- Percentage of bestselling ebooks sold in May 2015 that came from major publishers: 27
- Percentage of bestselling ebooks sold in Nov. 2015 that came from major publishers: 18
- Average price point of bestselling ebooks sold in May 2015 from major publishers: $8.22
- Average price point of bestselling ebooks sold in Nov. 2015 from major publishers: $9.47
- Average price point of bestselling ebooks sold in May 2015 from everyone else: $4.58
- Average price point of bestselling ebooks sold in Nov. 2015 from everyone else: $4.57
- Percentage of patrons who have read an ebook in the past year: 44
- Percentage of patrons who borrowed an ebook in the past year: 25
- Percentage of patrons happy with the ebook selection at their library: 51
- Percentage of patrons who listened to an audiobook in the past year: 12
- Percentage of patrons who borrowed an audiobook in the past year: 9
- Percentage of the global ad market spend devoted to TV in 2015: 38.4
- Percentage devoted to digital media in 2015: 31.8
- When digital media ad spend is anticipated to overtake TV ad spend: 2017
Sources: “Huge, Untracked Shadow Industry” in E-Books; New Study Finds Low Levels of Digital Library Borrowing; Digital Ad Spending Expected to Soon Surpass TV
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
