Ebooks up to 22% now, how fast will it go?

Worldwide eBook Sales Valued at $859 Million in 2012, article.
Worldwide ebook sales are drastically climbing and the big five publishing companies are now seeing 22% of their revenue stem from digital sales. 

And the "big five" are probably the hardest part of the market to change, because they have so much to lose in their print sales, so this is a very significant number. I think by now one would have to be a fool to consider ebook market "niche".

It will be interesting to see if there now will be a flattening-off of this market shift. If the number of people who will stick with paper come hell or high water is a huge group, or if in five years ebooks will be over 70% of the market, and in ten, 90%.

I think this will depend on 1: How many are *too* uncomfortable with technology, no matter how simple. 2: How usability improves. 3: Whether prices continue to fall. 4: Whether there will be any big programs like ereaders given away with subscriptions on a big scale. 5: How fast more publishers will shift to digital-only publishing.

And this will probably depend even more on the magazine market than the book market. Many more people read magazines than read books. And magazine publishers have been in deep doo-doo for years and it's not getting better. So if you can no longer get your favorite magazines on paper, but it's bundled with a tablet for a reasonable price, that will shift a lot, very fast.

I actually wonder if a big magazine market won't be perhaps the main thing calling for a bigger tablet. The 10-inch size is really too small for a proper magazine page. Here's hoping. (I'm sure it's just a question of when they'll be able to make it cheap enough and light enough.)

Photo by Toronto Star

Early learning

Hurrah for ebooks!! (updated twice)

People who don't yet take advantage of ebooks really should get wise.
For example, take this, Complete Anne of Green Gables. This is a great collection, and the price, $31, is certainly reasonable. And I have to admit that the books together is an attractive bundle to own physically.
(Mark Twain, by the way, was a big fan of Anne of Green Gables.)
(Many people only know it from films/TV, but I think the books are far superior. You have the time to really get to know the characters, and they are wonderfully written, and wonderfully funny, an understated, intelligent kind of humor.)

But they do take up space. Long-time readers know how it adds up. And now compare it to this item (seems unfortunately to only be available on Amazon UK at the moment): The Complete works of L.M. Montgomery.

Update: it turns out it is indeed available in the US. (Thanks to Len.)

It is illustrated, and it has everything, including the books above, the Emily books, the Storygirl books, all the shortstories, articles, and her autobiography! (The last was actually what I was looking for. I want to know how much of Emily's struggles and joys as a young writer, she had in common with her author.)

... And, it is zero grams and no space, being digital, and costs less than two Pounds Sterling! (Three dollars.)
(You may be able to find much of it for free, but I had to work through quite some hoops just to find the three Emily books and convert them to Kindle format, so I'm delighted to pay two Pounds for this collection, trust me.)

Montgomery's books are sometimes seen as books for young girls, but as she found out herself, they really transcend their genre. Full of wisdom and humour and warmth, and very entertaining, I love them despite me being a 49-year-old male.

Sometimes, especially in the Emily books, I am very impressed just by *how good* she is, both in terms of plot and in terms of language.

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I will happily pay a good price for a small item I really like. But I'm also sometimes delighted with simply a good deal. And it rarely comes better than this, look at how much you get for the three bucks (see list at the end of the post.)

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Delphi Classics in UK has many other interesting Collected-Works collections at similar crazy prices. And it is said that they are beautifully produced and formatted, something you can't often say about free ebooks.

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Update:

ganesha games said...
Anne of Green Gables was also made into a delightful anime adaptation. I don't know how faithful it is to the book but it was popular in the late 80's in Italy.

Thanks. Maybe I'll take a look at it. Despite:
I got the famous Canadian film from the eighties. And it really was very good, and "Anne" actor was sweet and perfect. But... like with Little Women, I felt that an adaption of such a book cannot *really* succeed, because the main attraction is that over the many hours you read the book, you grow *so* attached to the characters, and in a film, that just can't be done. (Perhaps in a TV show?)

Also, in those books, the other very strong side is the *tone* of the book, very loving, and the *thoughts* of the author, loving and reflective and philosophical, and often speaking directly to the audience. It might be done with a voice-over, not sure, but for some reason that is very rarely done. Maybe they fear it takes the audience out of the story? (I think a voice-over, done really right, can be great.)

Also, movie/TV adaptations almost inevitably popularize and flatten a book. They have to take out something for time, and of course they take out the things that some of the audience may not understand, or which it takes time to think about, something which you have when you read a book, but not when watching a movie.

An example of this is the James Bond movies. I don't consider the James Bond books great literature, but they do have *some* pathos and depth, which you certainly can't say about the movies, most of which are simple popcorn shoot-em-ups with big budgets.

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CONTENTS of The Complete works of L.M. Montgomery:

Anne of Green Gables Series

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES

ANNE OF AVONLEA

ANNE OF THE ISLAND

ANNE OF WINDY POPLARS

ANNE’S HOUSE OF DREAMS

ANNE OF INGLESIDE

RAINBOW VALLEY

RILLA OF INGLESIDE

Emily Trilogy

EMILY OF NEW MOON

EMILY CLIMBS

EMILY’S QUEST

Pat of Silver Bush Series

PAT OF SILVER BUSH

MISTRESS PAT

The Story Girl Series

THE STORY GIRL

THE GOLDEN ROAD

Other Novels

KILMENY OF THE ORCHARD

THE BLUE CASTLE

MAGIC FOR MARIGOLD

A TANGLED WEB

JANE OF LANTERN HILL

The Short Story Collections

CHRONICLES OF AVONLEA

FURTHER CHRONICLES OF AVONLEA

UNCOLLECTED SHORT STORIES

The Short Stories

LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

The Poetry

THE WATCHMAN AND OTHER POEMS

UNCOLLECTED POEMS

The Poems

LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

The Non-Fiction

COURAGEOUS WOMEN

The Autobiography

THE ALPINE PATH: THE STORY OF MY CAREER

Contextual Pieces

MISS MARIETTA’S JERSEY

L.M. MONTGOMERY by Marjorie MacMurchy

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES REVIEW (I)

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES REVIEW (II)

OUR WOMEN

LETTERS FROM THE LITERATI

“ANNE OF GREEN GABLES” READY

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES FILM REVIEW, 1920

iPhone/Mini stand (updated)

Frameshift stand for iPad Mini and phones. Not cheap, but I have to admit it looks really nice.

And... on the top picture, doesn't it look like some sort of big piece of workout equipment or summin?    :-)

The site is not very helpful with info, like what does it weigh, and how do you change the angle? (Surely not with tools, as it looks like?)

Update:

Richard Ford of IGP said...
We updated the descriptions of the FrameShift Mini and FrameShift based on your comments.

... They added info about the weight (70 grams only for the Mini), and how to change the angle: "...using only your hands, no tools required. The friction hinge ensures it will stay at the angle you set until you change it and won't come loose over time." Thanks, Richard.

(This is what I love about small companies, they can be responsive. Big companies, I guess, can't allow to delegate enough responsibility to let people speak for the company, and the execs don't have the time.)


I'm tempted to get one, but then I really like my Griffin xPo.

They also have a full-iPad stand, which looks more like something from a science fiction movie, despite its simple function of just propping up an iPad.     :-)

Platforma iPad bag