the future

E-Books, Making Hardcover Books Look Expensive

For the last three months, Amazon has been selling 143 e-books to every 100 hardcover books; in the last few weeks, Amazon’s e-books have been doing even better, outselling hardcovers by 80 percent. Lovers of tangible books should take comfort in the fact that paperbacks, which sell many more copies than hardcovers, haven’t been included in Amazon’s figures. Faced with the choice of buying the expensive, tangible copy of a new hardcover book, or the cheaper digital copy, many readers are willing to forgo new-book smell. [LAT, NYT]

E-Books, Making Hardcover Books Look Expensive