PwC: the U.S. consumer e-book market will be bigger than the print book market by 2017

Lots of different outlets are trying to project the size of the US e-book market and how fast it’s growing. In its annual “Entertainment & Media Outlook,” set to be released June 5, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that trade (consumer, not educational or academic) e-books will drive $8.2 billion in sales by 2017 — surpassing projected print book sales, which it thinks will shrink by more than half during that period. The total size of the trade book industry, PwC estimated, will be $16.1 billion by 2017 — smaller than it was in 2008, with e-books not quite able to pick up the slack as the print market shrinks. PwC also projects that e-books will make up 38 percent of all book sales — both trade and educational books — by 2017, from 16 percent today.