Top Selling eBooks of 2004 Announced
Strong Q3 in 2004 with Double Digit Sales
Increase Over 2003
New York, NY – Wednesday,
January 12, 2005 –The Open eBook Forum (www.openebook.org)
released its annual list of Top Selling eBooks today. Dan Brown dominated the
2004 list with The Da Vinci Code topping the list and Brown’s Angels &
Demons and Deception Point rounding out the top three. At the same
time, the industry reported continued growth, with eBook revenues for the third
quarter of 2004 up 25% and eBook units sold up 11% over the same quarter in
2003. The bestseller list and quarterly eBook Statistics Report were both
released by the Open eBook Forum (OeBF), the industry trade and standards
organization.
"We are very pleased to
have so many eBooks on this year's bestseller list," said Claire Israel,
Director of ePublishing and eCommerce at Simon & Schuster. "eBooks are a way
for our authors to reach their avid fans in a new and innovative way. Simon &
Schuster is excited to offer book lovers a choice to use the latest technology
when they read. We hope to connect more readers to our authors in the future
using eBooks."
The OeBF 2004 eBook
Bestseller List includes the bestselling eBooks reported from the leading eBook
retailers and distributors including eBooks.com, eReader.com, Fictionwise.com,
Mobipocket.com and OverDrive. The top 10 bestselling eBooks were:
-
The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown (Doubleday - $14.95)
-
Angels & Demons
by Dan Brown (PocketBooks - $6.99)
-
Deception Point
by Dan Brown (PocketBooks - $6.99)
-
Digital Fortress
by Dan Brown (St. Martin's Press - $5.99)
-
Darwin's Radio
by Greg Bear (Del Rey - $6.99)
-
Holy Bible, New International Version
- International Bible Society (Zondervan - $14.99)
-
I, Robot by
Isaac Asimov (Spectra - $4.99)
-
Electronic Pocket Oxford English
Dictionary & Thesaurus Value Pack (Oxford University
Press - $19.95)
-
Darwin's Children
by Greg Bear (Del Rey - $6.99)
-
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate®
Dictionary (Merriam-Webster - $25.95)
Scott Adams, the creator of
the popular Dilbert cartoon strip and books, stated,
"eBooks have been a substantial portion of my
total book sales. I've reached a lot of readers who don't like the higher cost
of hardcover books." Mr. Adams’
self-published eBook version of God’s Debris is #19 on the bestseller
list.
A significant percentage of
the eBook bestsellers for 2004 can also be found on year-end print bestseller
lists indicating eBook purchasing is following the diversity of mainstream
reading habits. The full 30 bestsellers for 2004 can be found on the OeBF
website at
http://www.openebook.org/bestseller/year04.htm.
“The
bestsellers tell only part of the success story of eBooks in 2004,” stated Mike
Violano, Vice President and General Manager of eReader.com. “Customer purchases
continue to reflect vastly growing interests across many subjects; in fact, more
than 7,000 titles have sales in any given month at eReader.com.”
The OeBF also released today
details of its Q3 eBook Statistics Report. Compiled from data submitted by 23
of the world’s leading eBook publishers and retailers, the findings revealed:
Retailers
- Revenues: $3,227,972 in
sales have been logged by retailers in Q3 2004, a 25% increase over the same
period in 2003 during which time retailers reported $2,591,469 on sales of
eBooks.
- Unit Sales: A total of
419,962 eBooks were sold in Q3 2004 alone, an 11% increase over the same
period in 2003, during which time 377,095 units were sold.
A detailed report of the
full survey findings and archived reports from 2002, 2003 and 2004 are available
to OeBF Members only and companies who contributed to the reports. Details on
OeBF membership can be found at
http://www.openebook.org/membership.htm. The OeBF is now offering a 20% discount on first-year
membership dues through January 28th, 2005 which will grant access to
the reports.
Publishers and retailers
that contributed to the 3rd quarter 2004 survey are: eBooks.com; Elib; Ellora’s
Cave Publishing, Inc.; eReader.com; Fictionwise, Inc.; Franklin Electronic
Publishers; Hard Shell Word Factory; HarperCollins; Holtzbrinck Publishers;
Houghton Mifflin Company; Laridian, Inc.; McGraw-Hill Professional;
Mobipocket.com; Numilog; OverDrive, Inc.; Pearson Education; powells.com; RAND
Corporation; Random House; Simon & Schuster; Stonehouse Press; Time Warner Book
Group and Zondervan.
By comparison, publishers
and retailers that contributed to the 3rd quarter 2003 survey were: Biblesoft,
Inc.; Dell Magazines; Double Dragon Publishing; eBooks.com; Elib AB; E-Reads;
Fictionwise, Inc.; Franklin Electronic Publishers; Hard Shell Word Factory;
HarperCollins Publishers; Holtzbrinck Publishers; Houghton Mifflin Company; John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.; Laridian, Inc.; Logos Research Systems, Inc.; Love Kush
Publications; Mobipocket.com; Numilog.com; OverDrive; Palm Digital Media;
powells.com; RAND Corporation; Random House; Seattle Book Company; Simon &
Schuster; The McGraw-Hill Companies; Time Warner Book Group; University of
California Press; WORDsearch Corp and Zondervan.
The statistical reports
released by the OeBF represent aggregate statistics submitted by reporting
companies and does not represent the entire eBook publishing and retail
industries. Participating companies that report to the program vary quarter by
quarter and the report reflects this variability. Members of the media who
would like access to the full report and charts should contact Nick Bogaty at
212-924-9081 or nbogaty@openebook.org
About the Open eBook
Forum:
The Open eBook Forum,
www.openebook.org, is an international non-profit trade and standards
organization for the electronic publishing industry. The organization is
supported by membership dues and the generous support of Adobe Systems, Inc.,
Microsoft Corporation, OverDrive, Inc. and eReader.com.
An OeBF member list and membership information can be found on the OeBF Web site
at www.openebook.org.
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