The growth in ebooks stimulated a rise in total UK book sales last year with the format now accounting for 12% of the market.
Total book sales increased 4% to £3.3bn in 2012 with digital sales, which include online corporate subscriptions as well as ebooks, jumping 66% to £411m, according to the Publishers Association. Ebook sales soared 134% to £216m.
However physical book sales dipped by just 1% at £2.9bn helped by the success of EL James’ erotic fiction trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey which had combined sales of 10.5 million.
The overall sales increase comes against a 2% decline in 2011. Digital sales now account for 12% of the overall market, up from 8% in 2011.
The Publishers Association chief executive Richard Mollet said: “British publishing is a healthy industry which continues to grow. The continued increase in digital sales across different disciplines illustrates the shift of readers to e-book reading.
“Such growth has been achieved as British publishers have been able to invest in new exciting, innovative products and in great authors thanks to the strong framework provided by copyright law, which continues to be the cornerstone of stability for a creative industry like publishing.”
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