Educational Publishing Trends
Posted on 4/18/2011 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version |
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The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has reported that e-Book sales in February 2011 were $90.3 million, up 202.3% compared to February 2010.
Higher Education sales for January and February 2011 were $406.9 million, down by 5.6% vs the same period in 2010. K-12 sales for the same two-month period were $173 million, a decline of 8.9% compared to 2010.
Total sales of professional books and journals in February were $42.9 million, down 3.6% compared to February 2010.
The AAP’s monthly and year-end sales reports represent data provided by 84 U.S. publishing houses representing major commercial, education, professional, scholarly and independents. Data on e-Books comes from 16 houses. The report does not include all book and journal net sales, but provides what’s acknowledged as the best industry snapshot currently available.
In January Amazon.com said that for the first time it sold more ebooks than paperbacks in the US, with 115 ebooks purchased for every 100 paperbacks sold.
Goldman Sachs estimates that book sales for Barnes and Noble will decrease from $4.37 billion in 2011 to $3.95 billion in fiscal year 2012. Meanwhile the Nook (digital reader) share of Barnes and Noble’s revenue, which was $62 million in 2009, is expected to be $1.163 billion in 2012.
These figures give an indication of how rapid shift from print to digital delivery of information is occurring. As the use of printed books declines the use of pictures will change. Pictures will often take up a smaller portion of the total page than is the case in print books because the reader will be able to enlarge any image at will. The digital file sizes needed will be small when compared to what is needed for print reproduction.
Given the difficulty of tracking uses once an image is available in the digital environment the strategy of basing the price on circulation may no longer be sound. Sellers should also rethink today’s common practice of “unlimited electronic use” for a period of years and consider limiting the time.
Copyright © 2011
Jim Pickerell.
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