Jon Howell

For the first half of 2012, digital fiction sales value was up 188 percent compared with the sales figures from the same period last year. Children's books and non-fiction books also saw major growth in the digital market, rising 171 percent and 128 percent respectively.

For the same period, physical book sales value fell by just 0.4 percent. These numbers are annoucned just as Fifty Shades of Grey enjoys incredible popularity in ebook format and bookseller Waterstones secured a partnership with Kindle ebook readers.