If hardbacks
have been eclipsed by e-books, why are their numbers flat or slightly down year
over year? Not much of an eclipse. If this is the case, then adding the number
of readers necessary to say that they are being outsold by e-books means an
awesome number of people are now reading books who were not previously doing
so. Some among them will inevitably discover that actual books are better for
them and they will become actual book buyers.
There are
also statistics in the press (now I am thinking of Campus Marketplace, a NACS
publication) which show a clear and strong preference for actual books among
college age people. This is striking on so many obvious levels I won't get into
it here. Suffice it to say that this group is as important to all of us
booksellers as any, and they don't like e-books anywhere near as much as they
like real books.
In July of
2010 Amazon said something like paper would be eclipsed by e-books by the end
of 2011. Now an oddly similarly worded phrase shows up at Huffington Post.
Still trying to eclipse, they're not quite convincing everybody.
Let's just
keep reading our real books. The market will sort itself out.
