Amazon Ebooks Soar While Print Slows
Amazon says its ebook sales rose a whopping 70 percent in 2012, but sales of traditional “treebooks” rose just 5 percent in December, the lowest growth rate ever in the online retailer’s 17-year history as a book seller.
In a statement, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said, “We’re now seeing the transition we’ve been expecting. After 5 years, eBooks is a multi-billion dollar category for us and growing fast.” Amazon also says its total customer count is now over 200 million.
Just because print sales are way down at Amazon, that doesn’t necessarily mean treebooks are on their way out. At the New Jersey Romance Writers conference in October 2012, a panel of editors from major traditional publishing houses said overall ebook sales seemed to be leveling off and they expected regular treebooks to be around for a while.
You can read more about it in this article from Publishers Weekly.
