E-books enjoy retail surge

Leading online book retailer Amazon has said that digital books have been consistently outselling” hardback books throughout the last three months in the US.

It says that throughout the period it has been selling 143 e-books for every 100 hardback novels sold in Q2 2010. In the last month alone e-book sales have outpaced hardback by a ratio of 180-100.

Note, though, that Amazon’s figures remain woolly.

Softback sales are not mentioned and no specific numbers are given. And, of course, Amazon has a vested interest in promoting the e-book market since the launch of Kindle, its own-branded e-reader device. Sales of the Kindle have tripled since its price was dropped from $259 to $189.

The Kindle bookstore currently offers in the region of 630k titles, along with 1.8m free to download out-of-copyright titles.

Digital publishing was once again thrust to the forefront of people’s thinking when the iPad arrived in the US in North America, along with a brand new e-book retail portal from Apple.