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In fiction, the share of ebooks was 34% in units and 31%in value in the first quarter of 2012, according to the AAP(“StatShots”); for the first time, ebooks—which on averagesell at a significantly lower retail price than printed copiesof the same work—at $282.3 million brought in larger revenuesthan hardcover sales at $229.6 million, sparkingcomments such as: “It’s the end of books as you knewthem” (ZDNet, 18 June 2012]). The change was mirrored inpurchases and ownership of devices as well as in readinghabits.The shift in devices, with tablets gaining on dedicatedereaders, continued throughout 2012, according to researchby BISG, and the recent increase in tablets was notablyfueled by Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which was the firstchoice of 17% of ebook consumers, as compared to 10%who preferred Apple’s iPad. Barnes & Noble’s NOOK increasedfrom 2% in August 2011 to 7% in August 2012(“Tablets Gain on Dedicated E-readers, Says New BISGStudy,” Bowker press release, 14 November 2012).US title production grew significantly, as it had alreadydone in previous years, driven notably by self-publishing,roughly tripling since 2006 to 235,000 titles for print anddigital combined (“Self-Publishing Sees Triple-DigitGrowth in Just Five Years, Says Bowker,” Bowker press release,24 October 2012).In 2012, the US publishing industry began to witness thetransition from print to digital as well as the transformationof the very business practices governing the sector. At first,a battle over who controls pricing in ebooks came to aseminal settlement. Only a couple of months later, the announcementof the merger between two of the largesttrade houses, Random House and Penguin, was understoodto be just the first step in a major process of industryconsolidation that, according to most commentators, wasset to redefine the industry (“Random House, PenguinAgree to Merge”, Publishers Weekly 29 October 2012]; fora critical economic analysis of the merger, see Adam Davidson’s“How Dead Is the Book Business”, in the New YorkTimes, 13 November 2012).In April 2012, a filing by the US Department of Justice (DoJ)in New York against five large publishers and Apple definedwhat may become the key battle over the terms andconditions for the ebook economy in the US and beyond.After a standoff between Macmillan and Amazon in early2011, the DoJ alleged that a scheme known as the AgencyPricing Model, in which publishers set retail prices for theirebooks, came from an “ongoing conspiracy and agreement”between defendants, causing “e-book consumersto pay tens of millions of dollars more for e-books thanthey otherwise would have paid” (quoted in, PublishersLunch,11 April 2012).Three of the publishers — HarperCollins, Hachette, andSimon & Schuster — settled with the DoJ by promising fortwo years not to “restrict, limit, or impede an e-book retailer’sability to set, alter, or reduce the retail price of anye-book or to offer price discounts or any other form ofpromotions to encourage consumers to purchase one ormore e-books.” Macmillan and Penguin argued that they“did not act illegally” and therefore declined to settle (JohnSargent, Macmillan, quoted in PublishersLunch, 11 April2012]).The settlement between HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon& Schuster, and the DoJ was approved on September 7,2012, more swiftly than had been expected (PublishersWeekly, September 7, 2012). The settlement almost instantlyresulted in publishers reconsidering their pricingpolicies and renegotiating their agreements with many oftheir ebook retailers, including Amazon (see the discussionof HarperCollins in PublishersLunch, September 11, 2012;for a detailed overview of all related lawsuits, see PublishersMarketplace, 8 September 2012]; for an initial assessmentof the agreement on pricing policies, see PaidContent,11 September 2012). By December, a settlement hadalso been reached between the DoJ and Penguin (Departmentof Justice press release, 18 December 2012).By spring 2012, 21% of adults had read an ebook in theprevious year, versus the 17% who reported doing so inDecember 2011. This is part of a broader “shift from printedto digital material,” according to Pew Research, as 43% ofAmericans ages 16 or older had read either a book or “otherlong-form content” in digital format (Pew Research CenterPublications, 4 April 2012).For a listing of companies see Part IVUnited KingdomUpdate spring 2014In 2013, book purchases by consumers were worth £2.2.billion, 4% less than 2012 in both volume and value, accordingto Nielsen Book research. Some 80 million ebooks,worth £300 million have been sold, up 20% from 2012. Theoverall drop has largely been attrributed to the fabluoussales of E.L.James’ “50 Shades of Grey” trilogy in 2012, whilewithout this one title, sales would have declined onlymarginally, and volume would have increased by 1%.The Global eBook Report 26