E-books Sell More Than Hardcover Books

Amazon.com announced that for the last three months, sales of books for its e-reader, the Kindle, sold more than hardcover books in the U.S.

Amazon said it sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books including hardcovers for which there is no Kindle edition.

Mike Shatzkin who advises book publishers on digital change said about this trend. ¡°This was a day that was going to come, a day that had to come.¡± He predicts that within a decade, fewer than 25 percent of all books sold will be print versions.

¡±The shift at Amazon is surprising considering that we¡¯ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years and Kindle books for 33 months,¡± Amazon¡¯s CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos said.
Still, the hardcover book is far from extinct. Sales are up 22 percent this year in the U.S., according to the American Publishers Association.