Survey Shows Growing Strength of E-Books - NYTimes.com

E-books continued their surge in popularity last year, surpassing hardcover books and paperbacks to become the dominant format for adult fiction in 2011, according to a survey of publishers released Wednesday.

For several years, consumers have been rapidly switching from print to digital for reading novels, a sign of the growing strength of the e-book for narrative, straightforward storytelling.

Over all, digital books kept up their explosive growth in 2011, the survey confirmed. Publishers’ net revenue from sales of e-books more than doubled last year, reaching $2.07 billion, up from $869 million in 2010. E-books accounted for 15.5 percent of publishers’ revenues.

But as digital revenue grew, print sales suffered, dropping to $11.1 billion in 2011 from $12.1 billion in 2010.

The annual survey, known as BookStats, includes data from nearly 2,000 publishers of all sizes. It was conducted by two trade groups, the Book Industry Study Group and the Association of American Publishers.

The survey also revealed that revenue in the overall trade book business was relatively flat. Publishers’ net revenues in 2011 were $13.97 billion, up from $13.9 billion in 2010, an increase of 0.5 percent.

via Survey Shows Growing Strength of E-Books – NYTimes.com.

Strange Random Book Quote:

“So, please, oh please, we beg, we pray,

go throw your TV set away,

and in its place you can install,

a lovely bookcase on the wall.” ― Roald Dahl

 

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• Ebook sales way up in 2011; overall trade book sales roughly flat (paidcontent.org)
• Ebooks surpass hardcovers among adult fiction (seattlepi.com)

 

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