Kindle Beats Paper in Online Sales of Top Book

I knew the e-reader revolution was on the horizon, but I didn't realize that the horizon was right in front of my nose. The Kindle version of Dan Brown's new thriller The Lost Symbol is out-selling the hardback version on Amazon. How is that possible? E-readers are not even close to being mass market. Total e-reader ownership is something in the realm of two to three million. Who's got explanations?

Paid Content said part of the digital lead

is probably attributable to the fact that the hardcover version has been available for longer than the digital copy; the print The Lost Symbol already spent 150 days as one of Amazon's top 100 books in the thriller category, compared to the Kindle copy, which has held the top spot for just two--meaning demand for the print version could already be satiated.

There's also the pricing factor; the hardcover book costs more--and users have to pay for shipping.

Despite their smaller market size, it would make sense for Kindle buyers and owners to be more voracious readers. Indeed, their literary voraciousness was probably what encouraged them to buy an expensive Kindle in the first place. Moreover, if you spend $299 on a e-reader you'll be more likely to seek out and buy books to retroactively justify the purchase. In this way, I expect that merely owning a Kindle increases ones propensity to be on the look out for books to purchase and fill up the memory space you've already spent hundreds of dollars to purchase.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/09/kindle-beats-paper-in-online-sales-of-top-book/26732/