CBS posted their Q2 financial report yesterday, and one of the high points was Simon & Schuster.
In spite of profits being down 3% last quarter ($183 million from $189 million Q2 2010), ebook revenues were up. They're now reported as being ~15% of revenue for that quarter. That works out to about $27.5 million, which is a pretty penny. It's more than double last year's reported sales.
Let me put the growth into perspective. Last year the US ebook market averaged around $30 million in reported sales each month. This means that S&S reported sales for Q2 would have been around a third of the ebook market for last year. Considering that they're significantly less than a third of the general book market, it should tell you how fast the ebook market has grown. Of course, the S&S figures are from the quarter ending in June and thus they are too new to be considered reliable.
On a related note, Pearson released their earnings report last week, and Penguin reported that ebooks were 15% of revenue.
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image by Alun Salt
[…] We know that already, of course. As the major publishers have reported their quarterly earnings recently, they’ve all touted vastly increased sales for e-books. Penguin says digital books make up 14% of its total sales, for example — up 128% from last year. And e-books now comprise 15% of Simon & Schuster’s revenue. […]
[…] In comparison, Penguin’s most recent numbers peg ebooks at 14% of revenue, while Simon & Schuster have reported 15%. […]
[…] sales are now counting for 17% of revenue at Simon & Schuster. That’s up slightly from last quarter, and it’s also about double whart S&S reported last […]
[…] growth. Penguin’s most recent numbers peg ebooks at 14% of revenue, Simon & Schuster have reported 15%, and Hachette reported ebook sales having tripled to around 20%.–To get more ebook news, […]