There is strong momentum in the USA’s world of ebooks. Sales nearly doubled from 2010 to 2011, and ebooks now account for over 30% of all Trade-Fiction! BookStats compiled a recent report, which examines US publishers’ annual net sales revenues and net units. Their research does a good job at tracking sales from all adult fiction, non-fiction, and kids books. Recently the company stated that ebook sales rose from $869m, or 6% of trade, in 2010 to $2.1bn, or 15% of net revenues, in 2011. eBook units also more than doubled, from 125m e-books to 388m.
The strongest growth in publishing right now would be Adult Fiction ebooks, capturing 30% of total net publisher dollar sales. In 2010, ebooks had ranked fourth among the individual print and electronic categories with 13% share, but in 2011 adult fiction ebooks’ revenue was $1.3bn, growing by 117% from $585m in 2010. This translated to 203 million units sold, up 238% from 85m in 2010. The combined print formats still represented the majority of publishers’ revenue in the adult fiction category, at $2.8bn. Publishers’ net sales revenue for the trade sector was $14bn for 2011, as compared to $13.9bn for 2010.
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.
