You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Publishers must step up production of e-books if they are to meet growing demand, warned Waterstone's head of e-commerce David Kohn.
Kohn told delegates at the retailer's supplier conference on Friday that there were "not enough good [e-books] books available".
The retailer has sold more than 30,000 Sony Readers since it was launched in the United Kingdom in September. It has sold more than 75,000 e-books via its website.
Kohn added: "The huge success of this has been a bit of a surprise. On Christmas Day, e-books outsold physical books on the website."
However, he argued that there was not enough supply of titles to match demand. He said: "If one thing is holding [e-books] back it’s the fact that not enough e-books are out there. When you are publishing a new title there should be an e-book alongside it. There should also be more good back catalogue e-books."
He added that publishers needed to make e-books more price competitive as, "customers don’t understand why e-books aren’t cheaper than the physical book".
Kohn said that the retailer had received more feedback on the Reader than any other product Waterstone's sold. He said it attracted a "surprisingly high" percentage of older people and slightly more men buy the device than women. Kohn added: "It does appeal to the mid to heavy book buyer, perhaps not the most literary but not a 1–2 book a year customer.”
Kohn said that the most popular genres have been crime and thrillers and "lighter" literary fiction.
Waterstone's became the third high street retailer to sell an e-book reader in September after Borders and W H Smith began selling the iRex iLiad. The Sony Reader sells for £224 on Waterstone's website.