Publishers Lunch Deluxe reports on
a presentation made by Ingram's Phil Ollila at last week's Publishers Launch Conference, which was
held parallel with BEA. Perhaps the single most important slide in
Olilla's presentation was this one, showing the impact of eBooks on
categories of print book sales:
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| Sources: Publishers Lunch Deluxe and Ingram |
The bubbles below the line are print categories that have decreased
as eBook sales have grown; those above the line have grown along
with eBooks. The size of the bubbles indicates the magnitude of growth or decline:
- Fiction print sales have taken by far the biggest hit, followed by
Business & Economics, Political Science, Self-Help, and to a
lesser extent, House & Home. These are text-heavy categories
that work well with today's eReaders.
- The print categories that have increased tend to be image-heavy,
including Art, Photography, Design, Antiques & Collectables and
Architecture. Somewhat surprisingly, however, sales of Reference
works, Bibles and Study Aids in print have also increased, even
though they're text-heavy.
- The obvious problem for brick & mortar retailers is that the
most popular categories are the ones shifting the fastest to eBooks.
Specialty stores focusing on art and related categories can work in
some markets, but these categories aren't going to support
independent booksellers in general.
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