BusinessWeek‘s new print issue reports a 59 percent increase last year in e-book sales over ’06, based on wholesale revenue of some trade e-book publishers, as summed up in MobileRead.
Hmm. That would jibe exactly with my calculations from the figures now on the site of the International Digital Publishing Forum.
Based on a Feb. 18 visit to the organization’s site, however, the TeleBlog reported a mere 23.6 percent increase from ’06 to ’07. I added up quarterly figures from an IDPF table at the time, and I’d hope someone would have noticed if my math was wrong—no infallibility claimed, of course. Did the numbers in the table, from which I worked, rather than from the accompanying chart, get corrected? Whatever happened, I’m pleased that sales are up so much. I wonder how much the Sony Reader might have contributed to the 59 percent.
Some interesting stats from BW on reading for pleasure: Americans 20-34 years of age, 10 minutes a day; 35-44, some 13 minutes; 45-54, around 19 minutes; 55-64, 32 minutes; 65-74, 46 minutes. Hmm—any messages here for the book business, which places such a premium on youth? And what happens when e-books, with the capabilities to blow up fonts, finally catch on among aging baby boomers?
