Paperback…um…what is that again? (I should ask paperback, or HARDBACK) I believe most people have forgotten. I mean, since An Unexpected Performance came out about a year ago, I have only ever sold them by hand. At signings. The rest of my sales have been electronic. Yep. Digital copies are ALL my sales, not paperback.

In August of 2012, Amazon reported that sales of Kindle books (ebooks that display properly on the Amazon Kindle Fire) have surpassed the sales of paperback books. This report was published by Amazon’s UK site that states, “for every 100 paper books sold, 114 books are downloaded.” In fact, users currently buy more Kindle books than paperback and hardcopy books combined. – See more at: http://www.selfpublishebooks.com/ebook-sales.html

And that is from 2012, y’all. Almost three years ago. Trust me, the gulf has only widened.

So, the question lingers, are paperback books still a viable option for the author to produce?

I mean, you have to create a totally separate cover, formatting is a little different, and then you have to load it into Amazon, and price it, and all that jazz. Is it really worth the trouble?

My opinion? Yes. But only for those occasions such as I have been selling mine, at book signings, cons, etc. — The rest of the time, the ebook is going to be the way most people consume the work. Why fight progress?

Also, there are so many great things you can do with a digital version! But that is a post for another day…