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Friday, October 17, 2003
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Ebook Sales Expected to Top $10 Million in 2003
Churning steadily just below the high profile of the music
industry's digital drama, electronic publishing has quietly
become a major force in the worlds of media and technology. In
the first half of this year, alone, ebook sales revenues are up
by 30% and unit sales up by 40% over the same period in 2002.
This compares to an annual growth rate of just about 5% in
traditional print publishing. The Open eBook Forum (OeBF), an
electronic publishing industry trade and standards organization,
recently revealed statistics on the current state of ebooks
in a new quarterly report.
"Those of us in the industry have been seeing real signs of growth
from every direction," said OeBF Executive Director Nick Bogaty.
"Libraries are a huge growth category as they look to revitalize
themselves in the age of Google; school systems are finding that
today's kids like to read when the media is digital; and consumers
are snatching up better devices and more titles as fast as they
can. But until now, all of the evidence of growth has been
anecdotal. The goal of this program is to put some concrete
numbers behind the successes we're seeing in this maturing
industry."
In compiling the data, the OeBF subdivided the electronic
publishing industry into two categories: retailers and
publishers. In instances where publishers sold ebooks directly
to consumers, their sales data was reported in the retailer
category and their publishing data was reported in the
publishing category. Among the study's findings are:
Retailers:
- Unit Sales: A total of 660,991 ebooks have been sold by retailers in
the first half of 2003, a 40% increase over the same period in 2002,
during which time 471,995 units were sold.
- Number of Titles Available: The total number of ebooks on sale has
increased to 280,590 year-to-date, a 144% increase over the same period
in 2002, during which time 114,736 were available.
- Revenues: $4,965,171 in sales have been logged by retailers in the
first half of 2003, a 30% increase over the same period in 2002 during
which time retailers made $3,828,250 on sales of ebooks.
Publishers:
- Unit Sales: A total of 620,277 ebooks have been sold by publishers in
the first half of 2003, a 60% increase over the same period of 2002,
during which time 388,589 units were sold.
- Number of Titles Published: The total number of ebooks published
year-to-date is 3,614, a 45% increase over the same period in 2002,
during which time 2,485 titles were published.
- Revenues: $3,637,046 in sales have been logged by publishers in the
first half of 2003, a 29% increase over the same period in 2002 during
which time publishers made $2,815,488 on sales of ebooks.
"At the retail level, the ebook industry is not unlike the
traditional print business of twenty years ago," said Scott
Pendergrast, co-owner of Fictionwise.com. "Innovative companies
who understand the medium and deliver added value to customers
can carve out a healthy business.
Fictionwise.com is experiencing explosive growth and we'll
sell a million dollars worth of ebooks in 2003."
The survey was conducted over a period of two weeks, with
participating companies submitting data through a secure,
password-protected website maintained by the OeBF. The
survey methodology and data aggregation process was developed
and supervised by Chartula, Inc., an independent consultant
retained by the OeBF.
The OeBF will collect and release statistics on an ongoing
quarterly basis. The next report will contain statistics for
Q3 2003.
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