eBooks are good for the economy

With all the talk about the economy and the stagnant unemployment rate, it's good to know that there are in fact parts of our economy that are doing well. eBooks are an integral part of the things in our economy that are going right. In some cases that means directly making money from sales, but in others it means supporting the larger economy as a source of information and a generator of other commerce.

Here are three ways:

1. Revenue: eBooks are responsible for almost $1 billion in growth in the trade publishing industry! "Trade publishing" is essentially everything you would find in a bookstore, but not ultra-specialty, training manuals, or textbooks. Total net book sales in the U.S. last year was $27.1 billion, and eBooks made up 20 percent of those net sales. In 2011, eBooks were 15 percent of net sales. No word on specifics about genres or specific markets, but the full report will come out in June.

2. Small Business: Any web savvy business has a free downloadable guide, whitepaper, or eBook on their website. These guides and eBooks are great for generating business, great for helping those who can't afford more expensive training, and generally good for the emerging web industry as it needs to train its own who are building their/our own future.

3. Authors: Whether self-published or from a large publisher, the fact that eBooks are an option means that people can and are still buying books. Without this option, books overall could easily become a "luxury" item that people just can't afford when they have to cut costs. The fact that people have embraced eBooks means that the idea of being an author is still viable, the idea of being an independent publisher is still an option, and the ecosystem exists for those of us who want to be authors to, in fact, be authors.

Image courtesy of Life Without Taffy via flickr