Four days ago (which is something akin to 17 years in internet time) I put up a poll in which I asked people "Where do you buy your genre ebooks?" You can find the original poll here and still vote if you so desire, but the votes petered off a couple days ago so I figured I'd post the results.

I'm sure I missed a couple notable ebook vendors like Google Play, though I have the feeling that their market share is negligible.

Now, 279 isn't a huge sample. I know. And I'm sure there are variables. I posted said poll on Twitter and Facebook and Reddit's r/fantasy and I'm guessing that my sample skewed quite young (even younger than the average ebook buyer). There is certainly a huge margin of error. I'm going to just pretend I don't know anything about polling and statistics - because I don't - and just forge ahead with some observations.

A lot of Twitter friends are exclaiming surprise over the 13% who say they prefer to pirate. I'm not all that surprised about it. Pirating work is not uncommon and what harm is there in answering the affirmative on an anonymous poll?

I don't like the idea of such a high percentage but I don't really see the need to get worked up about the whole thing. I'm certain that some of those are people who buy the hardcover and feel entitled to a free ebook. Some of those are people who want to sample and will then buy a hard copy. And the majority are those that just aren't going to pay money for it anyways so hey, maybe they'll at least tell their friends.

Of course Amazon has the lion's share. Which comes as a surprise to exactly nobody. As you'll see below, Amazon has a much bigger piece of the cake of my own short story.

In order to compare this to something else, I put it up next to the only other data set I have access to: the ebook sales for "The Girl of Hrusch Avenue." Which are thus:

Amazon: 90.7%

Nook: 7%

Kobo: 1.5%

Direct: 0.7%

I don't sell on iBook or Sony Reader, nor do I have an "other" column. Obviously I don't have access to pirate numbers although I have to say skimping on $.99 is pretty damn cheap. The Nook is spot on, but the Kobo and Direct sales are off. Now, TGoHA is a short story so that may have something to do with the way people decide to buy it, if at all.

Anyways, I'd be interested in seeing a take on this from other authors who have access to ebook numbers of their own. Do you have similar results? Will you share them (not the numbers themselves, but the percentage of sales maybe)?