Growth in e-book sales slows in 2012
The number of e-books sold last year grew by 43 percent, but that's a fairly small increase compared to the triple-digit increases of past years.
The number of e-books sold last year grew by 43 percent, but that's a fairly small increase compared to the triple-digit increases of past years.
The good news: The number of e-books sold last year grew by 43 percent.
The bad news: After three years of triple-digit increases in sales, that鈥檚 a serious slowdown.
That鈥檚 the latest news from the Association of American Publishers, which released its annual BookStats study Wednesday. The report found that digital books remain the fastest-growing segment of the publishing market, but that record growth is hitting a plateau after years of runaway sales.
Among the report鈥檚 findings:
鈥⒙燛-book sales grew by 43 percent in 2012聽
鈥� E-books now represent 20 percent of all books sales
鈥� Some 457 million e-books were sold in 2012, compared to 557 million hardcovers sold in last year
鈥� Even if e-book sales have slowed, the industry has made massive progress: the 457 million e-books sold in 2012 represent a 4,456 percent increase over 2008 when 10 million e-books were sold.
As for the reasons behind the e-book slowdown, analysts鈥� explanations vary. Some, like Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch, cite the enduring strength of the print format, which continues to outsell digital books by a margin of 4-to-1.
鈥淚n all the talk about e-books, we often lose track of the fact that more than three out of four books sold in the U.S. are still printed ones,鈥� Pietsch said, as reported by USA Today.
Another reason for slowing e-book sales? The explosive growth simply isn鈥檛 sustainable. Any industry that starts from zero and experiences rapid growth will eventually face a slowdown. So says Amazon vice president Russ Grandinetti: 鈥淎s e-books have grown from practically nothing, you can鈥檛 expect to keep doubling it every year,鈥� he told the AAP.
Finally, perhaps the most controversial reason: the digital marketplace may finally be reaching saturation. That is, the folks who have decided to adopt e-reading have already done so and the rest aren鈥檛 likely to go digital anytime soon.
鈥淲e鈥檝e just reached a point of natural resistance,鈥� Mike Shatzkin, a publishing consultant and organizer of the Digital Book World conference, said, according to USA Today.
Or, as Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch put it, 鈥淐onsumers have settled into their book formats of choice.鈥澛�
The bottom line: Both print and digital will remain important segments for the industry for years to come.
Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.