OREANDA-NEWS. December 01, 2014. Two of the nations largest book retail sellers, Apollo and Rahva Raamat, have reported an increase in sales of books and e-books.

The head of online sales at Rahva Raamat, Toomas Aasmae, said printed book sales have seen a 7 percent increase this year while e-book sales are expected to increase by 30 percent.

Aasmae said e-book sales were expected to jump even more, but selection problems continue to hold back a breakthrough.

Eha Pank, head of sales at Rahva Raamat, said there are types of books which people will want to hold in their hands and which do not give the same emotion when using a e-book reader. She said popular science books and handbooks are examples, especially as they are colorful, while e-readers are black and white.

Aasmae said e-books are on average 30 percent cheaper, but changing the format of the files to suit e-readers is expensive, which means e-book prices will not fall to rock-bottom.

E-book sales still make up around 1 percent of all book sales in Estonia.