Amazon’s first quarter figures are in and the clear winner is the Kindle. While the online retail platform posted a 19% increase in its media sales, the Kindle still won out as its top seller. While net sales increased 34% in this quarter, largely thanks to Amazon’s current bestselling item in the new Kindle Fire tablet, profits actually fell by 35% as Amazon invested in other projects, including the building of distribution centers and possibly the rumored Amazon brick-and-mortar stores. There have also been rumors of a new Kindle e-reader device in development.
On its publishing front, Kindle Direct Publishing continues to do well for the ebook retailer. Sixteen of the top 100 titles in the Kindle store are published through KDP, a strong push for self-publishing. Internationally, ebook sales were up 31% for the first three months. Amazon revealed that self-published ebook titles enrolled in its exclusive KDP Select program would share a portion of the $600,000 total for March sales, and sales are faring well enough that April will also have an additional cumulative $600,000 for authors.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
