Laura Lippman’s e-book sales outpace print sales

Wall Street Journal’s Digits Blog reports that Laura Lippman’s new release sold more in e-book sales than in print. There are two stories here. The first, that digital sales are becomingly increasingly important (they are now at 8% of sales, versus 2-5% of sales just a year ago.) The WSJ post says publishers predict that they will be at 25% of sales by 2012. I think that’s conservative.

The second story is that readers react to reviews and appearances much more quickly in the digital space than they do with print versions. Makes sense. I remember listening to Sarah Silverman being interviewed on Fresh Air and buying the book while I listened to her (never a fan before…she came across as pretty smart).  In the Lippman case, the book got good reviews and readers bought right away.

So how do publishers react to both stories? They need to triage their titles quickly. What becomes an app, what becomes an ebook?

Then they need to do everything they can in their bag of tricks to get optimal pr and marketing exposure. The more digital/viral information, the more sales.  The newspaper industry learned this lesson and has utilized it to great effect to drive traffic, comments, etc. Luckily, publishers actually have content at the other end of this communication flow that people pay for.

It should not be lost on anyone that the print version sells for about $25, the Amazon discount price is $14.20 and the digital price is $12.99.

And another thing…note the difference between 4,000 and 4,739. Coincidence? I think not…. the print numbers are round because, unlike the digital downloads, the publishers don’t actually know HOW many books are sold. Another reason to love the digital sales phenomenon.

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