Print and e-book sales growing

Book sales in China are growing, especially for e-books and children's books, said panelists at the 2015 BookExpo America at the Javits Convention Center in New York.

Book publishing in China was the topic on Wednesday for the Chinese-American Publishing and Media Industry Forum.

In 2014, about 98,000 book titles were published in China , and 1.3 million titles were available in bookstores and online, according to George Slowik, president of Publishers' Weekly. And sales of books in stores and online in China reached as much as 54 billion yuan ($8.1 billion), or 12 percent of the global market share, second only to the United States, said Jonathan Nowell, president of Nielsen BookScan.

Slowik said that one-third of the sales total came from online, and he noted that e-book reading, especially on mobile devices, has grown rapidly. He said 58 percent of Chinese read books, with half of them reading printed books, and the opportunity for e-book sales is expanding.. "E-books, at this point, represent only a small portion of the 1.5 percent of overall digital publishing revenue, but that represents 3.8 billion yuan," he said.

Between 2006 and 2013, the Chinese book market experienced a 78 percent increase in digital sales.