The surging sales in audiobook sales are crushing ebook sales, according to latest figures from the Association of American Publishers. While US ebook sales from publishing houses, including heavyweights such as Macmillan and Penguin, have fallen dramatically from $1.6bn in 2014 to $1.37bn in 2015 (excluding self-published authors), sales of audiobooks in the US have risen by 30%. Audiobook sales rose more than 50% last year, with a total of 2.3m units sold – up from 1.3m in 2014.
The surging sales in audiobook sales are crushing ebook sales, according to latest figures from the Association of American Publishers. While US ebook sales from publishing houses, including heavyweights such as Macmillan and Penguin, have fallen dramatically from $1.6bn in 2014 to $1.37bn in 2015 (excluding self-published authors), sales of audiobooks in the US have risen by 30%. Sales in paperback books have also risen by 4.3% whereas hardbacks have fallen.