Adult fiction ebooks
outsold hardcovers in 2011-survey
By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK, July 18 | Wed
Jul 18, 2012 5:49pm EDT
(Reuters) - Electronic
books more than doubled in popularity in 2011, with ebooks outselling hardcover
books in adult fiction for the first time, according to a survey released on
Wednesday.
Net sales of e-books
jumped to 15 percent of the market in 2011 from 6 percent in 2010, according to
a report by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study
Group. The groups compiled data provided by nearly 2,000 publishers.
Total overall U.S. book
market sales declined 2.5 percent to $27.2 billion in 2011 from $27.9 billion
in 2010, the report said.
While ebooks increased in
strength, bringing in more than $2 billion in 2011, the majority of publishers'
revenue still came from print books, with $11.1 billion in 2011.
"We're delighted to
see it (the report) affirm that the industry has remained steady, and has even
grown in some areas, in what continues to be a challenging economic time and
through such significant transformation," said Len Vlahos, executive
director of the Book Industry Study Group, in an email.
The publishing industry
has been more upbeat recently about the growth of ebooks, but the industry has
been fearful over the impact of Borders, once the second largest U.S. book
retailer, liquidating its 40-year-old business in September, as well as the
U.S. Justice Department suing Apple Inc and major book publishers in April over
fixing ebook prices.
Ebooks have been growing
in popularity for the past several years, even after major publishers were
initially slow to embrace digital formats.
According to the report,
in the adult fiction category, e-books accounted for 30 percent of total net
publisher sales compared to a 13 percent share the year before.
Adult fiction ebooks beat
hardcovers for the first time, however the combined print formats including
hardcover, trade paperback and mass market paperback still had more revenue
than ebooks.
"Ebooks have
demonstrated unprecedented acceptance among readers but the various print
formats remain dynamic as well, showing that consumers want options,"
Vlahos said.
Blockbusters such as
"The Hunger Games" helped the Children's Young Adult category
increase 12 percent to a total of $2.8 billion, while religious books rebounded
after a decline in 2009.
And, as traditional major
publishers such as the privately-held Macmillan Group fret over the strength of
online retailer and publisher Amazon Inc, the report found that
brick-and-mortar retail was still the biggest sales channel for publishers,
representing 31.5 percent of total net dollars. However that was down 12.6
percent from 2010.
As a comparison, online
retailers represented 13 percent of total net dollars, but grew 35 percent from
the year before.
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