E-BookThe numbers of e-books sold every year continues to rise, and publishers are making more money from them, too.

Data from the annual BookStats study released by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group on Wednesday May 15 showed 457 million e-books were sold last year, accounting for 20 percent of all book sales reported by publishers. That’s up from 15 percent last year.

Sales of fiction e-books rose by 42 percent in 2012, while the growth in sales of nonfiction e-books was just 22 percent. Perhaps most telling, however, was the fact the “e-book sales in the children’s and young-adult categories increased 117 percent, to $469.2 million,” according to the New York Times.

The information is gathered from roughly 1,500 publishers that self-report data; the study doesn’t seem to include much data from indie publishers.

Other information from the study:

•Revenue from brick-and-mortar stores dropped 7 percent to $7.5 billion. Online retail outlets rose 21 percent to $6.9 billion.
•Hardcover nooks accounted for $5 billion in sales in 2012.
•Audiobooks saw a jump of 22 percent from 2011, increasing sales to $240.7 million.
•Since 2008, e-book sales are up 4,456 percent.

The full study is available in PDF format for (gulp) $995, or $695 for BISG or AAP members.

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