Monday, January 10, 2011

Ebooks Outsell Print Books in Holiday Sales

According to an article at USA Today, ebooks outsold print books during a week of holiday sales. From this popular national newspaper--"USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list, to be published Thursday, will show digital's new popularity: E-book versions of the top six books outsold the print versions last week. And of the top 50, 19 had higher e-book than print sales."

It is little wonder that the ebook sales are happening during this time of the year since the paper reports about three million to five million ereaders were activated during the month. That is mind boggling. Activation doesn't necessarily equal sales. Some who received the gift may find the new-fangled reader more of a pain than a joy, (but I hope they don't tell their loving children since most were probably gifts from children and family members.) How many of the three million will actually enjoy reading from  an electronic reader or prefer turning the pages of a print book? Old habits are hard to change.

My daughter gave me a Kindle last May for my Mother's Day and birthday gift. I was delighted and enjoy the ease of looking up a book, paying for it, and then downloading it so I can read it within a blink of an eye. I also like being able to change the font size for easy-on-the-eyes reading.

Ebooks are here to stay. They are impacting the writing and publishing business, but I don't believe they will eliminate the paper books. Somehow I can't imagine cuddling up with my two year old granddaughter with my Kindle. It is too much fun to turn pages of a colorful picture book and ooh and ahh together at the images on the large page. What a joy to flip the pages back and forth to find that same frog on a page we read earlier.

Print books are here to stay, but ebooks will find a place in our lives in this new era of electronic books.

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