Srishti Khanna is never without a book. A literature teacher in a Delhi college, the 27-year-old's room is overflowing with contemporary and classic novels, books on history, literary theory, and philosophy. And so is her e-book reader. However, in the year-and-a-half that she has had the reader, which she keeps encased in a black, book-like cover, she has not bought a single e-book. "They're all available online for free. And anyway, if I have to buy a book, I might as well buy a hard copy," she says.
More and more Indians may be getting comfortable with online buying, but that has not translated into comfort with paying for e-books. Publisher Penguin Random House says that e-books constitute about 1% of their total book sales currently. Flipkart and Amazon did not share numbers regarding e-book sales, though Amazon, which produces and sells the Kindle e-book reader, said that the market for e-books in India was still "incipient". Flipkart, meanwhile, cited industry reports to say that in the next three to four years, e-books could constitute about 25% of the total book sales in India. However, globally too, e-book sales have flattened out. According to the new report from the Bookstats Project, US publishers raked in $3 billion from e-book sales last year, which is nearly unchanged from 2012. "Low internet penetration, low confidence levels on credit card usage, a lack of subscriber billing facility or mobile commerce and, ironically, a lack of knowledge of e-books are among the hindrances to growth," says Ananth Padmanabhan, senior VP (sales), Penguin Random House. Digital marketing professional Karthik Srinivasan feels the lopsided pricing could be making people go in for free downloads over torrents or through websites hosting the latest books in PDF format. "The price difference between a physical book and an e-book on some stores is very low. Moreover, the perceived value of something comes down if it can be replicated. People see anything "e-" as replicable — be it music, or books," he says.
On Flipkart's e-books section, one can find a digital copy of Fifty Shades Darker priced at Rs 254. The physical book is available for Rs 250.
More and more Indians may be getting comfortable with online buying, but that has not translated into comfort with paying for e-books. Publisher Penguin Random House says that e-books constitute about 1% of their total book sales currently. Flipkart and Amazon did not share numbers regarding e-book sales, though Amazon, which produces and sells the Kindle e-book reader, said that the market for e-books in India was still "incipient". Flipkart, meanwhile, cited industry reports to say that in the next three to four years, e-books could constitute about 25% of the total book sales in India. However, globally too, e-book sales have flattened out. According to the new report from the Bookstats Project, US publishers raked in $3 billion from e-book sales last year, which is nearly unchanged from 2012. "Low internet penetration, low confidence levels on credit card usage, a lack of subscriber billing facility or mobile commerce and, ironically, a lack of knowledge of e-books are among the hindrances to growth," says Ananth Padmanabhan, senior VP (sales), Penguin Random House. Digital marketing professional Karthik Srinivasan feels the lopsided pricing could be making people go in for free downloads over torrents or through websites hosting the latest books in PDF format. "The price difference between a physical book and an e-book on some stores is very low. Moreover, the perceived value of something comes down if it can be replicated. People see anything "e-" as replicable — be it music, or books," he says.
On Flipkart's e-books section, one can find a digital copy of Fifty Shades Darker priced at Rs 254. The physical book is available for Rs 250.
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