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posted by on Thursday March 16 2017, @08:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the there's-nothing-like-the-smell-of-pixels-on-silicon dept.

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Nielsen survey finds UK ebook sales declined by 4% in 2016, the second consecutive year digital has shrunk

[...] The shift was attributed to the explosion in adult colouring books, as well as a year of high-profile fiction releases, including The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. "Readers take a pleasure in a physical book that does not translate well on to digital," the Publishers Association report read.

But Nielsen's survey of 2016 attributed the increase in print sales to children's fiction and to younger generations preferring physical books to e-readers. A 2013 survey by the youth research agency Voxburner found that 62% of 16- to 24-year-olds preferred print books to ebooks. The most popular reason given was: "I like to hold the product." While Nielsen found that 50% of all fiction sales were in ebook format, only 4% of children's fiction was digital.

Steve Bohme, research director at Nielsen Book Research UK, who presented the data on Monday ahead of this year's London book fair, said young people were using books as a break from their devices or social media. "We are seeing that books are a respite, particularly for young people who are so busy digitally," he said.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/14/ebook-sales-continue-to-fall-nielsen-survey-uk-book-sales


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday March 16 2017, @12:51PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday March 16 2017, @12:51PM (#479743) Journal

    If we believe the article, the trend is benefiting dead tree, not increasing piracy. To my knowledge, there is no "Kodi for ebooks"... yet. Ebook piracy is a niche activity, possibly with the exception of college students looking to save on overpriced textbooks.

    If young people were using pirated ebooks en masse, they would at least spend some money on e-readers or tablets (although Amazon probably envisions making its money on the digital ebooks, not the e-reader device). Last time I checked, the tablet market was not doing well due to market saturation and phablets.

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