Will e-books kill printed books?

Ummm. . . on brief reflection, no. On a little more reflection, hell no. In fact, e-books might save the printed book.

Buried in Amazon’s release about skyrocketing Kindle book sales was the fact that while Amazon’s Kindle e-book sales were up, so were hardcover sales. More e-books and more hardcovers sold, both at the same time. Hmm. . .

That’s just on Amazon. But traditional print publishing is having a very good year overall.  Traditional book publisher’s sales are up almost 10 percent over last year, driven by strong sales in the Adult Hardcover category. Take a look at that link, which goes to a release from the Association of American Publishers. According to their stats, at the same time e-book sales were rocketing, adult trade hardcover (those are the new books you see in bookstores) was also zooming along, with sales up more than 20 percent over last year. Of course, last year’s sales were dismal, but hmm. . . .

A few days ago Knopf announced that Kindle sales for Stieg Larsson’s most recent book, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” have topped sales of the hardcover. More than a million of Larsson’s three thrillers have sold in e-book versions. But – and here’s the important part — at the same time that a million people downloaded the e-book, sales of the author’s books are also setting records in paperback and audio. Hardcover sales of the most recent entry, the publisher said, had not been hurt by the  e-edition.

Final bit of info to throw into the mix: What’s true for publishers also appears to be true for booksellers.  One recent study of the nation’s 51 largest independent bookstores found sales steady through the first six months of this year. This is encouraging news. People don’t go into their local independent bookstore to buy an e-book.

OK — good stats in this industry are hard to come by, so I have to patch together bits and pieces like this, which do no more than hint at a possible trend. But it’s pretty interesting to think that e-books might help revitalize the old print book industry. Remember how the movie industry has moaned for 100 years  about every new development — TV is going to kill the movies! VHS is going to kill the movies! DVDs are going to kill the movies! — but in fact, all those new technologies simply increased the number of people who watch movies? Maybe something similar is happening with books.

In other words, It’s beginning to look like e-books, instead of cannibalizing sales from traditional print books, might revive  interest in reading, bring in new eyes, open up the market to people who might not otherwise read a book at all.

By expanding the universe of readers, e-books might save book publishing.