Further encouragement for independent and ebook publishers continues to spill out of cyberspace. An American publishers association has just announced that it is bringing in more revenue from ebooks than hardcover books,
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) reports that net sales revenue from ebooks exceeded that of hardcover books in the first quarter of the year: a first ever happening. The data was compiled from 1,189 publishers and did not include children’s books.
Overall, adult ebooks brought in $282.3 million in the first quarter. That’s a 28.4 percent increase from the same period a year ago. Young adult and children’s ebooks performed even better, catapulting 233 percent to $64.3 million. Sales of adult hardcover books grew too, but more modestly, up 2.7 percent to $229.6 million in the first quarter of 2012.
There are a couple of reasons for the paradigm shift:
1) The proliferation of ereading devices, from tablets and smartphones to dedicated ereaders.
2) Research conducted by Pew in April found a strong correlation between the spike in sales of ereading-capable devices and ebook adoption over the holidays.
–terry shropshire
