FORMAT WARS: eBooks won’t kill physical books but it may knock
off a few formats  Another week brings another article in a
major newspaper about the death of physical books ( and
therefore bookshops). Predictions of how much of the market
eBooks will take up varies from 5%-50% but most predictions
neglect to mention that this will vary from genre to genre,
fiction to non-fiction, kids books and so on. Romance and
paranormal fiction currently dominates eBook sales and
children’s books and illustrated non-fiction sales are
practically non-existent. Rather than eBooks cannibalizing
physical books sales leading toward “extinction” I think what is
really under threat is the traditional publishing model of
multiple formats for books.  Traditionally a new release book is
published in hardcover followed by a paperback edition 12 months
later, on average at half the price (hb $50 – pb $24 on
average). In Australia we have slightly changed this model with
the Trade Paperback (tp $33) which has slowly replaced the hardc