E-book Sales Continue to Soar, Especially with Kids' Books
Nearly 400 million e-books were sold last year, more than double the previous year.
- (1888PressRelease) June 08, 2013 - (Las Cruces, NM)-E-book sales keep surging, and e-book sales of young adult fiction are growing faster than any other category, reports wallstreetdaily.com, the Association of American Publishers, and the Book Industry Study Group in their BookStats annual survey of nearly 2,000 publishers of all sizes.
"The industry seems to be robust," said Dominique Raccah, the publisher of Sourcebooks and cochairwoman of the Book Industry Study Group. Nearly 400 million e-books were sold last year, more than double the previous year.
"Kids and teens popularized digital music, and they're doing the same thing now for books," says L.A. Miller, author of the science-fiction and fantasy YA book series Quests of Shadowind, which includes "Sky Shifter,""The Grounding Stone," and "Veil." "Most people, especially adolescents, have devices that are equipped to download and display books."
Adding to the surge is a growing crossover segment of adult readers who are drawn to the YA book market because the novels tend to be shorter, cheaper, and more plot-driven, yet still deal with engrossing and entertaining ideas and themes.
Mr. Miller's Quests of Shadowind is the story of a group of teens who are abducted to an alien world called Shadowind, which is inhabited by ghostly creatures, cyborg animals, and virtual humans-a land where anything is possible, including being downloaded into a cryptic, evil role-playing game. In order to survive, the youths band together as they search for a way back home.
"It is very clear, from sales figures and best-seller lists, that today's teens want to read books that offer complex plots and feature recognizable, same-aged characters that cope with conflicts, life struggles, and obstacles," says Mr. Miller. "It's not surprising that authors choose to write about issues that are important and familiar to teens such as commitment, friendship, family values, romance, morals, and many others-even if their books deal with vampires or dystopian futures."
Forbes.com reports:
* In 2010 the trade publishing industry had $13.90 billion in revenues,
and of that, $869 million was from e-books, or about 6% of the total.
* In 2011 overall trade revenues barely moved to $13.97 billion, an
increase of 0.5%, while e-book revenues jumped to $2.07 billion, or about
15% of the total.
* That means that while the trade publishing industry was basically flat
in 2011, $1.2 billion in revenues shifted from print books to e-books.
"Nobody can predict whether e-books will put an end to printed books," says Mr. Miller. "But I believe e-books will continue to grow strong. The giant companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google make a lot of effort to bring reading tablets and devices into our lives to give us easy access to books. The digital world of young adult fiction has completely and unalterably changed. It's become much more diverse, far-reaching, and adult-like, as well as edgier and richer. No doubt the future of e-books is very bright."
L.A. Miller has been writing for more than forty years. His backgrounds in science fiction, astronomy, technology, and classic literature inform his work, which has included novels, short stories, and music. He is the owner of Wood n Nails Music and lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico, with his wife and two dogs. He is the author of the Quests of Shadowind series, which includes "Sky Shifter," "The Grounding Stone," and "Veil."
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