Ebooks a boon for romance publisher

British readers are in love with Mills and Boons e-books with sales overtaking their print counterparts.

In an article in The Telegraph, the publisher said that sales for e-books have doubled and surpassed print sales.

Philip Stone, charts editor at the Bookseller magazine, told the Telegraph that adapting to technology has put the publisher in good stead. “Mills & Boon are probably the publisher feeling the biggest benefit from e-books,” he said.

"They were the first out of the traps to take advantage of e-books no doubt because they realised that one of the reasons people did not buy their books was that small embarrassment factor.”

You can’t always judge a book by its cover, but many people will judge readers by what they are holding. The article listed eliminating the “embarrassment factor” as one of the reasons e-books have been so popular.

"We have seen significant demand for romance novels since we opened the Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store last year,” said an Amazon spokesperson. "In fact, it was the fourth best-selling genre of book during 2010.”

When approached by Print21 about the local market for e-books, Harlequin in Australia, which publishes Mills & Boon titles, did not return calls.