0Q4418 Feb 2013 12:04
Despite indications to the contrary, overall UK book market growing
The downturn in physical book sales in the UK in 2012 was, according to Nielsen BookScan numbers,
limited to 3.4%, a considerable outperformance of other major markets such as the US, where sales
contracted 9.3%. Much of this can be attributed to the continuing migration online. Best guesstimates
suggest that around a quarter of the US market by value is now from eBooks, implying a slowdown to
double-digit growth from triple-digit. While there has been some suggestion that sales of dedicated
eReaders has now slowed, the substitution of mobiles/tablets should not be taken as proxy that sales
of eBooks will fall, as eReading apps proliferate and the boundary between the two delivery channels
becomes increasingly blurred. Figures put together by Future Publishing for the UK market, trawled
from individual publishers’ releases, show sales of ‘traditional’ digital books are much higher than had
been assumed; around 65 million in 2012, with a value of c £200m and more than double those in
FY11. The clear implication is that UK book sales did grow in FY12, despite the headline drop.