I’d like to introduce a new section of my blog today which is going to focus on the stories behind all those infographics we keep seeing popping up around the web. Of course, my focus is going to be on those that are related to books, publishing, writing and the author and I do hope that you’ll find them as fascinating as I do.
The first one I’d like to show you was created by Visual Loop, it is based on an original piece of research created by Bain and Company, called Publishing in the Digital Era.
With the emphasis of Amazon on pushing it’s Kindle reader to users via the website, tv and publication advertising, it would be easy to assume that this is all there is when it comes to reading. In fact, the birth of the eReader device has spawned a whole host of apocalyptic predictions about the end of the publishing industry as we know it; the doomsayers inform us that soon we won’t have printed books and that no-one reads anyway now that Facebook and Twitter rule the household.
The stats show the growth in the sales of eBooks and eReaders but they often forget to make a comparison between these and the sale of other book types – such as the paperback; they also rarely look at how the ease of access to eBooks has affected the readership. For instance in October this year, the sale of eBooks make up 16% of the overall book market in Canada, but what does this statistic mean? Does it mean that other types of book sales fell by a comparable amount? When I dug a little deeper into the report it showed that 86% of Canadians buy print books, 19% buy electronic versions and 7% by both. I wonder how many of that 19% actually switched or have become new readers? (http://www.booknetcanada.ca/press-room/2012/10/10/print-is-still-the-dominant-format-for-canadians-says-new-bo.html)
In fact an article in April this year gave credence to the suggestion that more people are reading than ever before – whilst there are no accurate figures and the assumptions drawn questionable, it is worth noting the huge leap in reading numbers between 1948 and 2005. (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/the-next-time-someone-says-the-internet-killed-reading-books-show-them-this-chart/255572)
My feeling is that people who haven’t traditionally been readers are now more likely to become readers because of the ease of access that tablets and eReaders give them. What do you think?
Filed under: The Art of Self Publishing Tagged: Bain & Company, digital publishing, infographic, publishing, visual loop
