The Publishers Association, the trade body that represents companies that account for nearly 70 per cent of the U.K. publishing market, reports growing popularity in digital readers, The Guardian reports.
This past year, U.K. digital book sales increased 20 per cent to £180 million , thanks in part to the growing popularity of Amazon's Kindle and the widespread notoriety of authors such as Stephen Fry and Steig Larson, the news source adds.
In addition, general consumer digital sales - which includes CD-ROMs, audiobooks, purchased downloads and ebooks - jumped four-fold, from £4 million in 2009 to £16 million last year.
Online sales of digital subscriptions were up 25 per cent from May 2010, while academic titles comprised £84 million of the technology's total sales. Of this total, social sciences and humanities books accounted for £58 million while £19 million worth were science and medical, according to The Register.
"Academic and professional publishing, which embraced digital platforms over a decade ago, continues to lead the field. But now that technology is putting e-reading devices into consumers’ hands, we’re starting to see the rapid growth of digital sales in this area too," Richard Mollet, CEO of The Publishers Association, explained to NewMediaAge.
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