ebook sales in the US were up 20.4% in October
14 Dec 2020 (Good E-Reader)
Digital book revenues were up 20.4% for the month as compared to October 2019, for a total of $96.9 million. On a year-to-date basis, ebook sales were up 16.5%, generating $956.3 million for the first ten months of 2020. Ebooks accounted for 10% of all trade sales in October.
Google is going to convert ebooks to audiobooks
08 Dec 2020 (Good E-Reader)
Many frontlist and backlist titles will never be converted to a proper audiobook, so Google has developed a beta system that will employ AI and auto-generated narrators.
Ebooks and Audiobooks Usage In Schools Exploded in 2020
04 Dec 2020 (Good E-Reader)
38,000 schools in 71 countries saw an 80% increase over the last year with the usage of ebooks and audiobooks.
Amazon Publishing in Talks to Offer E-books to Public Libraries
04 Dec 2020 (Publishers Weekly)
The potential deal would be a breakthrough moment in the library e-book market as Amazon currently does not make its digital content available to libraries. It would also be a major coup for the Digital Public Library of America’s upstart e-book platform and its SimplyE library reading app
UK publisher income down 11% in first half – but ebooks up 26%
16 Nov 2020 (Books+Publishing)
Despite a surge in sales of ebooks (up 26%), first-half revenue for UK publishers was significantly down.
VAT ends … but Kindle ebooks go up in price
15 Nov 2020 (The Times, London)
Amazon, which paid UK taxes of £293m on sales of £13.7bn last year, laid the blame for price increases at the door of the publishers. “Ultimately, the decision on prices in those cases is the publishers’ alone.”
Pandemic drives ebook and audiobook sales by UK publishers to all-time high
14 Nov 2020 (The Guardian)
The pandemic has revived the fortunes of the consumer ebook. The format, once touted as the future of reading, has suffered six straight years of sales declines since peaking in 2014 but this year has been different, with sales home and abroad up 17% to £144m in the first half. UK publishers can now expect consumer ebooks to enjoy their best year since 2015, when sales were just under £300m.
University staff urge probe into e-book pricing ‘scandal’
13 Nov 2020 (BBC)
Publishers say the costs are due to the different formats and shared-use. But Ms Anderson said the situation had become so financially serious for university libraries that it was time for MPs and competition authorities to hold publishers to account.
UK audiobook sales surge in lockdown
09 Nov 2020 (Books+Publishing)
According to Nielsen’s survey results, audiobooks make up a 34% share of weekly reading in the UK, up from 33% in 2019 and 25% in 2017. Ebooks have a 27% share and print is at 39%, down from 45% in 2017.
HarperCollins reports a 13% increase in book sales
07 Nov 2020 (Good E-Reader)
Digital sales increased by 20% in the September 2020 quarter compared with the same eriod last year. This was due to the continued growth in both ebooks and digital audiobooks. …digital borrowing is not just an early lockdown fad. After experiencing an initial surge, the higher level of demand has been sustained.
Most ebook and audiobook users multitask: New study explores the details
06 Nov 2020 (TeleRead)
Nineteen percent of ebook multitaskers are watching TV, and others are talking with other people, exercising, doing work or homework, commuting/traveling, personal hygiene, playing games, or something else.
TikTok’s owner invests in ebooks
05 Nov 2020 (Good E-Reader)
ByteDance has just invested $170 million into China’s largest ebook readers and publishers, Zhangyue.
Barnes & Noble’s Nook Service Still Crippled by Hack
27 Oct 2020 (The Digital Reader)
It has been over two weeks since hackers had their way with B&N’s servers, and the retailer still hasn’t fully recovered. The hack, which has since been confirmed as a ransomware attack, originated in B&N’s corporate offices before spreading to their servers, store computers, and even the cash registers
More Ebook Industry News (back to Aug 2017)
