We’ve had two figures from Amazon. Mr. Bezos said Kindle owners buy 2.7 times more books than they used to (2.7 times what they bought from Amazon when they didn’t have a Kindle). This was in early 2009, around the time of the Kindle 2 launch. This year someone from Amazon (the name eludes me at the moment) said Kindle owners buy 3.1 times the number of books they used to.
There are a lot of things to consider here -
- Are readers transferring purchases they would make at other stores to the Kindle Store?
- Are these all paid books or free books are included?
- How many of the books they buy are they actually reading? How does this number compare with what their actual books read number was before?
In the absence of solid data let’s try to string together whatever clues we can.
What are Kindle Owners saying?
Here are some of the things that people at the official kindle forum are mentioning -
- They are reading more books than they used to.
- They’re also reading books that earlier they wouldn’t.
- A tendency to buy too many books.
- A tendency to hoard books.
- Downloading and reading a free book and then reading the other books from that author.
There’s not a single case of anyone saying they’re reading less and lots of cases where people are surprised (and delighted) by how much more they end up reading. Also, complaints about buying too many books – more than they can afford, more than they can read.
The anecdotal evidence definitely points to a rise in amount of reading after people get a Kindle.
Mapping out reading patterns
Please do add in your thoughts and let us know how your reading has changed after buying a Kindle.
With the Kindle there seem to have been three main changes in reading patterns -
- The number of books read in main genres of interest seems to have gone up.
- Reading has made its way back to being a top 2 leisure activity for a significant number of kindle owners. For a lot of the others it was always #1 or #2.
- People are beginning to explore other genres and are reading lots of books that they wouldn’t have without the Kindle Store.
For me these are some of the books that were a nice bonus – books that without the Kindle I would have missed -
Occult classics like Lair of the White Worm and Brood of the Witch Queen.
4 Robin Hobb novels.
4 Naomi Novik novels.
3 China Meiville books.
The Monstrumologist and The Road.
Basically, reading has taken over a lot of the free time that would go to TV and movies.
We can make a somewhat reliable guess that people read more of what they already used to and a little bit of areas they used to not read earlier. We also get a group of readers who have rediscovered their love of reading.
Finally, we have the fact that the easy purchase process means people buy books more often than they used to – even if they don’t necessarily read them all.
Let’s make an attempt at guessing how much more people read.
Guessing how much more Kindle owners read after getting a Kindle
We’ll take the first Mr. Bezos figure of 2.7 times more sales. Let’s say a person buying 10 books a year from Amazon ends up buying 27 kindle books a year.
- The first factor has to be more purchases from the kindle store. Let’s say the person used to buy 10 books a year from Amazon and another 10 from other sources. Now they buy 15 from Amazon and 5 from other sources. So 5 out of the 17 additional sales are stolen from other stores.
- That means the Kindle is probably accounting for the remaining 12 sales – An increase of 60% (27+5 compared to 10+10).
Also interesting is the change in actual number of books read -
- Let’s assume the percentage of books read goes down due to higher number of books being bought. So earlier we had 80% reading of bought books and now we have 70%.
- Earlier this person was buying 20 books and reading 16. Now this person is buying 32 books and reading 22.4 books. That’s an increase of 40% in books read.
So our totally wild guess says -
- Kindle owners are buying 60% more books. This is across all devices and including paper books.
- Kindle owners are reading 40% more books.
- Kindle owners are drastically shifting their ebook sales in favor of Amazon – from 50% to 84.375%.
It’s a double benefit for Amazon – customers are buying more books and they’re predominantly buying them from Amazon.
No wonder Amazon are releasing all these Apps for different platforms. The apps and the Kindle are letting Amazon get more market share and are also increasing the overall size of the market. It’s pure genius.
Filed under: kindle Tagged: | kindle analysis, kindle book sales
First, I’ve been lurking for a bit.
I’ll agree with most points:
1. I’ve dropped from reading about 80% of book purchases to 70%.
2. Due to the *easy* availability, I’m reading a lot more in alternate genera. I consider myself a perfect candidate for the ‘Long Tail’ theory of book purchasing. Now that more books are available that interest me, I’m buying fewer books that interest me 9.5 (out of ten) and more 9.7.
The one area you missed:
3. I load up my Kindle with free or discounted eccentric books that I have no interest in reading more than 2 to 4 chapters. This will be collections of poetry, old folk tales, obscure history where I’m curious about finding out more.
But I’m also loading up on the free to $2.99 books to see if well reviewed authors are worth trying out. Basically I have switched my time from reading reviews and then going to the bookstore and reading covers (maybe even a few pages) to buying the books for Kindle and seeing if I like them. Heck, I estimate ‘wear and tear’ on the car was $2.25 (round trip) for going to the bookstore… so I’ll spend around that just to try a book I’ve been interested in… but wasn’t sure.
Here is where Amazon is losing sales with me. The disabled text to speech on my Kindle2 keeps me from continuing a book during my commute. I prefer to read, but once into a book, will play the book for 30 to 45 minutes if I’m ‘hooked.’ Since I’m unable to do that now (on every book I’ve tried), I’m going through the books slower which slows Amazon’s sales. Cest la vie.
Neil
Neil, thanks for the comment. That’s a very good point about disabled text to speech losing sales. Hadn’t realized that it would affect more than just low vision readers.
How has a Kindle changed my reading?
In the past, I would consider book shelf space when determining whether or not to buy a book. (I’ve run out of wall space in my living room. I may be able to fit one more book shelf in my bed room. But I have to share them with my wife.) So I would reread books I already owned.
Let’s not talk the dead time between finishing a book and starting another. I would seldom finish a book while at home where the rest of my library was a few feet away.
My daughter was in a film. It was a student production, but followed SAG rules which require the parent of a minor child to remain on set. This means that I brought a bag of books to the first shoot. Between the initial shoot and the reshoot day, I got the Kindle. No bag.
So the Kindle’s convienience means, for me, that I’m spending more time reading (easy filling in the dead timed), and reading a wider variety of books due to the ease of acquiring books.
On the other hand, the number of free books may mean that I’m not actually spending more money currently than I used to. But I’m getting a bit pickier as I read more on the Kindle. Just because a book is free isn’t enough to get me to get it anymore. I suspect that my free/paid ratio will trend more and more toward paid as time goes on.
I’m not sure what trends you can take from me; I’m just one person.
Unfortunately, I can’t say my reading has increased significantly since getting a Kindle. However, it’s not the Kindle’s fault. I got my Kindle around the time that life became more busy. What I am finding is that I’m now spending a larger percentage of my free time reading, and I’m able to read while doing things that previously would’ve prevented me from reading.
So, I guess I’m reading more than I would be if I didn’t have my Kindle. Unfortunately, I’m also spending more time on the Kindle forum than I would be if I didn’t have my Kindle, and that does eat into my reading time
As far as book selection, I’m reading a lot more classics than I would otherwise read. I’m also reading some great books that I wouldn’t've regularly picked up, but that were advertised due to being low-cost or free. Most of them have been quite good.
My TBR list is *way* longer than it’s ever been before, though
I am reading more books and a much wider variety since the Kindle arrived. No matter where I am or what time it is I can grab another book when I finish the current book. I also find many pepole I work with have Kindle’s and we share our thoughts on different books and authors. I can barely keep up with all the suggestions. I try to download a sample so that I can keep track of all the good books people suggest to me.
I have also been reading everything an author has written because it is so simple to find and purchase their other books. I can easily say that my reading has increased dramatically since I purchased my Kindle.
Linda
I would feel the same way about free stuff. I haven’t bought a Kindle yet, but when comparing video games that I paid for and video games I got for free, I have a better completion rate for the ones that I paid for. I guess it has something to do with getting your money’s worth.
I have been reading a lot more since I got my Kindle. I always read about 1 to 2 books a week. But reading on my kindle seems so much easier and I carry it with me everywhere so now I’m reading three to four books a week. I’m not sure why I seem to read faster on my Kindle but I do. My husband even has made the comment that I’ve been spending way too much time with Mr. Kindle.
Kindle has changed my life tremendously….I read WAY more than I did before and I considered myself a casual reader (reading about 2 novels a week). Now with my kindle I actually read a 400 page novel in approximately a night and a half which allows me to read about 4 to 5 novels a week. Yes it replaces the time I use to watch garbage on TV.
As far as the types of books I purchase or read on my kindle; I of course read all my favorite authors books first and then I decided I would check out other types of books including free ones which I would have NEVER picked up normally off the book shelf and found myself engrossed in new styles of books. For instance, I only use to read Mystery Novels and now I am reading more Christian novels, love stories, history books, suspense, paranormal, etc.
What I’m finding so refreshing about the kindle is how I can not only see what others think about the book before I purchase it but I can also download and read a small portion of the book before I choose to purchase it. Its great when you are able to stand in a book store and start up a friendly conversation with someone who is in your section of the book isle when you can say, hey have you read this book, is it good, but in reality this rarely happens anymore, so when I get to see what others think all in one place on my kindle it is truly a blessing.
My kindle has become my constant companion and I love it. However as is with most things it has an area I would love to see upgraded a bit…. 1. The electronic voices programed in it are, well lets just say they are a little bit too computerized for my taste – I would love to be able to download more audio books (with readers voices) to use on my kindle.
Its true, I do find myself reading a lot more now that I have my kindle and I do read much faster…but it isn’t just me who is benefiting from the kindle. When our family is in the vehicle and are taking a trip we all use to do our own thing like listen to our own music on private mp3 players but now, I choose a book on my kindle then play it on the cars speakers and we all get hooked. The of course we have to talk about the book as we go along so family time has taken on a new meaning for us. Thanks Kindle.
All in all, I have to say that if someone threatened to take my kindle away from me, I would become very hostile. My kindle goes with me where I go – even church as it has my bible on it too. Yep my kindle is now a new appendage as far as I’m concerned. love it, love it, love it.
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