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How Behavioural Science Could Save The E-Book
In 2019 US book publishers made a cool $26 billion in revenue. How much of that do you imagine was spent on e-books?
If you look to the newspaper industry for inspiration you would probably guess $20 billion? Maybe even $25 billion?
Nope, try again… How does exactly $2.04 Billion sound?
Yes, you are reading that correctly! The humble book, that everyone feared would soon be no more, has a $22 billion yearly revenue in the US alone. That is over 10x the size of the e-book market.
This seems a whole lot stranger when you consider the reality…
E-books are wonderful! Not only are they convenient, cheap, and customisable, they also save around 8 million trees each year and solve multiple storage issues in your “charming” apartment!
So why do the e-book sales statistics make for such a dismal read?
Some argue it is because millennials have forgotten how to read more than 140 characters and that leaves the old people as the only readers left on the planet and old people prefer paper books.