E-books now make up 9% of all trade sales in the U.S.; last year, they made up a mere 3.3%.
E-book sales have reined in $263 million thus far in 2010, and $39 million in August alone -- a 172.4% increase over last year's sales numbers.
Meanwhile, sales of paperback and hardcover books continue to decline across the board. Hardcover sales of children's and young adult fiction came in at $77.8 million, an 8% decline from the previous month and a 14.6% decline from August of last year. Paperback sales in the category were down 15.1% for the month, a 7.6% decrease year-over-year.
At $83.8 million, adult hardcover book sales actually increased by 5.2% compared to the same period last year, although the category experienced a heavy 24.4% drop from the previous month's sales. Paperback sales performed similarly, increasing by 4.1% year-over-year at $124.9 million, a 18.3% decline from the previous month.
Print sales are still strong in the education category, however: Hardcover and paperback books posted increases of 10.2% and 15.7% respectively, up roughly 5% compared to August of last year.
The e-book category is becoming increasingly important in the publishing industry, motivating retailers to expand e-reading apps to as many devices as possible, and causing large, public disputes between publishers, retailers and literary agencies over e-book rights, among other developments.