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Schools are also relying heavily on e-books during remote and hybrid education. Digital reading platform OverDrive reports an 80% increase worldwide in school e-book and audiobook usage.
The Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library saw dramatic increases in e-book and e-audiobook usage over the past eight years, but Holbrook Sample, chief technology and logistics officer, says usage spiked during the coronavirus pandemic. Year-over-year in November, for e-books themselves, we were up 23% and digital audiobooks were (a) 10-12% increase year-over-year, says Sample. We ve definitely seen a nice rise in usage of our digital collection.
The Kenton County Public Library is seeing a similar boom.
Surprise Ending for Publishers: In 2020, Business Was Good
With people stuck at home and so many other activities shut down, a lot of reading or at least a lot of book buying happened this year.
Barack Obama’s book “A Promised Land” was one of this year’s biggest hits.Credit.Cj Gunther/EPA, via Shutterstock
Dec. 29, 2020
Like everybody else, book publishers will be happy to see the end of 2020. But for many of them, the year has brought some positive news, which has been as welcome as it was surprising: Business has been good.
With so many people stuck at home and activities from concerts to movies off limits, people have been reading a lot or at least buying a lot of books. Print sales by units are up almost 8 percent so far this year, according to NPD BookScan. E-books and audiobooks, which make up a smaller portion of the market, are up as well.
Many Bookstores Still Raising Cash on GoFundMe By Ed Nawotka, Alex Green, and Claire Kirch | Dec 18, 2020
It is no secret that this holiday shopping season is a make-or-break period for many bookstores around the country. A survey by the American Booksellers Association in October revealed that, on average, one store closed each week this year. Recently, several bookstores like the Strand in New York City and Harvard Book Store in Boston took to social media to ask customers to come in and buy books to offset severe business declines caused by the pandemic. Other store owners have turned to crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe to raise money.
Move over Amazon: Bookshop.Org offers a way buy books online while supporting local bookstores
“If you are buying a book on Amazon, you are directly undermining your local small businesses and your local, small, independent book store.”
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San Antonio – Buying a book through Amazon may be cheap, but it does not support local, independent bookstores in San Antonio. That is where Bookshop.Org comes in, which offers a new way to buy a book that is just as easy as one-click shopping on Amazon, but sends money to local book stores all around the country.
“[Amazon is] able to offer books at such a competitively low price that they are undermining the publisher, the author, the local, independent book store and the local, independent book seller. So it is really unsustainable, and I would argue completely cannibalizing way to buy a book.”
The Last Bookstore in DTLA
From drowning in debt to lines out the door, local outlets have readjusted the way they do business nine months after the COVID-19 outbreak hit the U.S.
With COVID-19 cases rising and a new stay-at-home order in effect, indie bookstores in Los Angeles continue to tread water amid an overwhelming storm. Throw in the first holiday season of the pandemic era and bookstores are enduring even more challenges in what would usually be the most lucrative time of the year.
When The Hollywood Reporter last spoke to several bookstores in March at the start of the pandemic store owners were forced to cut staff, focus on online sales and ponder the idea of opening their doors again. Now nine months later and in the midst of the holiday season, local bookstores are open at 20 percent capacity and have found salvation by reinventing themselves and creating safe and enjoyable ways to remain connected to their communities.