Re: Print books - old habits dies hard i nthe UK!

>
>
> And, like so many of these surveys, those taking part are self-selecting.

To be honest, there's not a great way to avoid that. Even with populations
(for instance) in schools, parents can opt kids out...or in clinical
studies, people choose to take part or not. That's why we have standard
deviations...one of the reasons, anyway.

>
> >
>  Then, if you look at America, where there is something of an assumption
about ereading  (that it is now dominating), we are very short of figures to
confirm or deny the assumptions.
>

The figures we DO have are useless, which I was just explaining to a group
the other day. For one thing, NO ONE tracks all ebook sales. There are
70,000+ small and medium sized indies and self-publishers in the US ALONE.
Not all of them do ebooks, but you've got a fair number that do ebook or e
and p. The largest cut I've seen of that market being tracked is less than
100 sales sites. Some of them are big...like Fictionwise. Some are
minute...indie publishers that don't have huge numbers yet. But a lot of the
indies report to no one tracking numbers...just gross numbers to the IRS. So
anyone claiming they know the scope of the ebook market is guessing. They
have to be. They cannot see the sales inside a privately-owned indie that
doesn't file reports with the SEC on sales, and even the gross SEC numbers
would be of little use for proper tracking.

When a "Big" (I use this tongue in cheek) new player gives us what looks
like impressive numbers, it is missing pertinent information to make them
USEFUL numbers. For instance, Amazon  or iPad can tell me they downloaded X
number of books in Y time period, but what didn't they tell me? They didn't
tell me how many of those downloads were free. They didn't tell me what the
highest number of downloads on a single book was, the lowest included in
that number (I'll assume some were zero), how many books were involved, what
the average number of downloads was, and the same figures with price
attached. Until I have those types of figures, a lump number of downloads is
pointless.

> There is a lot of flux in the situation, and will be for years. I am
fairly confident that a lot of the educational/text book market will stay
with or return to print [though possibly in a far less costly way]. The
fiction market may lean towards the digital, but I still expect it to be
50-50, with POD as part of the print count. Niches will be varied, though
print - for impulse buy - will remain very visible, I think.
>

I would almost agree with this. I believe we'll see more ebook for
textbooks, but only if people can KEEP textbooks for reference material. If
they "buy the license" for the term and lose the book, that's not functional
for many college-level students and will tie more of them to print for
reference...at a time when I see more professionals (doctors, lawyers,
engineers, etc.) carrying laptops or PDAs with reference texts loaded on
them. I do believe that both fiction and nonfiction/text will have to move
to less wasteful system that may include a POD-in-store feature to radically
reduce waste, returns, and other dysfunctional portions of the old
conglomerate system. I do not think we will see the "death of print." That's
hyperbole. I think an eventual 50/50 ebook and print count would be a fair
assumption to make, for certain. It has always been about choices for
readers, IMO.

>
>
> And I'm not sure the overall experience between the UK and US is very
different, though they don't move in concert that much. Remember figures
before the net and ereaders suggested around half the population rarely, if
ever, read books. Most people now read extensively online, and digital books
is an extension for many who would have been unlikely to read books.
>
>

One of the things I find amusing is how many people will read online and
still say they don't read ebooks. There is a gross misconception on the part
of many about precisely what an ebook is. It's safe to say that anyone that
uses a computer has read an ebook, for function if not for pleasure. Face
it. User's manuals in PDF are ebooks. Looking up information for reports
online...ebooks. Looking up a transit schedule...ebooks. I could go on, but
I'm preaching to the choir here.

Brenna
--
http://www.brennalyons.com    http://www.facebook.com/brenna.lyons
2-time EPIC's e-Book Award WINNER! "Powers or no, the Kielan are their own
worst enemies, caught up in systematic, stagnated tradition, lost to the
hypocrisy of classism, and defenseless despite their psi powers. Time
Currents is a tale that I won’t soon forget." Patrice F. for Joyfully
Reviewed


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