02.02.12 | Philip Jones - The Bookseller
But in the US publishers are facing a potential double blow, with anecdotal evidence suggesting that the growth in e-book sales has also slowed over the past few months, as e-reader adoption has dragged and resistance to e-reading has grown. Publishers were also warned to beware of Amazon's growth.
The global sales figures were given out by president of Nielsen Book Jonathan Nowell at the Italian e-book event IfBookThen this morning (2nd February). Nowell highlighted sales declines in markets such as US, UK and Spain, with Italy the one exception where fiction sales were still growing.
He said the decline in sales in the US had doubled over two years, with fiction showing the clearest decline, down 7.2% in 2010 and in 2011 down 18%. In the UK the print decline accelerated in 2011, while in the first four weeks of 2012 print sales have dropped 12%, with fiction sales down almost 26%. But not all of the drop was attributed to e-book conversion, with Irish print sales also down, despite there being no significant impact from e-books.
Digital consultant and head of The Idea Logical Company Mike Shatzkin said e-book sales had doubled or more for four straight years, from 2007 to 2010, but recently there was evidence that the growth was slowing down, with Shatzkin pointing to research that suggested the resistance to e-readers in some people's minds was growing. He added that the initial growth was fuelled by heavy readers who moved across to e-reading first, with more reluctant adopters slower to change and likely to read less.
Read full piece at The Bookseller
The global sales figures were given out by president of Nielsen Book Jonathan Nowell at the Italian e-book event IfBookThen this morning (2nd February). Nowell highlighted sales declines in markets such as US, UK and Spain, with Italy the one exception where fiction sales were still growing.
He said the decline in sales in the US had doubled over two years, with fiction showing the clearest decline, down 7.2% in 2010 and in 2011 down 18%. In the UK the print decline accelerated in 2011, while in the first four weeks of 2012 print sales have dropped 12%, with fiction sales down almost 26%. But not all of the drop was attributed to e-book conversion, with Irish print sales also down, despite there being no significant impact from e-books.
Digital consultant and head of The Idea Logical Company Mike Shatzkin said e-book sales had doubled or more for four straight years, from 2007 to 2010, but recently there was evidence that the growth was slowing down, with Shatzkin pointing to research that suggested the resistance to e-readers in some people's minds was growing. He added that the initial growth was fuelled by heavy readers who moved across to e-reading first, with more reluctant adopters slower to change and likely to read less.
Read full piece at The Bookseller
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