What is an e-book? – Create & sell digital products #6

In the previous article from this cycle you can read about popular ideas on digital products. In the current publication we will take a closer look on one of the forms of digital product, namely on e-book. Read more to find out what is an e-book and what are its advantages.

What is an e-book? – table of contents:

1. What is an e-book?
2. Advantages of e-books
3. E-book vs. paper book
4. Statistics related to e-books

What is an e-book?

Accordingly to the definition of an e-book it is an electronic book or else item characterized as “literary work in the electronic version”. The term e-book is an abbreviation from an “electronic book”. It can exist in many formats such as: pdf, rtf, and doc. To find out more about e-books formats read our article: “The most popular e-book formats”.

An e-book may be composed of written content as well as pictures and graphics. Such e-books are designed to be opened, read and used on electronic devices. One can use dedicated for this purpose electronic reader, or a laptop, tablet or smartphone.

Advantages of e-books

Among the advantages the most frequently listed by e-book’s followers:

• easy access – in comparison to paper books, e-books can be downloaded practically immediately, the client doesn’t have to wait for the book to be dispatched from the magazine and delivered by the courier,
• lower prices – there are a lot free e-books on the market, while the paid ones are much cheaper comparing to traditional books,
• comfort of use – books in electronic form can be opened at any moment, at any time, on the phone or another device. Electronic readers, which the most frequently used to read e-books are much lighter and take less space than paper books,
• adjustment to the user’s needs – while reading e-books with the use of electronic devices we can adjust such elements as: font or image brightness to our preferences,
• easy storage – electronic books don’t need shelves for storage, hence they don’t collect dust and take up your space. Additionally, we don’t have to worry about fading pages with earmarks throughout,
• environmental issues – choosing e-books instead of paper books influence and elimination of printing saves trees and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

E-book vs. paper book

Disputes between supporters of traditional books and advocates of electronic books are easily visible on many internet forums of reading lovers. It is difficult to name any particular shortcomings of e-books since reading them is not comparable as an experience to traditional reading practice. Many enthusiasts of paper publications specify two disadvantages, that not really related to the e-books themselves but to the mere experience of reading them.

Some of the readers cannot convince themselves to use e-books because they prefer books in their physical form and they miss the experience of traditional reading. They like to turn pages and feel the smell of paper as well as to hear the sound of riffled pages. Some readers appear to enjoy having books, collecting them and creating home libraries.

However, all this doesn’t make e-books superfluous. It is enough to take just a close look into statistics to see how e-books have grown in popularity during the pandemics, when all stationary shops were closed due to the restrictions. During that time it was much easier to buy e-books than paper books and they seemed to be safer alternative for printed materials. All this is shown by the figures revealing that the sales of e-books increased in 2020 by 22% in comparison to 2019. Despite the fact that in 2021 sales dropped still the figures were higher than before the pandemics.

Statistics related to e-books

It was already mentioned that e-books grow in popularity. Let’s take a look at the statistics related to this market.

Who reads books? Statistics, which were made on the American public show that:

• 33% of the respondents read books in both forms of an e-book and paper book,
• 32% of the respondents read only paper books,
• 9% of the respondents choose only electronic versions of books.

Most of the people, who read books are university graduates. Additionally, the important factor influencing readership is income – 86% of readers earn more than 75 000 US dollars per year. Accordingly to the data, in 2020 in the USA 191 million of e-books were sold. Despite the fact that paper books still bring the highest profits on the publishing market, the popularity of electronic equivalents is constantly increasing.

Summary

Many people seem to be convinced that paper books will remain with us forever. In spite of the prevailing popularity of paper books, e-books are being chosen more frequently as an alternative for traditional books or as a form of complementing their reading journey. It is worth to follow the market because a large part of the readers is convinced that e-books will be evolving in the future. Hence, the new opportunities will arise for publishing companies as well as for independent publishers.

If you like our content, join our busy bees community on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest.