchase for my NC.  I re-read it when I'm feeling nostalgic and need a little happy escape. 

[keriflur]

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MacMcK1957 wrote:

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keriflur wrote:

LOL, Sookie Stackhouse has graphic sex and a protagonist in her twenties.  It's definitely adult, even though a lot of teens are probably reading it.

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Teen fiction isn't what it used to be.  Even though they're not explicitly marketing it to teens, there's a huge teen fan base than considers graphic sex (and violence) to be routine.

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Yes, there is.  And when I was a teen I bought my books from the adult shelves (where the Sookie books are kept at every bookstore I've been to), but that did not make those books YA.

YA is, effectively, a publishing and marketing genre, characterized by a protagonist between 13 and 19 (though the character CANNOT be in college, b/c pubs won't market college stories to teens), a storyline that deals with YA issues (no divorce, no MC worrying about making their mortgage payment), and it can't have a memoir-type feel.  These guidelines, for what they're worth, don't come from me, they're what the YA publishing industry is looking for.