I saw this tidbit via Shelf Awareness, which cited Crain’s New York and iReaderReview.com as the sources:
…at Random House, “September 2009 sales (of Kindle e-books) were $22.6 million–a huge increase from a year ago when they were just $2.9 million. The Lost Symbol was a huge part with 100,000 e-book sales in its first week out (5% of total sales). In first half of 2009, Random House Kindle e-book revenue grew 400% from a year ago.”
Usually the e-book numbers are shown only as a percentage, which can be misleading when talking about actual money spent/made. But 2.9 vs. 22.6 million is a big, well-measured jump.
My favorite conclusion from iReaderReview and Shelf Awareness:
The impact of holiday e-book sales offers a “huge opportunity for new companies to become successful publishers.”
I wonder if these new publishing companies will look anything like the ones we see today.
