E-Book Biz Soaring, But Dead Trees Still Rule

Sales stats for 2008 have been flowing in from a number of sources, and they are as interesting in what they don't reveal as in what they do.

The e-book business is rocketing, yet it's almost pocket change compared to print sales. E-Book sales in 2008 according to the International Digital Publishing Forum were a bit over $52 million, up $46 million over 2002! (The American Association of Publishers puts 2008 e-book sales even higher, $67 million.) But - phenomenal though that sounds, it is dwarfed by bookstore sales of print books in 2008, which the AAP states is close to $24 billion not including e-books or audibooks.

And though there's a lot of talk, some of it in these very pages, about the decline and fall of the traditional book industry, sales for 2009 declined only 2.8% over the previous year. In short, the vast imbalance between p-book and e-book sales reminds us that digital books have a long way to go before they truly challenge paper for supremacy. E-books are making more news but not necessarily more money.

It's always good to keep things in perspective.

RC