40,000 E-Books a Day

40,000-a-day. That's how many e-books are getting downloaded through Stanza, the simple e-book platform for the iPhone/iPod. I've got 35 of them sitting on my iPod. All of them free, public domain or creative commons, and DRM-free.

40,000-a-day. If you are a publisher, think long and hard about that number.

The reason I have 35 books downloaded onto my Stanza is: a) it is easy, b) it is free.

What does this mean for your business model? I don't know, but I assure you that when I finish War & Peace, I'll be buying a hard copy. And I also assure you: I love reading on that little thing.

From GalleyCat:

Lexcycle, creators of the popular Stanza digital reader for mobile phones, announced today that their application has been downloaded 500,000 times -- reaching a vast readership in four months.

The application allows users to read books on the iPhone and iPod Touch, offering free downloads of titles that range from The Prince to Moby Dick. From the release: "Each day, over 40,000 books are downloaded wirelessly from Stanza's Online Catalog, which offers a wide range of free books and periodical content from a variety of sources in more than 20 languages." [more...]

Comments

[Paul]

Looks like publishers are going to be in the same boat as record companies.

The Internet eliminates the middle man. The author writes, the reader downloads.

No need for all those expensive printing presses and guys in suits.

[butterworth]

These are books that are old enough to be public domain. Just be glad people are still reading.