A Mystery Highlights Fast Shift To Digital

There’s a digital shift under way in the book market.

Mystery/thriller titles, one of the biggest categories in fiction today, are more popular with e-book readers than the broader market. Random House estimates that digital books accounted from 35% to 40% of its mystery/thriller sales last year, roughly double e-books' proportion of total consumer book sales from January through November 2011 as reported by the Association of American Publishers. Random House expects digital books this year will account for a tad more than half of its mystery/thriller sales. It is a transformation driven by price and convenience. "A lot of mystery and thriller readers who once bought mass-market paperbacks have migrated to digital," said Tina Jordan, vice president of the publishers trade group. Adds Otto Penzler, veteran mystery bookseller and editor who late last year launched the MysteriousPress.com, which focuses on digital titles: "Many mystery readers read two books a week, and digital is cheaper."