The ebook industry has not exactly plateaued yet, but it seems to be holding relatively steady. The AAP released new data today to give us a sense of how the publishing industry fared in the first quarter of 2013.
The overall ebook market increased its net worth by 5%, garnering $393.6 million from $374.8 million in 2012. Audiobook sales have also increased by 14% and raked in $28.3 million, compared to the $24 million in 2012. Sales of adult fiction ebooks increased by 13%, but children’s digital editions declined by 30%.
If we look outside North America, electronic books now account for 14.5% of the entire publishing industry’s revenue. The top countries contributing to ebook sales were the UK, Australia, Germany, France, Norway, and Switzerland. Germany showed the greatest year-on-year revenue gains, while New Zealand, Spain, Italy, South Africa, and Brazil also contributed significant ebook revenue gains.
Many US publishers we spoke to are not surprised about these new industry figures. Ever since the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon has dissipated, we have not really seen any one title contribute a copious amount of sales. Publishers for the most part now have a dedicated infrastructure in place and sales have stabilized. Barnes and Noble may suffer the most from these new figures as the company puts a heavy emphasis on Nook Kids and this genre has seen the highest decline in sales.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
