What’s the one area of technology that I’m still relatively keen on? That’s right: e-books, but that’s because I like the idea of having several books on my person at all times in a device that fits inside my trousers. (The latest: The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze. Not an e-book, by the way, since I’m not made of money.) Devin, on the other hand, who also reads his share of books, is not as big a fan of the tech. We’re like The Odd Couple! Anyway, I bring this up because it looks like Dan Brown’s latest novel, The Lost Symbol, is the first book on record that is selling better on the Amazon Kindle than its hardcover counterpart. (Blah, blah, the death of books…)
So what’s going on here? Well, yes, the Kindle version has been outselling the hardcover version on Amazon, but as Fast Company wrote, Amazon isn’t the only book store out there. And since this is a Dan Brown book we’re talking about, you know it’s going to sell like crazy for some reason. (Ron, from Ron and Fez, recently described The Da Vinci Code as a chick flick of a book, but one that men can read without being embarrassed. I never read the book nor saw the movie, so I can’t speak to that.) I wouldn’t be surprised to see it on sale at the corner bodega once it hits paperback.
Never mind that the number of people who can read is greater than the number of people who can read and who can afford a Kindle.
The future, it will be written in an e-book.
today’s Crunchgear posts are brought to you by the word “Trousers”
but they’re the wrong trousers!
It’s been all week, actually. I’m not really sure if it’s some kind of virus over there or what…
I don’t know how well the Kindle version is selling but I hear the PDF version is doing is moving big numbers @ Mininova.
No way. There aren’t enough e-reader devices out there. The Da’Vinci Code has sold 81 million copies to date. There aren’t enough Kindle’s, Sony e-Readers and iPhones combined even if every owner of each bought a copy of this book.
I assume you are italics blind and that’s why you couldn’t see that the book Nick is talking about is The Lost Symbol which is Dan Brown’s new book. People are probably unaware that one out of every twenty adult internet users suffers from italics blindness.
It’s funny; if you watch the video on the Amazon page selling the book “the making of a 5 million copy book” it involves die cutters and printers and craftsmen and longshoremen…etc. The digital edition? requires one intern and one senior editor from Crunchgear. In that order.
I’m still getting the ebook, assuming the ratings are good. Dan Brown can’t write for shit but he’s still pretty entertaining.
I just hope they don’t sell out of the digital editions. Man, that would be tragic, wouldn’t it? People would have to buy books. Books are so last year. Who wants to get those papercuts, not to mention lug around the heavy thing. PSH. Ok, i’m done. (I’m not very funny)