The New York Times is good at keeping an eye on the progress of ebooks. In the latest piece “Christmas Gifts May Help E-Books Take Root” they note that ebooks now make up 9 to 10% of the trade book market and publishers predict digital sales will be 50% higher in 2011 than 2010.
With ebook readers a Christmas present of choice, in the US they think “January could be the biggest month ever for e-book sales, as possibly hundreds of thousands of people are expected to download books on the e-readers they received as gifts”.
However publishers admit that they still haven’t worked out how to sell ebooks effectively to consumers. That times ten for Australia.
Apparently Life by Keith Richards and Cleopatra, a biography by Stacy Schiff are top ebook sellers in the US (but, oh, I like that Cleopatra cover – too bad about the B&W Kindle but if I buy it for my iPad I get the colour cover on my virtual bookshelf). The NY Times will publish an ebook bestseller list next year.
Full piece here.