Cornell University has reported that book digitisation could boost demand for hard copies.
When the Google Books project digitised and made over 25 million texts available for free over two decades ago the decision provoked dissenting gasps and grumbles from authors and many established publishers.
However, recent research from Cornell’s Imke Reimers suggests that digitisation may be the driving force behind a rise in demand for physical books.
The key findings from Cornell showed that digitisation can increase demand through online discovery, leading to an 8% increase in physical book sales. It was discovered that less well-known books saw larger sales increases, which even extended to non-digitised publications by digitised authors.
A total of 37,743 books (scanned between 2005 and 2009) were examined by Cornell researchers. They evaluated sales data from the two years prior to and two years following the digitization period and discovered significant variations in the probability of higher sales for the digitised and nondigitized groups. Sales of almost 40% of digitised titles increased!
Link: cornell.edu
Main Image credit: Dom J (CC); Cornell University Students Image credit: Keira Burton
Neil Mach: https://books2read.com/u/mVekR2
Max Writivity Club 