Chart provided by: Adventures In EPublishing BlogThis Thursday at 9pm EST Mid-Atlantic Book Publishers (MBPA) will have a twitter chat (use hashtag #MBPA)to weigh in on this topic further.
EBOOK SALES BY GENRE
Recently my publisher and I (I am part owner of Phenomenal One Press) reviewed our sales numbers for all of our titles. What we found was a definite trend in changes. Some were pleasantly pleasing. Others were no surprise.
YOUNG ADULT Books
Initially our sales for The Pack were mainly in paperback in 2010. But at the end of 2010 and into 2011 our ebook sales far outshine our paperback sales for both of our YA books, The Pack and Bandits. It caused us to change our release models for 2012. Also, it saves us a ton of money on returns and printing. After the first print run, we now do Print-On-Demand to save cost on printing after the first digital print run.
Paperback Sales: To local bookstores we sold to, a few libraries, amazon purchases. In 2010 that was the major source of our sales.
Ebook Sales: Wowsa has this increased from 2010! We are consistently selling our ebooks monthly in this genre. Almost to the point of outselling our paperbacks. To be honest that's not too surprising since we see a spike in the paperback sales when the book initially comes out, then a slight peak when another title is release or after our marketing boost of cold-calling and visits to stores that carry our paperback books.
Also, now when I do book signings people ask if its in ebook. I now carry ebook postcards and paste download codes on the card for buyers that want an ebook copy of my books.
MIDDLE GRADE Books:
Paperback Sales: Our Middle Grade (MG) sells much better in Paperback consistently. It sells well at in person book signings, local stores and some libraries. We've seen consistent sales in our paperbacks that increases with each new release.
Ebook Sales: in 2009 when the series first came out there were absolutely 0 ebooks sold in 2009. In 2010 we saw an increase of maybe 2-4 copies a month. In 2011, it only increased to max of 10 copies a few months when one of our other titles came out. Although, we see an increase in numbers we don't believe many kids this age have ereaders. They still like to touch, feel, and read a book in hand. The idea of searching through an ebook catalog of books turns off my now 10yr old so I'm not surprised. However, my 14yr old would love to have her own ereader.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
GENREs I've RESEARCHED THAT DO WELL AS EBOOK RELEASES:
Oh, check out this nifty Pie-Chart on EBOOK SALES by Derek Canyon.
- Romance (YA/Adult/All other kinds)
- YA (definite growth and growing more and more every year)
- Mysteries and Thrillers
HIDDEN GEMS that sell well in EBOOK Market
- Short Stories. Anthologies. (These do exceptionally well in the ebook market. Most people don't mind spending $0.99 for 35K-50K short. Although a 5-7K short I've seen get bad reviews because it was too short for the reader to feel as though it was worth the $0.99-$2.99 I've seen charged for them)
The question, which you can't answer with this stats, is WHO is buying the YA ebooks. I'm buying more ebooks. A lot of adult readers of YA are buying them. But teens aren't there YET. Most teens don't have visa cards, which makes it tricky to buy a book unless a parent buys it for them (and that can be a whole new issue for some teens). All of the older teens I talked to still aren't into ebooks, but I know that will eventually change.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised some of the other genres have seen little growth. Is that true for the genre, regardless of format? (That's a rhetorical question).
Well I think if its Romance and Paranormal (YA)it does awesome!
ReplyDeleteThanks for providing this analysis. It's really interesting to see it laid out like this. Things definitely are changing.
ReplyDeleteGreat data and analysis! (*gives cheer for YA ebooks!*) And I'm not surprised that MG is still print. My current prediction: 3 years for that market (MG ebooks) to take off.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the look into how this all shakes down. Very interesting.
ReplyDeletethis is interesting. last year when Nikki and I started BTS, we were told to nix the line about our MC reading on a Kindle b/c none of the kids were doing that. This year, my friends tell me their 6th graders are asking for Kindles. Times seem to be shifting very rapidly.
ReplyDeleteWith its $79 Kindle, Amazon is aiming straight at the Christmas gifts for young people, in my opinion. I expect a huge surge in YA eBooks, and maybe even MG eBooks, through Amazon, because the kids can get them set up to one click purchasing, and parents are less likely to complain if their kids are buying books.
ReplyDeleteThat would be great! I'm hoping to see an increase in MG. I know YA is doing well though.
ReplyDeleteThank you for backing up the YA ebook trends I've been observing with your own data.
ReplyDelete