Jonathan Ruppin

The UK's biggest book retailer Amazon now sells more ebooks than hardbacks and paperbacks combined, the company has said. For every 100 print books sold through the site, Amazon said it sold 114 titles for its Kindle e-reader device. It added that the average Kindle owner bought up to four times more books than they did before owning the device. The strong figures have been boosted by titles such as multi-million selling erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey. The book has sold more than 31 million copies worldwide, with two million ebooks of the title selling in less than

Retailers have welcomed the "huge news" J K Rowling is to publish with Little, Brown, with one predicting it will top print and e-book charts. However, an independent bookseller voiced concerns that larger chains and supermarkets may slash its price in order to claim the greatest market share, but added the book's release "can only be a good thing for bookselling". Rival publishers privately expressed shock that they had not been offered the book. Rowling's agent Neil Blair told The Bookseller: "We didn't auction."