Amazon sells more Kindle books than real ones in the UK

ONLINE BOOKSELLER Amazon has revealed that it is selling more ebooks in the UK than paperbacks and hardbacks combined.

The firm has been selling more digital books than hardbacks for around 15 months, but now, two years after it jumped into the UK ebook market with both feet, it sells two ebooks for every hardback.

"Customers in the UK are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books, even as our print business continues to grow. We hit this milestone in the US less than four years after introducing Kindle, so to reach this landmark after just two years in the UK is remarkable and shows how quickly UK readers are embracing Kindle," said Jorrit Van der Meulen, Amazon VP for Kindle EU.

"As a result of the success of Kindle, we're selling more books than ever before on behalf of authors and publishers. And thanks to Kindle Direct Publishing, thousands of self-published authors have also been given an outlet to share their work with the millions of Kindle readers worldwide."

This year has been great in terms of digital book sales, and for every 100 printed books that it sells it sells 114 Kindle ones. Free Kindle books, of which there are many, are not included in the figures. µ