Digital downloads exceed hardcover book sales. Your experience?

[EC2]

At the moment I see them existing side by side. I will buy an e-reader eventually, but I will still read traditional books. And you can't get your book signed by the author when you have it in e-format can you? E-format for a book collection is ephemeral.

I was interested that Amazon did not post actual sales figures. Hardcovers are notoriously small print run and small sales, so it isn't actually that hard for e-reads to take over in that sphere. The average print run for hardcovers in the UK market is around 3,000 copies, so hardly stelllar numbers. So the articles I've read sound like all mouth and no trousers to me. I am sure the time is coming, but it's not quite yet. I suspect as a reader I will be rather late jumping on this particular bandwagon, but I will do so eventually.

[Diiarts]

We have published all our HF titles in both hardback, paperback and Kindle editions. So far we have released HB and PB editions simultaneously, though this will change with our next book which will come out in HB first and in PB a few months later.

In most cases, HB sales have broadly matched or outstripped PB, and in all cases, HB and PB sales have each far outstripped e-books. This is despite our e-book prices being significantly lower than print prices.

I don't believe that we plug any one edition of a title more than another edition, so the above is what the market is telling us.

Inferences: (a) there is a market for hardbacks alongside other formats; (b) reports of the death of the printed copy are somewhat exaggerated.

[Ash]

Um, that poll doesn't include all options. How about: I'll stop reading books when you take them from my cold dead fingers? I see no reason at this point for me to get an ereader. The fact others do is fine. And I suppose in a generation or so (more than 10 years certainly) books will go the way of silent movies and betamax machines. But for now I like having actual books around me - they hold not just great stories, but memories of when I read them, where I was, and/or who was important to me at the time. Like little memory discs.

I do think one of the downfalls of digital technology in general is the lack of history. In these days of email, texting and twitter, what child will someday stumble on their parents communication? I treasure the letters my parents wrote each other before they were married, when WWII started. We found them after my mom died, we had no idea of their existance. Such a loss that would be if these had been emailed or texted, and so disappear in the ozone. Not sure what this has to do with ebooks and ereaders, except that I suspect they are not as permanently etched in our minds as books are.

[Michy]

I just really can't see the end of printed books, no matter how popular digital readers may become. Yeah, I'm sure people said that about LPs and 8-tracks and any other number of old technologies, too. But for some reason, I just think books are a little different.......... Maybe because they go so far back into human history.

Anyway, if they ever do stop printing books, I hope it's not until after I'm dead and gone!!

[stumpy]

There are an awful lot of 2nd hand books around! I do buy new books but a good 1/2 of my reading is scavenging through 2nd hand book sellers.

[rebecca191]

[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]

Yeah, I wanted to vote but there was no option for me. I will NEVER buy an e-reader and if they ever stop producing printed books I will simply continue to read the many older books I never read, it will make me sad to not read new releases if that happens but I'm sorry, it's not a book to me if I can't physically hold it. I can't stand reading a book from a screen, holding a book and turning the pages and being able to flip back and forth to reread a favorite part, all are essential parts of the reading experience to me. I feel extremely detached from the story if I try to read from any kind of screen, I NEED the physical book in my hands and I love having my books all lined up on my shelf.

[Madeleine]

[quote=""rebecca191""]Yeah, I wanted to vote but there was no option for me. I will NEVER buy an e-reader and if they ever stop producing printed books I will simply continue to read the many older books I never read, it will make me sad to not read new releases if that happens but I'm sorry, it's not a book to me if I can't physically hold it. I can't stand reading a book from a screen, holding a book and turning the pages and being able to flip back and forth to reread a favorite part, all are essential parts of the reading experience to me. I feel extremely detached from the story if I try to read from any kind of screen, I NEED the physical book in my hands and I love having my books all lined up on my shelf.[/quote]

Oh me too, my books are like old friends - even the ones I haven't read yet!

I still think e-readers are a good idea for holidays, long journeys etc to cut down on luggage, but apart from that they're