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How digital is growing book sales

17.07.08

Book sales seem to be rising not in spite of but because of the digital revolution, writes Victor Keegan in the Guardian.

"When it started, publishers were up in arms about Google's presumption that they could scan first and worry about copyright later. We don't hear many protests now, apart from in the US. This is because most publishers have signed up to a deal which enables anyone to read up to 20% of a book for nothing. Some publishers have found that the more they allow a reader to read, the more sales it generates. This is one of the reasons - along with the explosion of print-on-demand titles (another digital phenomenon) - that pushed book sales up 36% in 2007."

Guardian

Book Google digitisation

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