Hardback sales plummeted in age of e-book

Hard-bitten … could ebooks bring about the dismantling of hardback? Photograph: Roger tooth for guardian

Dramatic fall in hardback sales reverses a triumph for e-book to a defeat for publishingpaper, with readers in thousands opt for electronic versions rather than expensive dust-jacketed copy of fiction the latest titles.

The sale of adult fiction in hardback so far this year has fallen by over 10%, according to the book sale screen Nielsen bookscan: at this time last year, sales of the format had reached £ 29. 7 m, while the stands at £ 26 years. 6 m. Cheaper paperback sales, on the other hand, are only decreased 6%. Hardback sales have declined in volume and value, BookScan said, from 2.8 m copies sold at this time last year to 2.6 m, echoing a trend over the last two years: 8.5 m copies of adult fiction hard backs were sold in total in 2009, compared to only 7 m in 2010.

"In the early part of this year, we have definitely seen a reduction in the sale, which is probably down to the e-book sales of really popular books cannibalising an amount of regular sales, heavy book buyers with a Kindle buy in eBook rather than physical formats," said André Breedt on Nielsen BookScan. "E-book sales after last Christmas is on their biggest ever level."

Although BookScan has yet to begin monitoring digital sale across the UK market, the Association of American Publishers announced this week to "explosive growth" means ebooks now account for 13.6% of the adult fiction market in the United States, with total eBook sales will increase by over 1000% in the last three years. Amazon, in the meantime, has sold over a million copies of ebooks by autobiographical writers including James Patterson, stieg larsson, Suzanne Collins and Lee Child.

"It really looks like eBook sales actually cannibalising physical sales," said Breedt, although the decline in hardback fiction sales are also down to the general economic climate, he added. "The early part of the year was particularly tough for retail sale. The first quarter was the hardest so far for peoples ' pockets since 2009 ".

Booksellers and publishers said they had witnessed a decline in sales of adult fiction hard backs, with Jonathan Ruppin at upper says that "at a time of economic hardship, it is inevitable that a premium product as a hardback probably will suffer from reduced demand".

"This has also been the year ebooks has become a mainstream product in the United Kingdom and this also will inevitably affect the sales of physical formats," he said. ' But there is also the question of public expectation of huge discounts on new hard backs, which are available for big name authors come from large publishers, but not necessarily for the rest of the field. People are willing to pay the price is decreasing, while the cover prices climbing, often just to subsidise heavy discounting. £ 20 is an increasingly common coverage Award for fiction and very non-fiction now £ 25 or even £ 30. " Statistics bear this, with bookshops revelatory, recommended retail price for fiction hard backs have risen by 0.9% year after year, and by 10.9% on five years ago.

At the Little, Brown, Executive Director Richard Beswick said the decline in hardback sales were especially noticeable for literary fiction, with more commercial titles continues to perform strongly in hardback, "especially when they are heavily discounted and sold in supermarkets." Beswick also pointed to a growing market for "absolute high-end, beautiful objects", such as luxury hardback editions of the classics.

"But more holiday wishes literary fiction is certainly difficult, and this is why publishers go more and more in the larger format trade paperbacks [rather than hard backs] ... Booker prize longlist this year has received plenty of paperback originals in it, "he said. "Hardback doesn't have to be the first edition".

Ruppin believes hardback will disappear completely. ' Those who buy in hardback is more inclined to buy a book to keep and treasure, so we would expect more heavily affected paperbacks in the longer term, "he said. "We feel that the hardback is a place on the market for the foreseeable future – not least because of the media's ongoing unwillingness to review paperback originals — but the editors will probably become more selective in their choice of first format."

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