Ebooks increasingly factor into Canadian publishers’ revenue

A BookNet Canada report has found that ebook sales are becoming increasingly important to publishers’ total revenue, but fewer publishers now have dedicated digital staff, reports Publishers Weekly. The ‘State of Digital Publishing in Canada’ report, which charts Canadian ebook trends, found that 14% of publishers in 2015 said digital formats accounted for more than 30% of revenue, up from the eight percent who reported the same in 2013 and 2014. The majority of Canadian publishers (67%) reported that ebooks accounted for between one to 10 percent of revenue, down two percentage points from the 69% in 2014. The percentage of Canadian publishers simultaneously releasing ebooks also increased from 65% in 2014 to 67% in last year. The percentage of Canadian publishers with dedicated digital staff dropped in the past two years, from 44% in 2013 to 39% in last year. The report suggested the drop was because ‘digital and print processes are being aligned’ across many publishing houses, ‘which requires less focus on a dedicated digital staff’. Seventy-three percent of Canadian ebooks saw sales from any channel last year, a drop from 88% in 2014. The report speculates that this is due to a greater number of obscure titles entering the market as more publishers digitise their backlists.

Category: International news