Gen Y Buys More Titles; Ebook Prices Drop

September 4, 2012 | News | Leave A Comment
Move over Baby Boomers. A new report finds Generation Y – people born between 1979 and 1989 – is spending more money on books than you are.

The report, the 2012 U.S. Book Consumer Demographics & Buying Behaviors Annual Review, says  Gen Y bought 30 percent of all titles in 2011, up from 24 percent in 2010. Baby Boomers, who have historically spent the most on books, have a 25 percent share.

 Forty-three percent of Gen Y’s purchases are made online, which is helping push the industry’s shift to digital. 

The report, prepared by Bowker Market Research, also finds ebook prices fell between 2010 and 2011.

It puts the average price of a fiction ebook at $5.24 in 2011, down from $5.69 in 2010. In nonfiction,  the average price fell from $9.04 to $6.47. In the juvenile segment, it dropped to $4.47 in 2011 from $4.88.

The reports finds ebooks have the most impact in the Mystery genre, accounting for 17 percent of spending, followed by Romance and Science Fiction, which accounted for 15 percent of dollars spent.

February E-book Sales Skyrocket

April 16, 2011 | News | 3 comments
Publisher’s Weekly reports that ebook sales increased at a higher rate in February than they did in January. 
According to the American Associate of Publishers (AAP), ebook sales increased 202 percent, raking in $90 million. 
February wasn’t so good to other forms of books, which all saw declines. Adult hardcover fell 43 percent to $46 million and mass market paperback plunged 41.5 percent to $29 million.
The AAP believes the ebook gains are the result of people loading ebooks onto the e-readers they received for the holidays.
Whatever the reason, according to Publishers Weekly, ebook sales for the first two months of 2011  equalled sales of trade paperbacks for that period.