Terapeak Predicts the Shelf Life of Traditional Books
Marketing genius and noted author Seth Godin recently blogged that he would no longer be publishing his books the old fashioned way. Godin stated that traditional publishing techniques are built around a business model that is horribly outdated and out of touch with the way modern authors interact with their readers.
So, is traditional print on its way out? Terapeak is poised to stick a fork in eBay’s book sales to see if they’re done yet. Below is a trend of Non-Fiction book sales on eBay over the last year, and the pattern of decline is hard to deny. The e-reader market, previously occupied by the Kindle alone, has recently experienced a rise in competition with the introduction of the iPad and Sony models. This has caused prices to fall and Amazon.com reported that Kindle e-books have been outselling hardcover books by 70 percent over the last three months. Coincidentally, Terapeak shows an increase in e-reader sales over the last three months with nearly $300,000 in revenue in that short time.
In the blog age, many writers build their readerships by communicating with readers on a regular basis and with a constant stream of content. Traditional publishing requires coordinating a number of layers of bureaucracy such as an agent, a publishing house, and then distribution to media outlets and retail stores. All this creates more separation between author and reader, an impractical alternative to simply discovering stuff you enjoy using only a computer and a couch. If Terapeak is any indication, and it is, maybe we’ll all be packing digital books sooner than we thought.
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