E-Books vs. Print Books: What’s the Difference?

E-Books vs. Print Books : An overview

In the end several years, e-books have become a mainstay of the publish diligence. however, the demise of print books as a leave of the introduction of e-books has not materialized as predicted .

According to the Association of American Publishers, e-book sales in the U.S. declined slightly to $ 983 million in 2019 from a year earlier. The lower growth rate followed several years of double-digit declines in e-book sales. Hardcover and paperback books still rule the market, with approximately $ 3 billion and 2.5 billion in sales in 2019, respectively.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic was a blessing to print print. Sales rose 8.2 % year over year to a total of 751 million copies, according to Printing Impressions, a publish industry diary. More leisure time and a indigence to educate children at home were cited as reasons for the book-buying spree .

While e-books are helping the publication industry, they can be a piece daunting for readers. If you are used to going to a local bookshop, browsing the aisles, and possibly reading the first chapter before buy, you still can with e-books, albeit with a fiddling adjustment .

Key Takeaways

• Print books have the feel of a book that many readers love. You can hold it, turn the pages, and feel the paper.
• Illustrations on paper are generally higher quality than even high-end e-readers can reproduce. 
• E-books come with font style and size flexibility.
• E-readers can store thousands of books on a single device.

photographic print Books

print books have the tactile property of a book that many readers love. You can hold it, turn the pages, and feel the paper .

People who love to read spend a life acquiring books. They may find it wrenching to abandon their shelves of books for a single slab of credit card .

Readers may besides compare the choice of illustrations between the two formats and find the print versions superior. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes can be bought in either hardback or Kindle versions but readers may find the Kindle version lacking due to the shriveled size of the illustrations and the relative awkwardness of toggling between story text and annotations .

Some readers besides experience some eye tenor using an electronic device alternatively of a print record .

A Cost Comparison

print books are calm a little more expensive than e-books, but not all that much. President Barack Obama ‘s memoir, A promise Land, is presently $ 17.99 for the Kindle edition, and $ 23.96 for the hardback. John Grisham ‘s past best seller, The Guardians, is $ 9.99 for the Kindle version, $ 9.64 for the paperback version, and $ 14 for the hardbacked .

Classics are the actual bargain in any format. You can get Charles Dickens : The Complete Works for Kindle for $ 2.99, while Bleak House alone is $ 5.95 in paperback. Both prices are bargains, of course, because the publishers do n’t have to pay anyone for the rights .

E-Books

Books on newspaper are difficult to carry around, particularly hardcovers. If you ‘re an avid lector and you ‘re going on a travel, or if you ‘re barely stepping out to a coffee shop class, an e-reader or iPad is a far lighter charge than a koran or a smokestack of them .

The price gap is closing. An e-book might be priced about the same as the paperback edition but less than the hardbacked. There ‘s besides the satisfaction of having an stallion library at your fingertips, not to mention an space provision equitable a chatter away, ready to download immediately .

In addition, e-book buyers have the advantage that the internet gives consumers of any products : No space constraints. Just about everything always published is available, all the meter.

There are some drawbacks. You must recharge an e-reader or any other electronic device. Some screens are not well clear in sunlight. And, if you are one of the millions who spend the entire workday in movement of a calculator, reading your darling generator on a computer screen door in the even may not appeal .

The Shrinking Price Difference

E-books are n’t much less expensive than their newspaper counterparts, at least when it comes to modern books from major publishers. Amazon, the dominant on-line bookseller, was forced by the major bible publishers to increase their e-book prices, raising prices by an average of $ 5 per e-book over time .

Publishers have to price in a significant amount of disk overhead, including position space, utilities, benefits, and salaries for employees. other costs include the print, edit, commercialize, and distribution march. merely some of the costs, particularly those related to print and distribution, disappear with e-book editions .

The disturb is, many readers assume that e-books should be free, or at least much cheaper than their print counterparts. Some publishers respond that printing a book accounts for only about 10 % of its cost. By eliminating this dance step, the price of a book would lone drop about $ 2.70, bringing the average price of a reserve down from about $ 27 to $ 24.30.

Beyond Amazon

Avid e-book readers can stray beyond Amazon or Barnes and Noble and read for rid .

The nonprofit organization Project Gutenberg offers 60,000 free downloadable books, most of them classics well beyond their copyright auspices termination dates. The web site Free Classic Books offers equitable that, in an alphabetize tilt from Alcott, Louisa M., to Wodehouse, P.G .

Google Books brags that it has more than 10 million books available to download for release, including textbooks and government documents equally well as literary classics .

The Initial Cost of E-Books

You do n’t have to buy an e-reader to read e-books. You can just use your laptop, an Apple iPad or other pill device, or even a phone app .

That said, Amazon ‘s e-readers are presently priced at around $ 89.99 to $ 279.99, with the upper end containing the entire features of a tablet. The Barnes & Noble Nook comes in a couple of versions starting at $ 119.99 .

Kobo readers, presently priced at about $ 133 to $ 168, are particularly designed for readers who borrow e-books from libraries. The Onyx Boox Note, at under $ 500, is a full pad built for students who need to wade through textbooks and documents .

special Considerations : The Publishing Business

E-books may omit some of the traditional costs of publish, but it imposes other costs. Added technology costs involve formatting the e-book so that assorted electronic devices and browsers can by rights download and store the ledger .

Whether it ‘s printed or downloaded, a share of the e-book monetary value must be paid to online sellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. This can be anywhere from 30 % to 50 % of the sale price .

The Independent Route

Smaller publishers and independent authors have more allowance with pricing, but they placid have many of the same costs. They must give a share of their e-book sales to the on-line distributor, and unless they are graphic designers, they must hire an illustrator to create their cover artwork .

Most independent authors have to hire person to convert their books into e-book format. Plus, they inactive have the marketing and promotional costs that are required to get their books noticed. however, e-books are overall lower in monetary value to produce, and that is typically reflected in their lower price than mark editions .