They say global
sales of printed books by UK publishers dropped by 55m in the first six months
of the year. But COVID has done well for the ebook. Sales of ebooks went down each
year from 2014 but this year sales are up by 17% to £144m. UK publishers expect
ebooks to enjoy their best year since 2015, when sales were just under £300m.
Sales of audiobooks
surged 42% in the first half of the year– on track to beat the record set last
year. The combined £199m first-half sales of the two formats has set UK
publishers up for their best-ever year for digital sales and is expected to beat
2019’s record total of £336m.
OTOH, the printed
book, which accounts for more than a 80% of the total £2bn market for books
from UK publishers, is not doing so well.
In the UK, sales of
all printed books fell 11%. Paperback fiction sales managed to stay level at
£114.8m and hardback fiction has sales up 35% which shows that UK readers have turned
to novels for entertainment, escapism and comfort during the pandemic.
Top five bestselling ebooks from UK publishers (Jan
– June, 2020)
Normal People – Sally Rooney
The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides
Blood Orange – Harriet Tyce
The Flatshare – Beth O’Leary
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
Top five bestselling fiction titles – print (Jan –
June, 2020)
The Mirror and the Light, The Wolf Hall Trilogy –
Hilary Mantel
Normal People – Sally Rooney
The Family Upstairs – Lisa Jewell
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
Big Sky – Kate Atkinson
Sad to admit, but I have read none of them!
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