Your second sentence “despite the lack of interest from readers in ebooks” is what caught my attention and I don’t know where that comes from. It’s a rather blanket statement. One article you quote dated 2019 makes ebooks seem like they came out last year when the kindle came out in 2007.

Numbers lie all the time. The ABA constantly ‘jukes the states’ to quote The Wirte. I know agents who flat out lie about the size of book contracts in PW. I’ve been hearing that eBooks are plateauing or dropping since they were introduced; what has kept publishers afloat the past decade, other than profits from eBooks? I always look at who produces the numbers and what their goal is.

Again, how are KU pages counted? They aren’t. How are indies counted? They aren’t. The only organization that knows numbers on Amazon is Amazon and they aren’t telling.

Bottom line is none of it really matters except for each author and publisher’s own situation. I know authors who make a killing on hardcover due to hardcore fans. Authors who sell 95% ebook. Authors who do great with audio.

I see two books on your author page on Amazon. You write a lot on Medium about publishing and writing and your message is on target. This is indeed a business and I’ve watched 99% of my peers disappear over the years by not taking that seriously.

But after three decades in publishing, across the spectrum, and in the world, “numbers” lie all the time. Going digital has been the answer for over a decade in publishing and longer than that in music. There is also, as you say, a great lack of diversity.

Thanks for the information.