Books defy e-reading
Downloads have stagnated and Kindle sales have been slowing as people return to the printed page. Even so, SA booksellers are struggling.
The voluptuous pleasure of cracking the spine on a new novel may be one factor in the apparent renaissance of book sales – and the dwindling popularity of e-readers like Kindle. Exclusive Books CE Benjamin Trisk says: "In the period through to 2011, Kindle sales were growing at three-figure digits; in 2012, that growth came down to 41%. In 2013 we were looking at the purchase of Exclusive Books and that was obviously one of the key triggers — what was going to happen to unit sales of Kindles and electronic book downloads? "What has happened in the period from 2013 is that e-book downloads have stagnated and Kindle sales — Amazon keeps them pretty close — have not been growing. The best example of that is to look at what’s happening in physical units of books in the UK and US — last year and the year before there’s been growth." While the threat of e-readers has waned, local booksellers aren’t exactly coining it. "The reason we are not seeing significant growth in SA is because there...
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