Rising eBook sales almost make up for decline in old-fashioned paperbacks. Sales of eBook novels quadrupled last year, almost making up for the sharp decline in sales of old-fashioned physical books, new figures from the book industry show.
The sales increase of £54 million almost entirely made up for the £57 million decline in sales of traditional paperback novels. According to the PA’s new Statistics Yearbook, sales of physical books were £489 million in 2011, down from £546 million the year before.
However this decline was almost entirely compensated for by the 330 per cent increase in sales of e-novels. Total fiction sales – including both physical and digital books – fell by £3 million to £559 million. A sharp decline in sales of physical fiction titles has been almost entirely accounted for by sales of ebooks.
eBook sales have been boosted over the last year by strong sales of erotic fiction. This is due to the lack of a book sleeve on an reader, which ensures that the book being read remains anonymous.