Thursday, May 23, 2013

Thursday Thoughts - Changing Face of Book Buying

Statistics were released last week on books sold, and some of the figures were quite interesting.

What got my attention was the closing gap between online book sales versus sales in brick and mortar book stores. Book sales rose to $6.93 billion through online sellers while the brick and mortar stores reported $7.47 billion.

Of the $6.93 billion sold online, nearly half - $3.04 billion - were in eBook sales.

I have become an iPad addict. I have been replacing the books on my shelves with eBooks, which is greatly reducing the clutter in my home and office. I've also been discovering new authors and new series. I love reading eBooks because:

I can pick up one device which weighs about the same as a trade paperback and take it with me anywhere;

That one device can hold approximately 50,000 books;

I can enlarge the print so I don't have to wear reading glasses;

It has it's own light so I don't have to sit by a lamp or turn on a light in the middle of the night;

I can download books instantly and not have to wait for them to arrive in the mail;

I don't have to find a place to put them after I've read them;

And I can search for books in the genres or topics I enjoy instead of walking through stores that carry only a tiny percentage of the books published.

How do you read your books - in print form or eBook? Why do you like that method over the other?