E-book sales overtake hardcovers in the US at last

The race between e-book and traditional hardcover book sales sparked off a few years ago, and at long last, e-books have finally overtaken hardcover books in terms of sales figures – at least in the US. This bit of news is brought to us by a report which was published by the Association of American Publishers (AAP). The figures pointed towards net sales revenue from e-books which exceeded that of hardcover books in the first quarter of 2012 – which is a first time achievement to date. The data does not include children’s books, and was compiled from 1,189 publishers.

The increase in percentage of e-book sales stood at 28.4% over a similar period from one year ago, while young adult and children’s ebooks had an even better performance, jumping by a whopping 233% to touch the $64.3 million figure. It would seem as the availability of electronic reading devices such as dedicated e-book readers as well as tablets helped fuel this jump, not to mention the migration of platforms as publishers offer an electronic option for potential readers. Personally, I prefer a physical book in my hands when I do my reading – how about you?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Tablets
Tags: e-book