We try to time this so people in all times zones can get a selection from the two million plus free eBooks or the 125 thousand commercial eBooks [just ask for a discount] right up to the last minute of Tuesday.
At this time we are estimating one million downloads a day on the average, but because some of the books require files in multiple numbers, instead of estimating 32 million, for the 32 days from Jul. 4 through Aug. 4, we prefer to do an estimate of a more conservative nature.
100 Million Total World eBook Fair Books Downloaded
However, even with such conservative estimates, we have an overall estimate of having given away 100 million eBooks–in the three years and one month since we first began.
We will endeavor to present more exact statistics after we have had some time to work them up in more detail.
100 Million More eBooks Downloaded From Project Gutenberg
In addition to these 100 million eBooks given away in this 37 month period, Project Gutenberg has equaled this via a monthly total averaging about 2.7 million.
2.7 million/month x 37 months = ~100 million eBooks
Next year these grand totals will likely be expressed in a terminology of fractions of a billion, as 200 million is a fractional equivalent to 1/5 billion, which should surpass 1/4 billion [250 million] next year, and we should surpass 1/3 billion [333 million] the year after if we are lucky.
It might take one extra year to 1/2 billion [500 million].
This is including eBooks given away ONLY VIA TWO SITES: www.worldebookfair.org and www.gutenberg.org
It does not include: www.gutenberg.cc or any of the many other Project Gutenberg sites worldwide or any estimate of how many people who download these book titles then proceed to give them to others.
The whole point of such sites is to hand out eBooks to the world at large, with no restrictions on give them to other people free of charge.
It is our hope via this Unlimited Distribution philosophy, to put so many free eBooks into circulation that no one is ever going to be able to count them.
Given that nearly 4.5 billion people now have cell phones, activated cell phones, not counting the billion that could be used as eReaders without activation, or with WiFi, this literally accounts for one cell phone for ever person this planet contains of a reasonable reading age, and the total cell phone count continues to escalate.
Thus there is absolutely no reason an eBook may not travel to every person who might ever want to read it.
The Future Is Now!
Michael S. Hart