Entries tagged with “sales figures” from Tools of Change for Publishing
What Ebook Resellers Should Learn from Scribd
Andrew Savikas
July 7, 2009
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Scribd made a splash when they opened up a "Scribd Store" for selling view and download access to documents. Their terms (80% to the document publisher) are quite generous, though one reason publishers keep so much is that most of the merchandising (including pricing) is self service -- Scribd could learn a lot from other media retailers if they're interested in really promoting document sales.
But one area where existing ebook resellers could really learn from Scribd is in terms of data access and reporting. During one particularly frustrating conversation with an ebook reseller just last week, I learned that we'd be lucky to get sales reports nearly 6 weeks after any sales. These are digital sales. On the Web. Paid by credit card. No inventory to track, no shipping, no check or invoice processing.
Compare that to Scribd, where I get an email every time a document is sold telling me how much it sold for, and the total lifetime earnings for that document. I can also view a graph showing document views over time:
And every single day I get a detailed summary of document activity (this is a very small excerpt):
Here's your daily summary of what's happened with your Scribd account since
you last checked out the site.
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Someone liked your document entitled "Apache 2 Pocket Reference by O'Reilly Media"!
7 minutes ago
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Someone liked your document entitled "JRuby Cookbook by O'Reilly Media"!
7 minutes ago
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Someone liked your document entitled "Analyzing Business Data with Excel by O'Reilly Media"!
31 minutes ago
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Maria added your document "Tomcat: The Definitive Guide by O'Reilly Media" to their list of favorites
39 minutes ago
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There's also quite a variety of reporting formats and interfaces in the wild among ebook resellers, meaning lots of time is spent by either IT staff or accounting staff (or both) parsing and processing each flavor of report. Though there is a Digital Sales Report format, I haven't heard about any reseller actually using it (if you know of one, tell me in the comments).
Success on the Web requires nearly realtime analytics, and that's one area of ebook retailing Scribd seems to really understand.
iPhone App Outperforms Most Print (Computer) Books This Holiday Season
Andrew Savikas
January 7, 2009
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Conventional wisdom suggests that when choosing pilot projects, you pick ones with a high likelihood of success. It's hard to argue that iPhone: The Missing Manual was a reasonable choice for testing the iPhone App waters. But while we knew it would do well, we've been quite pleased with just how well:
- If the iPhone App by itself had been a book, it would be a top 10 seller in BookScan for Computer Books this holiday season, based on just 17 days of sales
- The print version appears to have been unaffected, retaining a solid position in the top 3 for Computer Books in BookScan
- A full 1/3 of those buying the app are outside the US, mostly in countries where the print book is not readily available
There are certainly some who don't care for the book-as-app approach, preferring the library model (where one app enables reading multiple titles). It's also clear there's substantial customer interest in both options, and we strongly believe that offering a variety of options and letting customers choose is the right approach. This is a time for experimentation, and we'll be doing quite a bit more of it (format, pricing, content) in the digital -- and especially mobile -- space in the coming months.
Report: 300,000 Sony Readers Sold
Mac Slocum
December 12, 2008
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The e-reader guessing game may be in its final stages. According to theBookseller, Sony confirms it has sold 300,000 Readers globally since 2006:
So far three million books have been downloaded from its online library, which is home to 57,000 titles. The electronics giant said it planned to grow its online library to 100,000 titles by the end of the year.
The Reader is available through a variety of channels, including U.K. retailers. The Kindle is currently sold only through Amazon to U.S.-based buyers.
Sony is prepping a wireless-enabled Reader to compete against the Kindle, but theBookseller says there's no firm release date. The third-generation Reader -- a faster model with more storage but no connectivity -- was announced in October.
The Oprah Effect and the Kindle
Mac Slocum
October 24, 2008
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Chris Nuttall from the Financial Times says Oprah Winfrey will likely "endorse" the Kindle on today's show:
Amazon is featuring a trailer of her Friday show on its site with Oprah talking about her new "favourite gadget" which is "life changing for me." From a side-on view, the product she is talking about looks very [much] like a Kindle.
In an email to subscribers, Amazon says its founder Jeff Bezos will be appearing on Oprah to talk to her about her new favourite gadget.
This report technically qualifies as a rumor, but there's an awful lot of supporting evidence.
It'll be interesting to see if Oprah's influence extends to a $359 device (or a $309 device, after application of the Oprah-approved promo code). And if the Oprah effect leads to a Kindle spike, will Amazon finally reveal sales figures?
(Via the Reading 2.0 list and Teleread)
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