Between 2011 and 2012, e-book sales in the U.S. increased 44.2%, according to a preliminary year-end report released Wednesday by Bookstats, a joint statistics project between the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group. However, this increase in e-book sales does not seem to have caused a decrease in print sales.
E-book sales accounted for 20% of trade book sales revenue in 2012, which rose 6.9% overall, the report states. Trade books are books found at traditional bookstores and online retail booksellers.
Although e-book sales almost doubled, print sales still made slight gains. Hardcover sales were up 1.3% from the year before, to $5.06 billion, and paperback sales rose 0.4%, to $4.96 billion. Bringing in $3.04 billion, e-books still ranked third in total revenue. Figures were not available yet for mass-market paperbacks, but those were expected to decline.
Although print sales did not decrease, the year saw a 7% decline in sales from traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores while online book sales rose 21.3%. Overall, publishing sales declined a little less than 1%. This drop was reportedly due to fallout from the 2008 recession that affected local and state school budgets, resulting in a contraction in the K-12 schoolbook market.
The report attributed much of the growth in e-book sales to a sharp increase in sales of children and young adult fiction, which increased 117% to $469 million. However, the dominant seller in the category is still adult fiction, which accounted for $1.8 billion in revenue.
Another format that saw big revenue gains was the downloadable audiobook, which had a 22% increase in revenues in 2012. Publishers attributed this increase to the popularity of mobile devices.
Bookstats said that overall growth in the trade publishing industry was due to certain strong releases, such as “Fifty Shades of Grey,” and the rising popularity of e-books. The growth was especially good news given the number of traditional bookstore closings in 2012. It was the first full year that Borders was nonexistent, following its bankruptcy in 2011.
Although print sales increased marginally, publishers said the numbers demonstrate a continuing shift away from print.
“You’re seeing an evolution in terms of the way that people are accessing content,” former chairwoman of the Book Industry Study Group and publisher of Sourcebooks Dominique Raccah told the New York Times. “Audio downloads are up, e-books are up. There’s a migration in format clearly occurring. Customers can now access books in a lot of different ways.”
Bookstats used data from 1,500 publishers, including six major publishing houses, to create its report. The statistics project will release further details of 2012 book sales in June.
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