E-books overtake traditional paperbacks in the UK

Days of hardbound and paperback could soon end as e-books take over! With growing popularity of virtual books which can be downloaded on book reading devices, the real paper books have taken a back seat, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

The online retailer 'Amazon' which started selling downloadable books in the UK in August 2010, has sold 114 internet book downloads for every 100 print books this year. Amazon's eReader devices, the Kindle range, have been a huge seller in Britain despite the fact consumers pay up to 70 per cent more than those in the USA.

"We hit this milestone in the United States 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," vice president of Kindle EU Jorrit Van der Meulen was quoted as saying.

"As a result of the success of Kindle, we're selling more books than ever before on behalf of authors and publishers," Meulen added.

However, this virtual success has been seen to be disastrous for independent book shops and are almost disappearing from most high streets. On the other hand, this has proved to be a good move for authors who can publish their books on-line, get direct access to readers and earn a big share of the sale money for themselves.

The most popular downloads in the Kindle store so far this year have been the controversial Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy by the British writer EL James.

More than two million digital versions of the sexually charged novels were sold in just four months.