PUBLISHING house Penguin has seen its sales soar on the back of demand for e-books from authors such as Stephen Fry.

Penguin owner Pearson said the book publishing arm saw a three-fold increase in sales of e-books, as it recorded overall sales rises of five per cent.

The division now offers 16,500 digital titles and the rise in popularity for digital books is offsetting an otherwise tough market for Penguin.

Pearson said the division was “continuing to lead the industry in innovation in digital publishing”.

Comic Fry’s best-selling memoirs, The Fry Chronicles, were published in five formats, including two ebook versions, as part of the effort to tap into demand for digital versions, an industry first.

The publisher is expected to release Jamie Oliver’s books in a digital version soon.

It hopes that traditional print versions of the celebrity chef’s books, alongside a line-up which also includes comedian Michael McIntyre, will position the consumer publishing arm well for the crucial Christmas season.

Pearson, which also publishes the Financial Times (FT), upped its full-year earnings guidance for the second time in three months after underlying sales rose seven per cent across the group in the first nine months of the year.

FT Group hailed a return to growth in advertising revenues during the first quarter, and the bounce back has been sustained in the year to date, with the newspaper operation enjoying another good quarter, driving overall nine-month sales up 11 per cent.

The group confirmed it was trading ahead of previous guidance and raised expectations for its earnings per share measure.

Pearson also moved guidance higher in July after a sharp rise in first-half operating profits, which rose to £178m from £84m a year earlier.

Pearson added that the FT was also being boosted by strong demand for digital content, with online subscriptions rising by 50 per cent to more than 180,000.

Pearson’s performance this year has also been given a fillip by rising sales in its burgeoning education offering, covering publishing and training, which saw sales rise seven per cent in the first nine months.