Digital downloads exceed hardcover book sales. Your experience?

[viadelprat]

This week Amazon announced that sales of digital books have outpaced traditional book sales by a significant margin. Here is just one example of the many articles that circulated about this.

I'm certainly seeing this with my own novel, "No Roads Lead to Rome," where digital sales this month are roughly 10X paper copies, and I'm curious if forum members are also moving towards e-Books.

Reading between the lines (see this article, for example), the statistics may be hiding a simpler truth. Digital editions are outselling hardcovers, paperbacks still rule ... for now

I wonder if the e-book figures are being inflated by all the free books available. I've certainly downloaded a more public domain editions (Mark Twain, for example) than I'll ever read -- hey, they're free!

I'm also curious what the average price/e-book is. For example, I recently bought the Edward Gibbon's six volumes of "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" for $0.99. I'm reading this on an iPad and finding the ability to highlight, annotate, and search my passages really useful.

Based on my personal experience, I know the e-Book phenomenon is unstoppable, but I do wonder if it will ever replace paper.

I'm curious what Historical Fiction Online members make of this news. Are you reading e-books? If so, how? If not, do you expect to?

[Helen_Davis]

You didn't give an option in the poll for those of us who prefer traditional books. I do not have an e-reader and do not intend to buy one-- my eyes can't take it.

[Ludmilla]

I have a Sony Pocket Reader and an iPad. I'm using the Sony more than the iPad for reading eBooks, but if a book I want is available (or cheaper) as a Kindle, I'll read it on the iPad. eReaders like Sony and Kindle use eInk which isn't any more hard on the eyes than a traditional book. With tablets such as the iPad, there is the glare and backlight issue that can strain the eye.

For right now, I'm expecting to read newly published books in the eBook format. I'm buried alive in house clutter at the moment, and I can't accumulate any more books until I get rid of some, so I'm finding eBooks fitting my lifestyle better than traditional books. However, there are still a lot of books out there that I'm interested in reading that are only available in the printed form. My TBR pile alone would take me years to read as is. I don't plan on giving up traditional print books, but reading whatever format makes the most sense for me at acquisition time.

I also don't think printed books will go away -- at least not within 10 years. I think younger readers will probably adapt quite quickly to eBooks, but hard core collectors and older folks will probably cling tenaciously to their printed books.

[viadelprat]

Good point. I should have added your question, but I'm not clever enough to modify the poll now that it's in motion! Sorry.

[Michy]

I don't believe there is a way to add options to a poll once it's set up.

I am another one who doesn't own any form of digital reader, and doesn't plan to ever buy one. But, who knows -- I did finally get a cell phone, after all!

[Jemidar]

Like other's have said, this is a really skewed poll.

[Madeleine]

[quote=""Andromeda_Organa""]You didn't give an option in the poll for those of us who prefer traditional books. I do not have an e-reader and do not intend to buy one-- my eyes can't take it.[/quote]

With both Andromeda and Michy on this one (sorry don't know how to do multiple quotes), like Michy, I did eventually get a cell phone but still don't possess and MP3 or IPod or any other I-wotsit....however I can understand ebooks outselling hardbacks, which aren't exactly user-friendly ie very heavy and cumbersome, especially if you want to take several books with you for a trip.

Hopefully traditional books won't completely disappear; remember how people predicted that vinyl records would be obsolete? Well there is still a market for vinyl, mainly in the DJ market, and I read somewhere that even the humble cassette is making something of a tentative comeback. So never say never....!

[Vanessa]

I haven't voted as I'm not sure about the idea of e-readers even though I keep looking at the Sony one in Waterstone's! I like the feel (and smell!) of the traditional book too much. I'm also not sure traditional books will disappear within 10 years, maybe 50! I think 10 years is too soon. Perhaps a couple of generations on. Does this mean that bookbinders will be out of work??!

[Madeleine]

Oh goodness yes, all those in the printing trade, plus of course the actual "real" bookstores themselves.

[Vanessa]

Oh no! Of course, it would affect bookstores too, wouldn't it!! I wouldn't like the idea of all the book shops closing down - there's nothing nicer than having a browse and that lovely smell of print!! I wonder if you can get it in a bottle! LOL.