2014: a good year
Like the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, i books, ebook and audiobooks they will travel collaboratively a long stretch of journey before landing in the new and uncharted territory of the digital media. Mutual looting was feared and instead the opposite is happening. To tell us are the data released by theAssociation of American Publishers (AAP) for 2014. Lo statsshot produced annually by the AAP collects i data collected di 1800 editors active in the United States and estimates the subjects not included in the panel, evaluating the available sources (financials, third-party research and so on). In all it is about 70.000 entities who publish books and ebooks. It is undoubtedly there photography more reliable of the more vast and very important market of the book in IT world;, a quarter of the total and 10 times the Italian one. On this market before elsewhere the industry trends, trends that will soon spread to all other markets.
The most comforting data concerns the overall growth of the market that scores a nice + 4,6 % on 2013. The value of the book market as a whole (trade, scholastic, and professional books) in the United States is 28 billion dollars, a value slightly higher than that of the newspaper industry. For the first time the detection of the AAP includes service subscriptions streaming.
Il I share with greater growth that of textbooks for primary and secondary school (k-12) attended by children between the ages of 4 and 19. There school score a nice + 9,9 %. The good too professional segment with + 4,6 % and trade (+ 4,2 %) which remains the larger compartment with $15,43 million in total revenue, more than half the value of the entire industry. Let us dwell on this segment.
Children's books run in the trade
I children's books e young adults are the category with the higher growth rate registering a + 20,9 % di turnover ($4,4 billion) and a + 13,5 % in sold unitAnd. For the first time this category, which barely existed 15 years ago, has superato in terms of sales volumes that of fiction for adults: 843 million units sold against 746 of the latter. We know that children and adolescents prefer (it is not known by their choice or that of their parents) to read on the printed page, rather than on any screen which they certainly do not lack. Who cares, the main thing is to read! There fiction for adults has undergone one flexion of the 2% and also the non-fiction show the minus sign, – 1%. in sectors a highest growth (scholastic, professional and trade for teenagers) is lower il weight of the component digital compared to other sectors.
The format paperback stay the most popular: 2014 million copies were sold in 942 against 882 in 2013. There was also a small increase in revenues. The average price by title, around 5 dollars, it still remains the most convenient compared to other formats includingebook, whose average price is around i dollars 6,5.
Ebook: consumer confidence remains
- ebook have regained altitude after the unexpected and worrying flexion registered in 2013. They are definitely back in the territory of the plus sign: + 3,8 % di turnover ($3,37 million) and a tiny + 0,2 % in terms of units sold. Ebooks have exceeded the turnover of music downloaded from various paid services, such as iTunes, which in 2014 was close to 2,5 billion dollars. The ebook they undoubtedly have put down roots in behavior of purchase of consumers of content.
Looking at these data, however, a question arises: what does the difference between the discrete growth of the turnover , stagnation of the unit sold. It means that, on average, the price of ebook è Salito significantly in 2014 and that Amazon ha lost, for now, the battle with publishers on the price of ebooks hired immediately after the defeat in court of the publishers and Apple on the agency model. So it happened that that range of identification sensitive al price, brought their own shopping elsewhere o opted for services alternative when buying an ebook.
The value of ebooks sold In the USA, 510 million, not è away from that of the hardcover, 568 million units sold, which is the economical engine of all theindustry. Ebooks sold through subscription services are excluded. Basically, the ebook industry goes, despite the incredibles fence which were erected at the market development by publishers traditional, from Justice Department with the unusual action against Apple, and also from technology companies intending to change the existing arrangements. We have already dealt extensively with this aspect and will not go back to it. The most important fact is that i consumers not they are abandoning ebooks and continue to address this market with confidence. So it is not surprising to read in a recent statistic by the analysts of TecNavio, a research and consultancy company in the field of technology, that the average growth rate (CAGR) of the global ebook market over the five-year period 2015-2019 will grow by Present in several = 17,40%. The markets, such as the Italian one, which until now have remained on the sidelines of the phenomenon, will contribute the most to this double-digit growth.
The AAP data doesn't even include the ebook of self-published and those sold only on Kindle Store or through CreateSpace, which operates the print-on-demand service, following an exclusivity agreement of their authors with Amazon. Of the beyond 3,5 million di titles available on Kindle Store 1,2 millioni am sold exclusive on Amazon and, as Amazon does not publish statistics of any kind, the performance of these stocks is not known.
How much is the self-published market worth?
In an article in "The Bookseller", Philip Jones gave this answer to the question of how much the self-publishing market is worth: "Only Amazon knows for sure”. In any case Jones quantifies the quota ofindependent publishing in a 5% of the trade market in the United States (15,43 billion dollars). This 5% is made up of 80% ebooks and 20% books. It's about a evaluation rather generous which other market observers do not fully agree.
Secondo Mike Shatzkin, one of the most accredited analysts of new publishing, the self-published market in the USA is worth around 460 million dollars. Mark Cokerfounder of smashwords one of the most important resources for self-publishing with 250 titles, values it around 430 million. According to these very rough estimates the market of self-published ebooks worth a Present in several = 15% of the market total of ebook. A not entirely negligible share considering that the Kindle made its appearance eight years ago.
The boom in audio and subscription services
It seems that the consumer American yes it is in love of audiobooks to download and listen to on your mobile devices. This sector has scored compared to 2013 a growth of 27% in terms of turnover and Present in several = 26,8% as a unit sold.
For the first time, the AAP observatory monitored the trend of subscription services that they started to represent something yes significant with the decision of the major publishers to make available a good number of titles a catalog on these services. The survey panel is made up of about 20 publishers and therefore we are dealing with something very limited.
The services of subscription for audiobook confirm the excellent performance with 3,88 million units sold. Slightly less than the amount of units sold by ebook streaming services, nonetheless a remarkable one 2,47 million units. The latter have achieved a value of 20 million dollars, still tiny, but promising. The latter survey lacks data on Kindle Unlimited which, according to Amazon's statements, is growing at considerable rates.
Conclusions
Il 2014 it was a good vintage for the 'book industry with very many signs positive such as the resumption of the ebook rush after a catatonic 2013, the survival of the print book and the growth of new forms of consumption such as audio and subscription streaming. Overall, statistics from the American Publishers Association in 2014 seem to indicate that the market ha reached up a certain equilibrium, a balance between Press e digital with a streaming which is conquering its own space without, for the moment, taking it away from other market sectors.
If this equilibrium will be maintained as the data for 2015 seem to show, thebook industry seems destined for one transition "relatively quiet"Ai new media. Music, newspapers, cinema and periodicals are navigating much rougher waters where the winds of creative destruction blow strongly. However, it will be necessary that when the book industry crosses these turbulent waters it has learned the lesson of those less fortunate sailors who have sailed before it.
