• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

Print Sales Rise 13.4 Percent At Reporting Indie Stores; ABA Gains Members for Third Year

June 4, 2012
By Michael Cader

As Book Expo America opens (for educational programming today, and floor exhibitions tomorrow), the American Booksellers Association reports to the AP that their membership rose again–adding 55 members, now totaling 1,567, up 3.6 percent from last year. That is the third consecutive gain for the organization; this time a year ago, the ABA reported adding 102 members, following their merger with  the Association of Booksellers for Children. (In 2010 they added 9 members–gains, while always good, do not necessarily reflect a change in the entire store landscape, since not all independent bookstores are members of the national organization.) The current member total is close to where ABA ranks stood in 2007 (at 1,580).

More positively, the ABA also cited Nielsen BookScan data that indicates number of printed books sold by approximately 500 reporting indie stores rose by 13.4 percent (in units) this year, through mid-May.

As co-owner of the Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC Tom Jackson notes, “It’s down compared to five years ago, but it went down when the whole economy fell. It’s since come back up and stayed up. Given what’s been happening with digital books, the competition from Amazon and so forth, that seems pretty good.”

Bowker’s complete report on new books published during 2011 is embargoed until Tuesday, but at Sunday’s self-publishing event at BEA Kelly Gallagher said they recorded ISBNs issued for 211,269 self-published titles in 2011, up from 133,036 titles in 2010. (Bear in mind that not all self-published books carry ISBNs, now including ebooks that are exclusively published through sites that don’t use an ISBN for ebooks, such as Amazon.)

eBooks comprised 41 percent of the self-published books talled by Bowker, but Gallagher said they comprised only 11 percent of overall sales, reflecting the much lower average price of ebooks versus print-on-demand titles. Create Space was the biggest self-publisher by volume (by far), with 57,602 titles.

Filed Under: Bookstores, Free, Statistics

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Quick Pass users click here to log in
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • Roger Angell Dies at 101 May 20, 2022 NYT
  • Kakao Merges Tapas Media Into Radish May 20, 2022 Press Release
  • The Atlantic Announces Expansion of Books Section May 16, 2022 The Atlantic
  • Diversion Gets Investment and Partnership with Gemini XIII to Expand Their Podcast Adaptations May 12, 2022 Press Release
  • Dutch Publishers and Bookselling Chain Ready €12.99 eBook and Audio Subscription Service May 12, 2022 Publishing Perspectives
  • UNLV Sells The Believer To Paradise Media, Despite Efforts To Return It To McSweeney's May 11, 2022 Medium
  • Lagardere Board Considers Spinning Off Their Radio Group Into Separate Company to Protect Its "Autonomy" (Presumably from Conservative Vivendi Owner Bollore) May 10, 2022 Press Release
  • Harper Acknowledges A Second JD Vance Book Was Dropped "Some Time Ago" By Mutual Agreement May 5, 2022 AP
  • Highly Touted Skandar and the Unicorn Thief Publishes Today in the UK, May 3 in the US April 28, 2022 Guardian
  • Google Is Offering Publishers Free Creation of Machine-Narrated Audiobooks During Beta Launch April 27, 2022 Google page
© 2022 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.