From The Bookseller:
In his annual newsletter sent out to authors yesterday (29th March), [The Group c.e.o of Hachette UK, Tim] Hely Hutchinson emphasised the importance of the publisher’s role in a time of digital change in the industry, calling the last year a “transformational” one for the company. While “a sea change can be unsettling…we are very well placed to capitalise on all the opportunities this new world brings us,” he said, announcing that e-books sales were 250% up in February year-on-year with March looking “even better.”
Hely Hutchinson predicted that the “10-12%” digital share of business that Hachette UK saw in 2011 would “more than double in 2012”, saying: “The rate of our growth is so fast that it is taking us into uncharted territory. It is not at all hard to foresee that fiction and narrative non-fiction sales could be 50% digital within just one or two years.” Digital sales are currently running at 20% of total business in 2012, and over 30% of fiction business, he said.
. . . .
On the subject of Digital Rights Management, Hely-Hutchinson said he thought the advantages outweighed the disadvantages of this form of protection and said that the company does not think copyright and royalty issues were the “battleground” of publishers and authors but rather “we should be able to work out what is fair amongst ourselves in a collegiate way.”
. . . .
He ended his letter by seeking to defend the role of publishers against the opportunity to self-publish.
Link to the rest at The Bookseller
““we should be able to work out what is fair amongst ourselves in a collegiate way.””
This really made me laugh.
I wonder if “collegiate way” means rugby.
I just assumed fraternity paddles.
250% growth – after customer bleed-off. When I see a $14 eBook corresponding to a $10 paper version, I don’t buy the paper version like a nice little consumer. I find something else to read, unless I find the same book on Amazon for $9…
And whenever you consider percentage increases, you have to consider what the base numbers were a year ago.
So true. A single number in isolation never makes a lot of sense. I would love to see percentages on overall eBook penetration that show more than the big six. Hachette is reporting an increase, but how many customers balk at prices meant to protect print and simply find another retailer?
“…how many customers balk at prices meant to protect print and simply find another retailer?”
I do, Andrew.
This illustrates the bankrupt thinking that tries to perpetuate the fallacy that high prices are good for writing or writers. They are not.
Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange. –The Tempest, William Shakespeare
Lovely and relevant, Barbara.