Snapshot: May 1 2011
I generally run this information through eReaderIQ.com (it’s just easier than Amazon), and there are some vagaries in the searches (both there and on Amazon). I do try to run it the same way every time, so unless Amazon changes something, it should give you a pretty good idea. NOTE: This month, I’ve changed this explanation from saying “Jungle-Search.com” to “eReaderIQ.com”. It’s the same people and I assume the results are the same. eReaderIQ is just for the Kindle, Jungle-Search does Amazon generally. eReaderIQ has a slightly better interface for the searches.
Titles in the Kindle Store
Kindle Store Titles
May 1, 2011: 937,831
April 1, 2011: 897,663
March 1, 2011: 868,351
February 1, 2011: 828,708
January 1, 2011: 796,131
December 1, 2010: 768,865
November 1, 2010: 743,692
October 1, 2010: 714, 663
September 1, 2010: 687,246
August 1, 2010: 659,479
July 1 2010: 627,343
June 1 2010: 596,300
May 1 2010: 509,229
April 1 2010: 476,653
March 1 2010: 450,625
February 1 2010: 415,100
January 1 2010: 401,773
December 1 2009: 385,484
November 1 2009: 368,813
October 1 2009: 342,865
September 21 2009: 355,805
July 28 2009: 332,813
May 16 2009: 284,491
Approximate average of titles added per day:
May 1, 2011: 1,339
April 1, 2011: 946
March 1, 2011: 1,416 (corrected from last post)
February 1, 2011: 1,051
Taken January 1, 2011: 880 (average for December 2010)
December: 839
November: 968
October: 914
September: 896
August: 1,037
July: 1,035
May: 2,809 (may be affected by Penguin return)
April: 1,086
March: 840
February: 1,146
January: 430 (may be impacted by Macmillan removal)
December 2009: 525
November: 556
October: 837
Magazines:
May 1, 2011: 93
April 1, 2011: 86
March 1, 2011: 81
February 1, 2011: 80
January 1, 2011: 74
December 1, 2010: 83
November 1, 2010: 84
October 1, 2010: 80
September 1. 2010: 70
August 1, 2010: 64
July 1, 2010: 61
June 1, 2010: 60
May 1, 2010: 58
April 1, 2010: 53
March 1, 2010: 50
February 1, 2010: 46
January 1, 2010: 43
December 1, 2009: 40
November 1, 2009: 38
Newspapers:
May 1, 2011: 167
April 1, 2011: 164
March 1, 2011: 161
February 1, 2011: 156
January 1, 2011: 153
December 1, 2010: 148
November 1, 2010: 145
October 1, 2010: 144
September 1, 2010: 138
August 1, 2010: 135
July 1, 2010: 136
June 1, 2010: 133
May 1, 2010: 128
April 1, 2010: 118
March 1, 2010: 107
February 1, 2010: 93
January 1, 2010: 89
December 1, 2009: 76
November 1, 2009: 58
Blogs:
May 1, 2011: 12,901
April 1, 2011: 12,502
March 1, 2011: 12,080
February 1, 2011: 11,355
January 1, 2011: 11,087
December 1, 2010: 10,585
November 1, 2010: 10,255
October 1, 2010: 10,056
September 1, 2010: 10,036
August 1, 2010: 9,716
July 1, 2010: 9,429
June 1, 2010: 9,228
May 1, 2010: 9,094
April 1, 2010: 8,944
March 1, 2010: 8,754
February 1, 2010: 8,651
January 1, 2010: 7992
December 1, 2009: 7589
November 1, 2009: 7365
Percentage of books priced from one penny to $50 that are under ten dollars
April (taken May 1): 89.2% (769,798 of 862,970)
March (taken April 1): 88.9% (739,192 of 831,867)
February (taken March 1): 92.4% (752,043 of 814,009)
January (taken February 1): 88.9% (692,840 of 779,683)
December (taken January 1): 88.8% (663,315 of 746,963)
November (taken December 1): 88.8% (639,676 of 720,179)
October: (taken November 1): 88.8% (617,133 of 695,278)
September (taken October 1): 93.0% (589,877 of 634,375)
August: 88.2% (565,260 of 640,936)
July: 87.7% (522,046 of 595,370)
June: 87.1% (479,793 of 563,436)
May: 86.8% (462,359 of 532,646)
April: 84.8% (377,624 of 445,421)
March: 83.9% (413,302 of 346,665)
February: 84.2% (328,597 of 390,178)
January: 83.4% (295,634 of 354,499)
December: 83.1% (283,497 of 341,112)
November: 82.8% (268,366 of 324,230)
October: 82.2% (252,511 of 307,241)
September: 82.0% (239,666 of 292318)
August: 83.2% (245,524 of 295,210)
Percentage of books with a publication date of the previous month priced from one penny to $50 that are under ten dollars
Books for April: 96.2% (42,795 of 44,464)
Books for March: 96.1% (38,961 of 40,558)
Books for February: 94.7% (32,379 of 34,206)
Books for January: 95.9% (29,010 of 30,260)
Books for December, 2010: 95.2% (23,419 of 24,593)
Books for November: 96.4% (28,189 of 29.251)
Books for October: 94.6% (22,005 of 23,268)
Books for September: 94.7% (22,338 of 23,592)
Books for August: 95.6% (24,514 of 25,638)
Books for July: 95.3% (24,375 of 25,579)
Books for June: 94.9% (21,774 of 22,945)
Books for May: 94.9% (24,436 of 25,737)
Books for April: 95.9% (23,695 of 24,714)
Books for March: 96.0% (23,703 of 24,699)
Books for February: 96.5% (26,850 of 27,815)
Books for January: 93.3% (11,857 of 12,704)
Books for December: 90.6% (8,948 of 9,879)
Books for November: 94.1% (11,520 of 12,239)
Books for October: 91.2% (6,789 of 7,445)
Books for September: 91.0% (5,104 of 5,608)
Books for August: 96.4% (20,239 of 21,079)
Books in the Seventy Percent Royalty Range ($2.99 – $9.99)
May 1: 67.4% (631,871 of 937,831)
April 1: 67.5% (606,223 of 897,663)
March 1: 68.2% (592,077 of 868,351)
February 1: 67.7% (561,035 of 828,708)
January 1: 66.8% (532,092 of 796,131)
December 1, 2010: 66.9% (514,086 of 768,865)
November 1: 66.7% (493,644 of 743,692)
October 1: 68.2% (487,833 of 714,863)
September 1: 66% (453,408 of 687,246)
August 1: 58% (382,691 of 659,479)
July 1: 57.3% (359,361 of 627,343)
June 1: 57.1% (340,379 of 596,300)
May 1: 51.4% (261,869 of 509,229)
April 1: 51.1% (243,718 of 476,653)
March 1: 52.5% (236,418 of 450,625)
February 1: 50.8% (210,978 of 415,100)
Books from one penny to $2.98
May 1: 15.6% (146,540 of 937,831)
April 1: 16.2% (145,638 of 897,863)
March 1: 16.9% (147,076 of 868,351)
February 1: 18.1% (149,809 of 828,708)
January 1: 18.7% (148,681 of 796,131)
December 1, 2010: 18.5% (142,549 of 768,865)
November 1: 18.4% (136,964 of 743,692)
October 1: 17.9% (127,830 of 714,863)
September 1: 18.5% (127,165 of 687,246)
August 1: 21.1% (139,277 of 659,479)
July 1: 21% (131,432 of 627,343)
June 1: 20.5% (121,981 of 596,300)
May 1: 22.7% (115,756 of 509,229)
April 1: 21.6% (102,948 of 476,653)
March 1: 20.5% (92,180 of 450,625)
February 1: 20.4% (84,721 of 415,100)
Price Point Analysis of New York Times Hardback Fiction Equivalents
May 1, 2011
| 5/1/2011 | |
| 14.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 11.99 | |
| 11.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 9.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| Avg | $ 12.84 |
April 1, 2011
| 4/1/2011 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 11.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 11.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 11.99 | |
| 12.99 | |
| 9.99 | |
| Avg | 12.69 |
March 1, 2011
Average: $12.83
February 1, 2011
Average: $12.25
Agency Model average: $12.86
Non-Agency Model average: $9.99
January 1, 2011
Average: $12.52
Agency Model: $12.99
Non-Agency: $9.99
December 1, 2010:
Average: $12.78
Agency Model average: $13.52
Non-Agency Model average: $9.99
November 1, 2010:
Average: $12.83
Agency Model average: $13.59
Non-Agency Model average: $9.99
October 1, 2010:
Average: $12.38
Agency Model average: $12.79
Non-Agency Model average: $10.87
September 1, 2010:
Average: $12.52
Agency Model average $12.99
Non-Agency Model average $9.99
Textbooks in the Kindle Store
May 1, 2011: 9,193
April 1, 2011: 8,952
March 1, 2011: 8,633
February 1, 2011: 8,342
January 1, 2011: 7,926
December 1, 2010: 7,637
November 1, 2010: 7,355
October 1, 2010: 7, 162
September 1, 2010: 6,831
August 1, 2010: 6,661
July 1, 2010: 6,481
June 1, 2010: 6,249
May 1, 2010: 6,117
April 1, 2010: 5,973
March 1, 2010: 5,728
February 1, 2010: 5,673
January 1, 2010: 5,549
December 1, 2009: 4,892
November 1, 2009: 4,768
October 1, 2009: 4,633
September 24, 2009: 4,678
August 11, 2009: 4,381
Free books (including public domain)
May 1, 2011: 36,481
April 1, 2011: 33,469
March 1, 2011: 15,931
February 1, 2011: 15,947
January 1, 2011: 16,758
December 1, 2010: 16,708
November 1, 2010: 16,703
October 1, 2010: 16,702
September 1, 2010: 16,726
August 1, 2010: 20,634
July 1, 2010: 20,628
June 1, 2010: 20,590
May 1, 2010: 20,601
April 1, 2010: 20,619
March 1, 2010: 20,143
February 1, 2010: 19788
January 1, 2010: 19,802
December 1, 2009: 19,895
November 1, 2009: 18,547
October 1, 2009: 7,428
February 28, 2009: 7,401
Free books (without public domain)
May 1, 2011: 20,984
April 1, 2011: 17,832
March 1, 2011: 241
February 1, 2011: 240
January 1, 2011: 230
December 1, 2010: 183
November 1, 2010: 171
October 1, 2010: 161
September 1, 2010: 143
August 1, 2010: 621 (125 without Amazon Breakthrough nominees)
July 1, 2010: 599 (102 without Amazon Breakthrough nominees)
June 1, 2010: 559 (63 without Amazon Breakthrough nominees)
May 1, 2010: 556 (57 without Amazon Breakthrough nominees)
April 1, 2010: 560 (59 without Amazon Breakthrough nominees)
March 1, 2010: 67
February 1, 2010: 52
January 1, 2010: 53
December 1, 2009: 84
November 1, 2009: 64
October 1, 2009: 67
Spanish edition books*
May 1, 2011: 9,251
April 1, 2011: 8,362
March 1, 2011: 9,244
February 1, 2011: 8,608
January 1, 2011: 8.045
December 1, 2010: 5,839
November 1, 2010: 5,286
October 1, 2010: 4,982
September 1, 2010: 4,723
August 1, 2010: 4,623
July 1, 2010: 4,398
June 1, 2010: 4,078
May 1, 2010: 3,735
April 1, 2010: 3,383
March 1, 2010: 2,841
February 1, 2010: 2,548
January 1, 2010: 2,363
December 1, 2009: 3,483
Price Point Analysis
April 1, 2010 was “Agency Day”, when the pricing system for some of the largest trade publishers in the US changed. I’ve started tracking price points, to see how that is affecting things. These are not ranges: it’s how many books are at a specific price point.
| 4/1/2010 | |||
| Total | 476653 | ||
| Prime | 413032 | ||
| Under $10 | 346665 | ||
| 83.9% | |||
| Price Point | Count | Percentage | Diff |
| $ 0.99 | 43,993 | 9.17% | 0.01% |
| $ 1.99 | 7,704 | 1.61% | 0.00% |
| $ 2.99 | 14,560 | 3.03% | 0.00% |
| $ 3.99 | 17,390 | 3.62% | -0.02% |
| $ 4.99 | 9,758 | 2.03% | -0.01% |
| $ 5.99 | 2,691 | 0.56% | 0.00% |
| $ 6.99 | 1,800 | 0.38% | 0.00% |
| $ 7.99 | 10,927 | 2.28% | -0.25% |
| $ 8.99 | 1,312 | 0.27% | 0.00% |
| $ 9.99 | 51,857 | 10.80% | -0.26% |
| $ 10.99 | 191 | 0.04% | 0.00% |
| $ 11.99 | 196 | 0.04% | 0.00% |
| $ 12.99 | 308 | 0.06% | 0.00% |
| $ 13.99 | 93 | 0.02% | 0.00% |
| $ 14.99 | 806 | 0.17% | 0.00% |
| $ 15.99 | 114 | 0.02% | 0.00% |
| $ 16.99 | 67 | 0.01% | 0.00% |
| $ 17.99 | 43 | 0.01% | 0.00% |
| $ 18.99 | 21 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| $ 19.99 | 201 | 0.04% | 0.00% |
| $ 20.99 | 11 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| $ 21.99 | 11 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| $ 22.99 | 21 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| $ 23.99 | 5 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| $ 24.99 | 50 | 0.01% | 0.00% |
—
| 3/1/2011 | |||
| Total | 868,351 | ||
| Prime | 814,009 | ||
| Under $10 | 725043 | ||
| Price Point | Count | Percentage | Diff |
| $ 0.99 | 76,051 | 8.76% | -0.94% |
| $ 1.99 | 14,967 | 1.72% | -0.26% |
| $ 2.99 | 45,758 | 5.27% | 0.56% |
| $ 3.99 | 21,078 | 2.43% | -0.17% |
| $ 4.99 | 15,557 | 1.79% | 0.01% |
| $ 5.99 | 8,830 | 1.02% | 0.03% |
| $ 6.99 | 6,533 | 0.75% | 0.06% |
| $ 7.99 | 16,015 | 1.84% | 0.01% |
| $ 8.99 | 4,608 | 0.53% | 0.06% |
| $ 9.99 | 85,444 | 9.84% | 0.01% |
| $ 10.99 | 600 | 0.07% | 0.01% |
| $ 11.99 | 1,418 | 0.16% | -0.01% |
| $ 12.99 | 1,972 | 0.23% | 0.05% |
| $ 13.99 | 470 | 0.05% | 0.02% |
| $ 14.99 | 1,539 | 0.18% | -0.01% |
| $ 15.99 | 117 | 0.01% | 0.00% |
| $ 16.99 | 195 | 0.02% | 0.00% |
| $ 17.99 | 247 | 0.03% | 0.02% |
| $ 18.99 | 111 | 0.01% | 0.01% |
| $ 19.99 | 638 | 0.07% | 0.00% |
| $ 20.99 | 21 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| $ 21.99 | 106 | 0.01% | 0.01% |
| $ 22.99 | 23 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| $ 23.99 | 24 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| $ 24.99 | 405 | 0.05% | 0.00% |
—
| 4/1/2011 | |||
| Total | 897,663 | ||
| Prime | 831,867 | ||
| Under $10 | 739192 | ||
| Price Point | Count | Percentage | Diff |
| $ 0.99 | 71,036 | 7.91% | -0.84% |
| $ 1.99 | 15,994 | 1.78% | 0.06% |
| $ 2.99 | 50,033 | 5.57% | 0.30% |
| $ 3.99 | 23,986 | 2.67% | 0.24% |
| $ 4.99 | 20,374 | 2.27% | 0.48% |
| $ 5.99 | 10,560 | 1.18% | 0.16% |
| $ 6.99 | 7,422 | 0.83% | 0.07% |
| $ 7.99 | 18,354 | 2.04% | 0.20% |
| $ 8.99 | 4,436 | 0.49% | -0.04% |
| $ 9.99 | 96,211 | 10.72% | 0.88% |
| $ 10.99 | 766 | 0.09% | 0.02% |
| $ 11.99 | 1,383 | 0.15% | -0.01% |
| $ 12.99 | 2,122 | 0.24% | 0.01% |
| $ 13.99 | 506 | 0.06% | 0.00% |
| $ 14.99 | 1,519 | 0.17% | -0.01% |
| $ 15.99 | 172 | 0.02% | 0.01% |
| $ 16.99 | 225 | 0.03% | 0.00% |
| $ 17.99 | 403 | 0.04% | 0.02% |
| $ 18.99 | 199 | 0.02% | 0.01% |
| $ 19.99 | 568 | 0.06% | -0.01% |
| $ 20.99 | 45 | 0.01% | 0.00% |
| $ 21.99 | 152 | 0.02% | 0.00% |
| $ 22.99 | 21 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| $ 23.99 | 22 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| $ 24.99 | 104 | 0.01% | -0.04% |
| 5/1/2011 | |||
| Total | 937,831 | ||
| Prime | 862,970 | ||
| Under $10 | 769,798 | ||
| Price Point | Count | Percentage | Diff |
| $ 0.99 | 74,929 | 7.99% | 0.08% |
| $ 1.99 | 16,497 | 1.76% | -0.02% |
| $ 2.99 | 56,878 | 6.06% | 0.49% |
| $ 3.99 | 22,937 | 2.45% | -0.23% |
| $ 4.99 | 24,880 | 2.65% | 0.38% |
| $ 5.99 | 13,387 | 1.43% | 0.25% |
| $ 6.99 | 5,215 | 0.56% | -0.27% |
| $ 7.99 | 18,992 | 2.03% | -0.02% |
| $ 8.99 | 5,053 | 0.54% | 0.04% |
| $ 9.99 | 103,463 | 11.03% | 0.31% |
| $ 10.99 | 865 | 0.09% | 0.01% |
| $ 11.99 | 1,412 | 0.15% | 0.00% |
| $ 12.99 | 2,271 | 0.24% | 0.01% |
| $ 13.99 | 490 | 0.05% | 0.00% |
| $ 14.99 | 1,577 | 0.17% | 0.00% |
| $ 15.99 | 134 | 0.01% | 0.00% |
| $ 16.99 | 235 | 0.03% | 0.00% |
| $ 17.99 | 471 | 0.05% | 0.01% |
| $ 18.99 | 207 | 0.02% | 0.00% |
| $ 19.99 | 465 | 0.05% | -0.01% |
| $ 20.99 | 29 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| $ 21.99 | 172 | 0.02% | 0.00% |
| $ 22.99 | 34 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| $ 23.99 | 79 | 0.01% | 0.01% |
| $ 24.99 | 110 | 0.01% | 0.00% |
Summary
Content continues to climb, with a particularly sharp jump in average titles added to the US store per day…but other categories climbing as well. I would expect the store to hit one million titles by July. The percentage of books under $10 in the what I call the Prime Range rose a bit. New York Times bestseller fiction hardback equivalents rose some…there actually was one non-Agency Model book on the list (from Hyperion), which helped keep the prices down. The most price shifting appears to be in books under $10…$9.99 books saw a big jump as a percentage of the total. $2.99, $4.99, $5.99 also went up. I think the recent huge jump in “non public domain” free books may be a change in classification (a public domain book with new material, as is now required of publishers using Kindle Direct Publishing, is not actually public domain) but regardless, there has been a huge increase in free books in the last couple of months.
Data were drawn using http://www.ereaderiq.com. There are a number of possible sources of errors (eRi, Amazon, me), but these are probably pretty good. The same people now do eReaderIQ.com, and I may switch to that eventually. However, I’m reluctant to change my methods in order to maintain consistency.
- The free books referenced here are from the Kindle store: there are many other sources for free books
- My search for textbooks definitely has false positives (books that aren’t really textbooks). I search for -domain (to eliminate public domain titles, which would be older books, generall) textbook. That would find a book about textbooks, for example
- I searched for “Spanish edition” to find Spanish language books. That has some false positives as well
- I look at price percentages of books in the range of one penny to fifty dollars, to eliminate freebies and limit textbooks
- The price point analysis is for books at that specific price: it does not represent a range of prices
- I compared the percentage of price points in the Price Point Analysis when I showed the difference…not the number of books
- This information is based on what a United States customer sees
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
