The headline numbers for the Publishers Association's annual assessment of the UK books marketplace are startling: consumer e-book sales increased by 366% in 2011, amounting to £92m, with consumer e-book sales now equivalent to 6% of the overall consumer book market.

It is the fourth year of treble digit digital growth, while print continues its steady decline. As the PA's Richard Mollet makes clear: “Across fiction, non-fiction, children’s and academic books, the story of the year is a decline in physical sales almost being compensated for by a strong performance in digital."

To really understand the statistics we have to unpick them, however. As I write this, I haven't seen the digital pages of this year's PA Statistics Yearbook (it is published tomorrow), so I don't know if the PA has changed its methodology, or what numbers are being compared this time around. When I get this report, I'll update this blog.

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