August '09 eBook Sales Triple Previous August

It's IDPF time again, that happy moment when the International Digital Publishing Forum and Association of American Publisher release their latest sales stats for the e-book industry. The news, as it has been all year (knock wood), remains glorious: trade e-book sales went from $5 million in August '08 to $14.4 mil a year later, a few dollars shy of tripling the earlier figure. Equally impressive are the totals for the first two months of Q3-09: they are more than double the same period of '08, namely $30.6 million as compared to $13.9 million.

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"

RC