The UK has seen a “huge increase” in the value of sales of digital fiction books, trade body the Publishers Association has said.
According to the PA’s Sales Monitor, the total invoiced value of digital fiction books grew by 188% in January-June 2012 compared to the same period in 2011.
There were also also increases in the value of children’s digital books (171%) and digital non-fiction books (128%)
Overall digital sales of consumer titles increased from £30m in January-June 2011 to £84m in 2012.
During the same period sales of physical books fell 0.4% by value (from £985m to £982m) and 3.8% by volume (from 260m to 251m) over the period.
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.
Richard Mollet, CEO of The Publisher’s Association, said: “The huge increase in digital sales shows how rapidly readers and publishers are embracing e-book reading.”