By Here's some news which bucks the trend of stories about the internet and technology taking over our entire lives: sales of books in the UK are soaring.
When the Kindle was launched in 2007 many publishers predicted it would result in the death of printed books and the high street wouldn't feature a single bookshop in ten years time.
Fortunately the picture is much brighter as according to annual figures released by the Publishers Association. The UK book industry has had a record year, with figures showing a 31% rise in hardback book sales income as well as a 25% increase of income from audiobooks.
The same report found that income from fiction and non-fiction rose by 3% and 4% respectively and "Physical book sales continue to outpace digital, with revenue up 5% last year to £3.1bn."
While fictional e-book sales were down, suggesting a renewed hunger for consuming fiction in physical form, "non-fiction e-books were up 4%, showing that consumers are increasingly reading cookbooks, illustrated and reference books on devices."
However while this may sound like good news for everyone in the book industry, a Guardian article today pointed out that many authors have not reaped the reward of this increase as their books prices have remained stagnant due to price pressure from Amazon.
As Publishers Association’s chief executive Stephen Lotinga said, “Clearly when you are operating in a world where very large retailers are able to dictate prices in a massive sector, it is hard to fight.”
