E-book sales in The Netherlands passed the 600,000 mark over the first half of 2012, with close to 16,000 available titles. E-book revenue constitutes 3% of the market, against 1,6% over 2011 and 0,7% over 2010.

The Dutch e-book market is predicted to reach 5-7% at the end of this year. This means the growth of both sales and the number of available titles is now clearly accelerating.

After Apple and Kobo entered the market over the last year, main distributor Central Bookhouse expects to sign deals with B&N and Google this year. In a statement released last week CB stated to expect e-book sales to reach 1,5 million downloads in 2012.

This does not include Amazon. There are very clear signs that the company is preparing to enter the Dutch market before the end of this year, although no official statements have been made. The impact of this will likely stimulate the e-book market even further.

And there are more portents that e-books are here to stay. Several companies (Yindo, Central Bookhouse, ebook.nl) are introducing new business models like online reading and renting e-books and offering them to publishers.