November 2010 E-Book Sales: $46.6M

November 2010 E-Book sales: $46.6M

Another month, another record for e-book sales, as November 2010 e-book sales clock in at $46.6M, above October’s $40.7M and July’s record $40.8M. Sales in November are up 129.7% from last November, slightly less than the overall year-to-year increase of 165.6%, but ahead of October’s 112.4%.

The post from Publishers Weekly goes on to say that sales for the first 11 months of 2010 total $391.9M, which is slightly higher than the total of the monthly numbers they’ve provided (listed below, which add up to $382.2M). Either way, it’s well above 2009’s year-end total of $165.8M, and that doesn’t even include the numbers from December, which I’d expect to be a new record, based on reports of several million people unwrapping new e-readers this holiday season.

• Jan 2010: $31.9 M
• Feb 2010: $28.9 M
• Mar 2010: $28.5 M
• Apr 2010: $27.4 M
• May 2010: $29.3 M
• June 2010: $29.8 M
• July 2010: $40.8 M
• Aug 2010: $39.0 M
• Sep 2010: $39.9 M
• Oct 2010: $40.7 M
• Nov 2010: $46.6 M

I haven’t seen the numbers yet for mass-market paperback sales for November (the post merely said they were decreasing the fastest of all categories, at -14%), but they were $60.2M in October. Could we see $60M monthly e-book sales in December 2010? If not, how about Jan 2011 (when the effect of all those new e-readers may really be felt)? I don’t think it will be long before e-book sales catch or overtake mass-market.

UPDATE: The full numbers are in, and mass-market paperback sales for November are down 9.5% for the month and 14.0% year-to-date, at only $47.7M, just a couple percent higher than e-book sales for the month.