April E-Book Sales: Does The Word "Meteoric" Mean Anything to You?

Last month, when we reported e-book sales stats for the first quarter of 2009, I wrote "We're running out of superlatives." That was after March's $10 million in sales matched the total for the first three months of 2008! Now we're running out of italics and exclamation points, too. The April stats released by the Association of American Publishers and International Digital Publishing Forum reached $12,100,000, which my fingers and toes say amounts to a 327% increase over the $3,700,000 figure posted the previous April.

The above chart is for January through March and does not reflect April, but we hope IDPF's statistician is prepared, literally, to raise the bar, as the ceiling isn't even remotely in sight.

And we have a few tricks up our sleeves to proclaim future recordbreaking e-book industry performances. Look for announcements in all-caps, bold, and an infinite number of exclamation points.

The true sales numbers may be even higher than the above chart indicates. Michael Smith, Executive Director of IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) reminds us that:

• This data represents United States revenues only
• This data represents only trade eBook sales via wholesale channels. Retail numbers may be as much as double the above figures due to industry wholesale discounts.
• This data represents only data submitted from approx. 12 to 15 trade
• publishers
• This data does not include library, educational or professional electronic sales
• The numbers reflect the wholesale revenues of publishers
• The definition used for reporting electronic book sales is "All books delivered electronically over the Internet OR to hand-held reading devices"
• The IDPF and AAP began collecting data together starting in Q1 2006

RC