Sales of eBooks in the US brought in nearly $70 million in January 2011 – a 115.8 per cent jump from figures for the same month last year, according to the Association of American Publishers' (AAP) monthly sales report.
In addition to this, the AAP states that revenue from sales of adult paperbacks fell from $104.2 million to $83.6 million - a drop of almost 20 percent - in comparison to the same period last year. Meanwhile, revenue from sales of adult hardbacks fell from $55.4 million to $49.1 million in the same timeframe - a drop of 11.3 per cent.
While sales of eBooks got off to a slow start, they now look set to make a significant impact on the sales of printed books, particularly after the mass releases of various tablet devices, as well as dedicated eBook readers such as Amazon's Kindle series. In fact, at the end of last year, Amazon revealed that its Kindle 3 eBook reader was its
best selling product ever.
The success of eBooks has had repercussions among publishers elsewhere too. UK publisher HarperCollins has already thrown its toys out of its pram this year over
eBook rental revenue.
Have you bought an eBook recently? Do you expect them to have the same impact that digital cameras had on the film camera business? Let us know your thoughts in the
forums.
Want to comment? Please log in.