e-book sales growing rapidly
In July 2010, Amazon’s Kindle e-book sales surpassed its hardcover sales. In January, 2011, Kindle e-book sales surpassed its paperback sales. In April, 2011, Kindle e-book sales surpassed all its print books sales, both hardcover and paperback. Through May 19, 2011, Kindle e-book sales were three times as high as during the corresponding period last year. Amazon also offers a large number of free e-books for the Kindle. These free e-books are not included in the Kindle sales totals. In short, growth of Kindle e-book sales, which are a large share of the e-book market, have been phenomenal.
An under-appreciated advantage of e-books is that not reading purchased e-books is less burdensome. Book industry analysts know that persons don’t read most of the books that they buy. Persons buy books because they imagine themselves reading the book and benefiting from it, or because they think of themselves as the sort of person who reads a certain book. For the many books bought for such purposes, e-books have a key advantage: they don’t physically pile up. They don’t have a lying, nagging presence. This advantage should not be under-appreciated.
Related post: e-books will soon be more important than print books
regulatory accountability
In sumo wrestling, the two top regulators (referees) carry a dagger at work. The dagger indicates their willingness to commit ritual suicide (seppuku) if they make a mistake. This is an excellent practice that regulators across a variety of fields and around the world should adopt.
over past four centuries, books much cheaper, but less price dispersion
The First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, published in 1623, provides a benchmark price for an up-market, popular book about four centuries ago. The folio book size, which was the largest typical book size, marked that publication as being an up-market item. Although the Shakespeare’s First Folio has become an enormously valuable collector’s treasure, it was not produced as a limited-edition book. The First Folio had an initial print run of an estimated 750 copies. That was a relatively large print run for that time. In 1623, the price of the First Folio, unbound, was 20 shillings. A high-quality binding might have cost several additional shillings.
Over the past four centuries, the price of books relative to services has decreased roughly a hundred-fold. In 1623, the price of the First Folio relative to an up-market seat at a enclosed theater, relative to a craftperson’s monthly earnings, and relative to the price of a man’s visit to the barber were 13.3, 0.7, and 10.0, respectively. By 2011, these relative prices had increased by factors of 41, 111, and 8, respectively. The barber’s service in 1623 may have been much more extensive (shaving, wig treatment, etc.) than a man’s haircut in 2011. The admission price for groundlings at open-air London theaters like the Globe was only a penny. The change in the relative price of an up-market book to a craftperson’s monthly earnings is the best indicator of the change in relative prices. By any reasonable indicator, the relative price of books has dropped enormously.
Dispersion in general-market book prices appears to have decreased. The First Folio, even unbound, cost forty times more than a standard playbook in 1623. In the U.S. today, most paperbacks cost more than five dollars, and most hardcover books, less than fifty dollars. The growth in e-books may push price dispersion towards the higher levels of four centuries ago.
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Statistics: book prices relative to other prices across four centuries (Excel version)
Sources: The price for Shakespeare’s First Folio is from Edward Dering’s Book of Expenses (entry for Dec. 5, 1623). The source provides a variety of prices in London in 1623, including the prices for attending a play and going to the barber. For information about Dering’s Book of Expenses, see Lennam, T. N. S., “Sir Edward Dering’s Collection of Playbooks, 1619-1624,” Shakespeare Quarterly, v. 16, n. 2 (1965) pp. 145-153.
Wednesday's flowers
