Publishing Statistics 2013 : eBook or Print Book

By Patricia de Hemricourt

Ever wondered whether you could get away with publishing your book in ebook format only and eschew the trouble of formatting it for POD (Print on Demand – we do hope that, as a self-publisher, you do not even consider any other form of printing your book, as any other option implies storing the printed books and handling the shipping etc. )?

Well it appears that, though the popularity of eBooks is increasing, print books still hold the lion share of the market as shown in the publishing statistics below.

You will find more statistics at Statista

The publishing statistics 2013 present the e-book market share in the US from January 2012 to January 2013. In January 2012, the market share amounted to 26.7 percent.

E-book sales have been expanding steadily in the United States and e-books make up an ever growing portion of the US consumer book sales market. While in 2009, e-books accounted for a mere 2.7%share of total consumer book sales, by 2012, e-books had grown to 14.9 % of the global book market according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers. E-book sales revenue reached a whopping 3.3 billion US dollars in 2012. In the US, between January 2012 and November 2012, the market share of the e-book fluctuated between a high of 26.7 percent (January 2012) and a low of 17 percent (October 2012). On the global scale, projections from Pricewaterhouse Coopers suggest that worldwide e-book market share could reach 17.9 percent by 2016.

The popularity of e-books and e-readers goes hand in hand—consumers are buying the new, mobile gadgets with which they read, amass e-book libraries, play games and shop online for new e-books. Publishing statistics pertaining to the penetration rate of ereaders in the US vary. According to the results of one survey, the share of Americans using e-readers rose from 15 percent in 2011 to 28 percent in 2012. EMarketer estimated that the (e-reader penetration) was closer to 15.40 percent in 2012, and projected penetration would rise to 19.20 percent by 2016.

The leading e-reader vendors worldwide in 2012 were Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and Sony. Amazon sells the Kindle Fire and holds roughly 55 percent of the global e-reader market. In the American market, the Barnes and Noble Nook accounted for 22 percent of e-reader ownership in 2012. Sales of the Kindle Fire from Amazon reached 5.50 million units in 2011 and were projected to reach 27.8 million units in 2014.

Revenue from sales of content from the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet were forecast at 981.9 million US dollars in 2012.

The global revenue from ebooks sales is set to continue rising, the US still leading the ebooks sale revenue rising tide, with Europeans slowly growing their market share whilst Asia, an early adopter, steadily continues to grow its own share as shown below

You will find more statistics at Statista

So yes, ebooks are on the rise, but publishing a book today without offering a print option amounts to simply ignoring close to three-quarters of potential readership. Print books are massively bought from online shops as well, so distribution is not a major hurdle and should not be factored when deciding whether to opt between print and digital.

Actually, as the additional cost of offering the print book option in addition to the digital one is marginal, and formatting problems can be solved by outsourcing the formatting for a minimal price through service providers found on freelancer sites such as Fiverr, every self-published book should offer both options.

We will be back soon with more publishing statistics 2013.