eBooks.com says summer sales are surging--just as they do in bookstores
Following a well established trend among booksellers, August sales of digital books at eBooks.com are running at a rate well over July, and July was up 37% over June, Stephen Cole, founder of eBooks.com, tells Internet Retailer.
Cole says the e-book market, though still far off the early expectations of the dot-com era, has been gaining momentum since last fall. He adds that retailers who have "weathered the storm" are now in a position to benefit from a growing interest among consumers in e-books.
From last December through June, eBooks.com sales grew at a monthly average of 21%. Although the company is based in Australia, 86% of its sales are to North America.
EBook.com’s biggest-selling category is fiction, including general fiction and genres such as sci-fi, mystery and romance, followed (in order) by the categories of self-help, business, religion, sex, history and technology.
While demand for e-books formatted for handheld devices, which now account for 32% of eBooks’ sales, is growing, that phenomenon will level off. “We expect a plateau, as many of the books we sell are professional/educational/practical which are often better suited in a full-graphics, PC interface," Cole says.
"In all, the e-book world looks a lot better now than it has since October 2000," he says. "Only this time the perception is roughly equivalent to reality. The e-book industry is a wasteland of broken dreams and lost fortunes for those who got it too soon. Those companies who have weathered the storm are experiencing a quiet nirvana - the available range of books is growing exponentially, the technology has stabilized, prices are dropping and consumer adoption is swelling almost daily. This is a post-bubble boom, and we`re loving it."
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