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UK: Digital fiction sales see 188% growth by value

Digital fiction sales see 188% growth by value

18 September 2012

Press Release London

London, 18 September 2012 –The Publishers Association’s Sales Monitor shows that the total invoiced value of digital fiction books sales reported by participating companies saw a huge increase of 188% by value in January-June 2012 in comparison to the same period in 2011. Other strongly performing categories include children’s digital books and digital non-fiction books, which increased by 171% and 128% respectively during the same period. Overall digital sales of general consumer titles (including fiction, non-fiction and children’s) increased from £30m to £84m between January-June 2011 and 2012.

These increases reflect overall growth of 89.1% in digital sales (from £77m to £145m)[1], while physical book sales fell 0.4% by value (from £985m to £982m) and 3.8% by volume (from 260m to 251m) over the period.

The total value of sales (digital and non-digital) increased by 6.1% in January-June 2012 in comparison to the same period in 2011, leading to £1.1bn revenue in the first six months of the year.  Digital sales accounted for 12.9% of the total value of sales in January-June 2012, up from 7.2% in the equivalent period in 2011[1].

Richard Mollet, CEO of The Publisher’s Association, said: “The results of The Publishers Association’s Sales Monitor show that British publishing continues to perform strongly despite difficult economic conditions.  In particular, the huge increase in digital sales shows how rapidly readers and publishers are embracing e-book reading. Whether books are enjoyed physically or electronically, publishers will continue to invest in exciting authors and titles.  They can do this because of the stability provided by the UK’s robust and flexible copyright framework.  This is why The PA is at the forefront of calls to government to ensure that copyright is not eroded and that creators’ rights are protected and supported online.”

Notes to Editors

The Publishers Association

NB (1): The PA Sales Monitor is The Publishers Association’s monthly data collection scheme of publishers’ sales split into home and export sales, and within these destinations into 10 categories and, for exports by value, 7 geographical regions. There are 23 participant distributors/publishers in PASM representing c250 publishers with combined sales estimated to account for 76% of total UK publishers’ sales.

The Publishers Association is the leading trade organisation serving book, journal, audio and electronic publishers in the UK. Membership is comprised of 117 companies from across the trade, academic and education sectors.  Its core service is representation and lobbying, around copyright, rights and other matters relevant to members, who represent roughly 80% of the industry by turnover. www.publishers.org.uk.

PA Sales Monitor (PASM)

The UK Publishers Association (PA) has been running the PA Sales Monitor (PASM) since 2000, collecting data on UK publisher sales of books from distributors and large publishers, on a monthly or quarterly basis, to allow it to measure the performance of the industry over time[2].”

A hint of a slowdown

by Philip Jones

http://futurebook.net/content/hint-slowdown

Snip: “figures also show a different story to the one the  wider media is interested in: that is a slowdown in the rate of growth  (at least of fiction e-book sales), as we have seen in the US for  sometime now, and which we may now be getting a hint of over here.  According to past PA Stats Year Books, sales of digital fiction have  been accelerating over the years, up 331% in 2011, after growing 299% in  2010, and 277% in 2009. Now they are up, in this half-year, by 188%.”

Stephen

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Posted on: September 25, 2012, 7:24 am Category: Uncategorized

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