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I wish they gave more clarity to this stat * Overall digital sales up 6% to £1.7bn despite a continuation of the drop in eBook sales down 3% I personally doub

I wish they gave more clarity to this stat * Overall digital sales up 6% to £1.7bn despite a continuation of the drop in eBook sales down 3% I personally doubt that ebooks have 'lost their shine', I think this is more a matter of a journalist not being able to read into the numbers. I haven't bought the report, but what little I know about the book market, I know that in 2016, adult colouring books became a BIG thing, really big! Are you going to buy those for kindle? No, so more money is spent on physical books and less on e-books. If you're an ebook reader, you may also have noticed that Amazon has significantly raised prices on e-books in 2016. 25-50% on average it seems to me, and I often now see ebooks that cost the same as physical books. Now, I'm not going to buy a physical book because my ebook price has increased, but I do buy slightly fewer ebooks now. Physical books have their place, but I don't see ebooks in serious decline in the near future.

Kihashi 10y ago
> If you're an ebook reader, you may also have noticed that Amazon has significantly raised prices on e-books in 2016. 25-50% on average it seems to me, and I often now see ebooks that cost the same as physical books. Now, I'm not going to buy a physical book because my ebook price has increased, but I do buy slightly fewer ebooks now. When I first bought my kindle, I could get tons of ebooks for a dollar or two less than paperback. Now the ebooks are often a dollar or two more than the paperback. Occasionally, I have run across books where the hardcover was cheaper than the ebook. Fortunately, I can just use Overdrive[0] via my library to get books delivered to my kindle now. [0]: https://www.overdrive.com/ https://www.overdrive.com/
BlackjackCF 10y ago
I really don't get why ebooks are so pricy. If they were half the price of a book, I would actually consider buying them instead of borrowing them or only using Amazon Prime's free offerings.
- blacksmith_tb 10y ago
  Even when they are cheaper to purchase, ebooks often make more money for the publisher[1], as the author's share tends to be smaller. It's interesting to see that the costs to produce a hardcover book are only a very small part of its total price. 1: http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/06/a-publishers-perspective-on-profits-ebooks-vs-print/ http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/06/a-publishers-perspectiv...
- therpe1 10y ago
  Ebook prices are set to be artificially high by publishers in order to prop up the paper business. It's a strategy that has strongly diminishing returns and doesn't make much sense but I suppose it does slow the decline.
- zBard 10y ago
  Partially because Amazon lost to the Publishers in 2014-15 - https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/technology/amazon-hachette-ebook-dispute.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/technology/amazon-hachett... ? All ebook prices jumped after that. I am not sure why no one is correlating the price increase to the the drop in Ebook sales, especially since Amazon at that point pointed out exactly this as a consequence - since ebooks have to compete with other digital media.
  - soreasan 10y ago
    I'm surprised no one is focusing on this as well. I believe that ebooks being overpriced is the main reason they aren't selling well. If ebooks were at least the same price as paperbacks instead of more expensive I would buy more of them. But right now it's cheaper to buy physical copies of books than ebooks.

Kihashi 10y ago

> If you're an ebook reader, you may also have noticed that Amazon has significantly raised prices on e-books in 2016. 25-50% on average it seems to me, and I often now see ebooks that cost the same as physical books. Now, I'm not going to buy a physical book because my ebook price has increased, but I do buy slightly fewer ebooks now. When I first bought my kindle, I could get tons of ebooks for a dollar or two less than paperback. Now the ebooks are often a dollar or two more than the paperback. Occasionally, I have run across books where the hardcover was cheaper than the ebook. Fortunately, I can just use Overdrive[0] via my library to get books delivered to my kindle now. [0]: https://www.overdrive.com/ https://www.overdrive.com/

BlackjackCF 10y ago

I really don't get why ebooks are so pricy. If they were half the price of a book, I would actually consider buying them instead of borrowing them or only using Amazon Prime's free offerings.

blacksmith_tb 10y ago
Even when they are cheaper to purchase, ebooks often make more money for the publisher[1], as the author's share tends to be smaller. It's interesting to see that the costs to produce a hardcover book are only a very small part of its total price. 1: http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/06/a-publishers-perspective-on-profits-ebooks-vs-print/ http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/06/a-publishers-perspectiv...
therpe1 10y ago
Ebook prices are set to be artificially high by publishers in order to prop up the paper business. It's a strategy that has strongly diminishing returns and doesn't make much sense but I suppose it does slow the decline.
zBard 10y ago
Partially because Amazon lost to the Publishers in 2014-15 - https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/technology/amazon-hachette-ebook-dispute.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/technology/amazon-hachett... ? All ebook prices jumped after that. I am not sure why no one is correlating the price increase to the the drop in Ebook sales, especially since Amazon at that point pointed out exactly this as a consequence - since ebooks have to compete with other digital media.
- soreasan 10y ago
  I'm surprised no one is focusing on this as well. I believe that ebooks being overpriced is the main reason they aren't selling well. If ebooks were at least the same price as paperbacks instead of more expensive I would buy more of them. But right now it's cheaper to buy physical copies of books than ebooks.