Christmas book sales up but eBook data difficult to obtain

Following a terrible year for booksellers in 2010, things seemed to improve for Australian booksellers during the peak book buying time over Christmas, according to the Bookseller+Publisher’s annual post-Christmas survey.

According to today’s Weekly Newsletter Special Report;

“The overwhelming majority of respondents (80%) reported that Christmas sales were up compared to the previous year. A further 10.5% reported that sales were ‘about the same' as for Christmas 2010, while only 9.5% reported that sales were down”

However, there is no getting away from the fact that overall sales were down in Australia, US and the UK in 2011 in both volume and dollar value, as reported by The Age on 7^th January http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/troublesome-year-for-bookshops-as-sales-falter-20120106-1pooo.html?skin=text-only

Last year the PwC report for the BISG (Cover to Cover. A Market Analysis of the Australian book industry) predicted that eBook sales would increase by 231% from 2010 to 2011. Unfortunately, it appears that actual data for the sales of eBooks is not easy to come by. The Special Report advises;

“In terms of ebook sales, data is scarce. Nielsen BookScan does not currently collect sales data specifically for ebooks and retailers are reluctant to disclose sales figures, though some have released their bestseller charts. Anecdotal evidence suggests established ebook retail platforms such as Kobo and, of course, Amazon continue to experience rapid growth, but independents most often describe sales as very small--not surprising given how recently they have begun selling them.

Not all publishers were willing to comment on ebook sales but from those who were, it seems that ebook sales can represent as little as 0.5% of overall Christmas sales, or as much as 15%

Watch this space”

Watch this space indeed. Or maybe, stop watching and start doing if you’re an author. Like the writer of the report, we believe that there is so much more to come in the area of eBook sales. Although it may be beginning slowly in Australia, the eBook floodgates will open and let’s hope that, for once, we may be able to keep these sales on shore. Palmer Higgs has been working on eBook and digital strategies for the past two years but in the past two months, we have seen a huge increase in the level of interest in this area. Authors and small publishers are contacting us about our eBook creation and distribution service which indicates that (finally!) the Australian writing community are starting to recognise this as a great opportunity for now and the future.