BookExpo, the US industry largest annual trade exhibition ended last month in Los Angeles without a clear strategy to revive the industry.
The book industry which is going through troubling times lacks a clear strategy to move forward, with the advent and popularisation of new technologies like the Kindle and the internet challenging the traditional ways of publishing it is forcing the industry to evolve and adapt to change.
Simon & Schuster CEO and President Carolyn Reidy said about the event: “It was quite, very quite”, in fact the entire even lacked interest in the absence of a “buzz book”. Amazon could have been that “buzz book” or should I say “buzz e-book”, in fact the event lacked such interest that the highlight of the event was a pop concert by Prince.
Amazon was praised throughout the whole event with its Kindle reading device, however since Kindle e-books only account for 6% of total book sales it was hardly exciting anyone, having a bigger stage at BookExpo could have increased e-book exposure as a viable alternative to traditional books and as a way of kick starting the industry back into gear. Perhaps Jeff Bezos could have delivered the keynote address instead of the Prince pop concert.
However popular novelist Ray Bradbury expressed some reservations about e-books saying: “There is no future for e-books because they are not books.”
Should Amazon Kindle have had a prominent position at the BookExpo in LA to promote the use of e-books and e-book readers?
6% of all book sales, or 6% of Amazon book sales?
Hi Ken,
The answer to to your question is neither of them, kind of… let me explane.
Jeff Bezos gave an interview with Walt Mossberg at “D: All Things Digital Conference” where he said;
“Title-by-title basis…Kindle unit sales more than 6% of total book sales”
So at the time when Bezos gave the interview there were 125,000 titles available for Kindle (its about 139,000 now), of all those 125,000 titles that were sold — digital and print — Kindle accounted for 6% of sales.
You can read the article by following the link:
http://www.blogkindle.com/2008/05/jeff-bezos-interview-at-the-d-all-things-digital-conference/
I hope this answered your question.
Ahem! Ray
It might be time to move on
You may be past
your visionary time
:>)