Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Take it with some salt, but over at Amazon the ebook version of “Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown is outselling the hardcover.  Could this be the watershed moment for publishers looking to cut back on production costs of books?  Could it be consumers have finally fallen for the diminutive ebook readers like the Kindle?

Maybe, maybe not.  Amazon, while being the world’s largest book retailer, isn’t the end all, be all on this.  Their numbers surely include presales and if the Kindle version stays a number one much longer, it won’t be when the dust settles.  Why?  There just are not enough Kindles out there.  Kindle’s high price has stunted growth and while other manufacturers have tried to bring the costs down, it just isn’t happening quickly.

This is noteworthy no matter who ends up on top.  The fact that the Kindle version is selling better at any point in time is enough to make publishers take note.  Future releases will most assuredly include clever Kindle and other ereader tie-ins and will become part of their marketing strategy.  This will be known as the Kindle shot heard around the world.

Read: [Kindle Nation Daily] and [Fast Company]