US digital book sales exceed hardcovers

Quarterly sales of digital books in the United States surpassed that of physical hardcovers for the first time. The sale of e-books shows an upward trend, which seems to be at the expense of the sale of ‘real’ books.

In the first quarter, e-books were sold for $282.3 million, while adult hardcovers were sold for $229.6 million. According to the Association of American Publishers, which collects data from 1189 publishers, it is the first time that e-books have generated more sales than hardcovers.

Revenue from the sale of e-books rose by more than 28 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. Sales of hardcovers have to settle for a meager increase of 2.7 percent. Although sales of hardcovers have increased slightly, sales of paperbacks have fallen sharply. Paperback sales fell 10.5 percent to $299.8 million. If this trend continues, e-books could also generate more revenue than paperbacks in the second quarter, although the total physical book market will remain larger than the digital one.

A striking detail in the released figures is the increase in turnover from downloadable audiobooks. Although the share of audiobooks on the market is not much, this turnover has increased by almost 33 percent to 25 million euros. According to the AAP, this may be due to the popularity of smartphones and other portable devices, MediaBistro writes.