Mediaboss Marketing

10 May 2012 Last updated at 06:15 ET By Tim Masters Entertainment and arts correspondent, BBC News

With ebook sales on the rise, how is the publishing industry embracing the world of digital?

Next week some of the biggest names in publishing will gather at the Hilton in London's Park Lane for The Bookseller Industry Awards.

This year sees the introduction of a new category - the Digital Strategy Award - which recognises how the introduction of new technology is opening up the market.

It comes at a time when UK sales of consumer ebooks leapt by 366% in 2011 helping to offset a decline in the demand for printed books.

Last week it was revealed that the Pottermore ebook store sold 3m-worth of Harry Potter ebooks in its first month, with more than 1m of sales taking place in the first three days.

Sam Missingham, of The Bookseller's digital publishing blog FutureBook, says 2012 is the year that digital has become embedded into publishers' thinking and is no longer "just an interesting experimental playground for the cool kids".

"Ebooks are the bread and butter stuff," she says.

"Publishers are seeing huge growth in this bit of their business. One of the big leaps in digital is that publishers are able to communicate with their customers directly."

That is true of one of this year's award nominees, Harlequin, which has seen its Mills and Boon brand flourish in the digital era.

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