Amazon.com Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Hardcover Books

[demoleft]

Source: amazon.com

SEATTLE, Jul 19, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- (NASDAQ: AMZN) -- Millions of people are already reading on Kindles and Kindle is the #1 bestselling item on Amazon.com for two years running. It's also the most-wished-for, most-gifted, and has the most 5-star reviews of any product on Amazon.com. Today, Amazon.com announced that Kindle device unit sales accelerated each month in the second quarter--both on a sequential month-over-month basis and on a year-over-year basis.
...
Recent milestones for Kindle books include:

* Over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books. Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books. This is across Amazon.com's entire U.S. book business and includes sales of hardcover books where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
* Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books in the first half of 2010 as in the first half of 2009.
* The Association of American Publishers' latest data reports that e-book sales grew 163 percent in the month of May and 207 percent year-to-date through May. Kindle book sales in May and year-to-date through May exceeded those growth rates.
* On July 6, Hachette announced that James Patterson had sold 1.14 million e-books to date. Of those, 867,881 were Kindle books.
* Five authors--Charlaine Harris, Stieg Larsson, Stephenie Meyer, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts--have each sold more than 500,000 Kindle books.

Read more: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1449176&highlight=

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just a trend, but it brings the sign of the times in itself.
i love the smell and the feel of the paper in my hands, the kind classic books give. i love to peruse in a bookshop, even just glancing at hardcovers without buying.

[EmilyKent]

1. I'm just happy people are reading.

So it doesn't matter to me if it's from a wall, a tablet, a scroll, a book or a kindle.

[X_Digger]

2. +1!! n/t

[AngryOldDem]

20. That's true, but I still feel a loss just the same.

There is just nothing like holding a book in your hands.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. I like the Nook device better, but Amazon has better ebook selection

and usually better prices. Oh well.

[Dappleganger]

13. My sister just gave me a nook...

I love it so much! It has completely enhanced my reading although I was a voracious reader before.

[smirkymonkey]

4. Why does this make me sad?

There is just nothing to me like a real live book.

[X_Digger]

7. I'm sure there were people who said that about the printing press, too.

"I miss the wonderful decorations and illustrations!"

"Look at this, no leather binding, no gilt edges! Trash!"



j/k, poking fun.

[joeglow3]

10. I don't want an expensive ass piece of equipment

I like to read at the pool, in the bath tub, etc. Couldn't do that with a Kindle.

[bergie321]

5. :(

Bought my Kindle 3 months before they dropped the price by $70.

I use it mostly to read first time authors who often sell their books for $0.99.

[X_Digger]

6. We love our kindles.

Being the voracious readers we are (we were spending ~$150 every two weeks on used books, and hours in the public library), we've been able to sell about 1/5 of our 2500 books we have. No more piles of books, no bookshelves loaded three deep from back to front.

[justabob]

8. that didn't take long

I too prefer old school hardbacks, but I am glad people are reading. I do see the appeal... I have hundreds of books that I love right here, but they sure do take up a lot of space. :)

[Dulcinea]

9. Hardcover books are too expensive.

I buy paperbacks from my local used bookstore, eBay or Amazon sellers. One day I might be able to afford a Kindle, but I'm one of the long-term unemployed.

[demoleft]

11. yeah i see your point...

...every time i have some money left and before a period of unemployment - which is common for me here as well - i always buy some books, trying to find some low-price or offer, but i do not read at once. in the following months i wait for them to call me to the reading.
but i always pick hardcover ones. they warm me. so i can get fewer, due to costs.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

12. I bet a lot of these sales are the free books they offer

I get that this is a promotional press release and as such they're less likely to mention if all these "sales" aren't profitable.

One thing e-readers have done is put vast amounts of free literature one click away from the masses.

[X_Digger]

21. That's addressed in the article-

"Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher."

[A-Long-Little-Doggie]

14. I never thought I would enjoy reading books on my Blackberry.

Yet, since I downloaded Kindle for Blackberry a month ago, I have read 7 books. I like the feature that allows you to download a sample of a book; it is almost like picking up a book in a bookstore and looking through it.

[Billy Burnett]

15. There was a thread here a few weeks ago about people who spend time at display screens.

Doubleplusgood news brothers and sisters ...

No matter the content onscreen (games, internet, video, TV, e-books, etc.), the users IQ went down, and ADD symptoms increased.


Plus, this foreshadows the complete destruction of yet another industry.

Yay! :sarcasm:

[bergie321]

16. An E-reader screen

Is not back lit so it may be different.

[Posteritatis]

17. Meh; I buy like twenty paperback books for every hardcover one

Aside from some specialist books where I don't have a choice or something where I just zomgmusthaveitnow and am willing to pay stupid amounts, it takes a lot to convince me to pay $40-$100 for a book when I can get the same thing for $10-$20 a few months later.

[truebrit71]

18. I love my Kindle.

Absolutely love it!

[LWolf]

19. I've never wanted one.

I love books. Actual weight. Pages. Paper. I don't like electronic screens.

I have been coming to the realization, though, that something like a kindle (I don't know that I would use the Amazon version/brand) would make my life much easier.

I choose a house partly based on whether it has enough blank wall space for all my shelves and books. I've got 12 6'X3' shelves, and more boxes of books out in the shop that I don't have shelving for. Plus another couple hundred feet of books at work.

If I ever want to downsize into one of those tiny homes, and I'd like to do that, electronic books might be a necessity.

I wouldn't give up the books.

I wonder how long it would take for me to repurchase all 5,000 volumes or so that I've got in electronic format, and how much $$$?