Ever since the introduction of the internet, almost every aspect of your life has changed. Science and technology have modified every part of our lives, and the habit of reading books is no exception.
Over the years, the way we read has changed. And this change has come over both leisurely reading and also academic reading.
There are numerous gadgets where we can read books, both academic and non-academic. The most popular among all these devices is the Kindle.
These articles will help the readers estimate the number of books purchased on Kindle and the performance of the various genres.
What is Kindle, and why is it so popular?
If you have internet access, it is improbable that you are unaware of what a Kindle is. They are all the rage right now, and Kindle is a series of e-readers that Amazon designed.
They were launched to the market a few years to booming success. Even though you can read books as PDFs on your personal computer, laptop, and phone, these devices specialize in giving the user the ultimate e-reading experience.
These mobile electronic devices come as close as an electronic gadget can come to an actual paperback or hardcover book. And each device contains many pre-downloaded e- books, and you can buy and download more if you want.
They are easily transportable, making them a huge favorite among bookworms. You can adjust the screen resolution and brightness to experience an original book.
What genres does Kindle sell, and how do they rank according to popularity?
Kindle houses a large number of literary genres. And the popularity of Kindle leads all of them to sell quite well. The most popular genres on Kindle are science fiction, romance, fantasy, mystery, non-fiction, children’s literature and historical fiction.
In the fiction category, fantasy is the most popular genre. In the non-fiction category, the books that sell the best are memoirs and autobiographies.
One can easily find the best-selling genre at that particular moment by navigating to the Amazon Bestseller Chart online. This will also help one know which genres are popular at that moment.
Number of books purchased on Kindle
Well, the number is always growing, as they are constantly incorporating more books. At the moment, there are about 48 Five million books on the Kindle platform.
This number has seen a steady rise since the introduction of Kindle e-books in 2007. Back in 2007, there were 88,000 e-books available.
When it comes to the number of e-books on Kindle, the date could be estimated up until 2018, but since then, the data has been beyond any access.
However, as of 2020, a million books are added to the Kindle platform every year. When it comes to sales, as of 2018, Amazon has sold about 20 million to 90 million e-books.
If you are a seller, you can also find out the number of copies a particular book has sold or the number of times it has been read by using the Amazon website.
Checking the numbers as a seller
As a seller of e-books, it is important to know which books or genres are doing well and how many people are reading them.
This can be done easily by going to the Seller Dashboard on the Kindle Publishing Website Amazon and checking the numbers.
There are tables and lists that you can check. First, you need to go to the Seller Dashboard. There, you will find two graphs and one table.
In order to set the filters, you can click on the drop-down menu and update the filters. You can set the filters according to author, format, time period and marketplace.
You can click the Update button for the most recent details. The two graphs are as follows:
- The KENP graph – KENP stands for the Kindle Edition Normalised Pages. It shows
the number of pages reads for Kindle Direct Publishing Select enrolled titles. - Units Ordered – This graph is concerned with showing the reader the number of
books or units that have been ordered or paid for. It shows three things: - Paid Units Ordered (e-book)
- Free Units Ordered (e-book)
- Paid Units Shipped (Paperback)
The table shows the royalties earned in all the marketplaces within the chosen time period. It
has the numbers for both paperback and hardcover units. The royalties for the hardcovers
and paperbacks update after they have been shipped.
A worrying sign
There are also some serious concerns regarding the popularity of e-books and the same of
Kindle devices. There has been a distinct rise in the popularity of e-books on Kindle during
the pandemic. This is quite evident from the sales as the sales rose by 11% from 2019 to - However, in 2021, sales saw a drop of about 3.7%. The numbers plummeted this year
as well, with each of the first three months seeing a steep drop. January saw a decline of
10.1%, followed by 6.9% in February and then 12.2% in March.
This drop was the most visible in the UK. The download of e-books has dropped to an all- time low since 2012. The numbers show that the sale of e-books was 95 million in 2020.
However, it saw a massive drop to 80 million in 2021. This is largely attributed to the rise in the cost of the Kindle device.
However, sales are supposed to pick up, according to reports. A statistical study In the first three years since it existed, Kindle had already seen a staggering rise or sales of e-books, by 1260%.
They had grossly outnumbered the sale of paperbacks and hardcovers. It saw the biggest rise in the 2010-2015 time frame, and this shows that barring occasional dips in popularity or a major debacle, e-books sales on Kindle will only increase yearly.
Conclusion
Thus, even though the rise and fall of the sale of books on Kindle, it is quite evident that the popularity of e-books is on the rise.
This is a positive sign as it proves that the interest of the general public in literature is not waning, and it is simply finding different media to manifest.
As the platform adds more and more genres and books, it is also expected to become more accessible to a larger array of people around the world.
Newer technology will also make e-books possess the ability to help the user experience real books, at least to an appreciable extent.
