The death of eBooks…again…not…

It’s the myth that just won’t die.

Ebooks are Dying. Sales are down. Kindles are Clunky! Help! Alarm!

Except they aren’t.

It’s really disappointing that reporters for major outlets continue to get this story wrong. And they continue to assert that readers now prefer print to eBooks, or the eBook reader devices themselves are somehow to blame. The data and the broader context simply don’t support these assertions.

Invariably, these reports rely on Publisher Association Data, more recently of the British Publisher Association. This leaves out the huge swath of indie books sold on Amazon and other private platforms that don’t report sales data.

So the correct headline is, “Major Publishers suffer eBook market share losses to independent authors”. This has little to do with any insufficiency of eBook readers as sexy devices (seriously — the Guardian says this!). Do these reporters not know that you can read eBooks on every phone and tablet known to the market?!

It’s even more disappointing because, as they say on the X-Files, The Truth is Out There. The Digital Reader always has trenchant analysis, solidly based on the ever-enlightening Data Guy of AuthorEarnings. If you really want to know what’s going on with eBooks, go there. And ignore these silly articles that miss the major dynamics going on in the book industry, telling you eBooks are dying. Rubbish.