Penguin has divulged their 2011 sales today and the company has experienced tremendous growth in the digital department. eBook sales accounted for over 12% of the companies yearly sales and made them around 152 million dollars. Although sales for digital content seems to be increasing every year it is still a drop in bucket for their print business. During the course of 2011 they made over 1.4 billion dollars in sales.
Penguin chairman and c.e.o. John Makinson called 2011 “the most turbulent book market that anyone can remember”, but said the company’s growth had been driven by “excellent publishing around the globe, demonstrated by market share growth in our three biggest markets, and innovation in every aspect of our digital publishing”.
Part of the success of Penguin’s digital strategy is not only selling cut and dry ebooks through various bookstores but is focusing on enhanced ebooks. One of their big tests was with Jack Kerouac’s seminal ‘On the Road’ which features audio and video content. They also launched a new program called ‘Penguin Shorts’ which are too short to be a novel and too long to be a magazine article.
via the Book Seller
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.
