Huge increase in digital book sales

A "huge increase" in the value of digital book sales in the UK has been announced by trade organisation the Publishers Association.

The value of digital fiction sales in the first half of 2012 was up 188% on the same period in 2011.

Physical book sales saw a drop in value, dipping 0.4% year on year.

Industry experts said that while the figures were healthy, other areas of the industry, such as bookshops, continued to struggle financially.

The figures show impressive increases across the board in a year where e-book popularity hit the headlines for racking up massive sales.

Sales of digital children's books were up 171%, while non-fiction titles increased by 128%.

The total value of sales of all books - digital and non-digital - were up by 6.1% for the January-June period.

This generated revenue of £1.1bn for the first half of the year, the Publishers Association (PA) said.