As promised on Friday, we now have complete comparison statistics on the pre-London Book Fair dealmaking. Overall deal volume in the five weeks prior to the international fair (through the Friday before the event) has continued its growth for the second year in a row. Deals with US print publishers have increased to their highest level since 2010, now well above the low point in 2012, and deals with digital-focused publishers continue to add modestly to the totals, as show in this chart: Publisher investment continues to lag behind 2010, however, though it too has […]
Industry Statistics
A Strong Finish for Trade, Even with eBook Decline, As Every Other Major Publishing Segment Rises In 2013
Trade publishing finished 2013 with two strong months of sales, according to the publishers who report to the AAP, closing the gap to put full-year trade sales a little shy of the big 2012 results. Measured sales from the approximately 1,200 reporting publishers were $6.441 billion for 2013, down by $74 million (or 1 percent) from 2012 — which was a banner year, thanks to the Hunger Games and Fifty Shades trilogies. (By comparison, total AAP trade sales in 2011 were $6.082 billion, when Borders went bankrupt and liquidated.) November sales of $651 million were up strongly, by $62 million […]
Canadian Physical Book Market Dips in 2013
BookNet Canada released its annual Canadian Book Market report, which tracks English-language print book sales across more than 50 categories. Despite the obvious disclaimer that by not tracking ebook sales or online sales of print books, “the overall book market may be healthier than reflected,” the full report, which is only accessible if purchased, did indicate total print unit sales in 2013 were down by 3.41 percent compared to 2012. Some categories, however, fared better last year, particularly in nonfiction: biography and autobiography print sales increased by 21.91 percent while juvenile nonfiction was up 5.57 percent.
The Truth About eBook Sales (Part 2): The Market Is Flat, and Self-Publishing Isn’t Big Enough to Change That
This is the follow-up post to Friday’s examination of The Discussion Over “Author Earnings.” Let’s use this opportunity to speak clearly about what we do know about the ebook sales landscape, since there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about the data that’s available. The worst meme around is the one in which the real and substantial data we have is dismissed for its incompleteness, in favor of people’s personal wishes and observances. The big touchpoints are the direction of the ebook market, and the rise of digital self-publishing. On the former, the US market data clearly indicates that […]
The Truth About 2013’s Top 100 Books: Not A Single, Self-Published Title
In today’s fragmented world of incomplete sales data — largely because we do not have any public disclosure of ebook unit sales on a title-level basis — USA Today’s annual list of the top 100 bestsellers performs a more important function than ever. That’s because they are the only compiler of bestseller lists to issue an annual chart that combines both ebook and print sales data from most major sellers. More particularly, their dataset includes Kindle sales but puts them in the context of the overall market, so you can differentiate between the storyline Amazon popularizes about what’s selling in […]
Trade Sales Show A Lift In Fall, But eBooks Remain Down Slightly for 2013
The AAP reported monthly sales data for September and October of 2013, showing modest gains versus a year ago when you combine the two months. Total sales first showed year-over-year gains in August, after 10 consecutive months of flat or declining numbers. September trade sales gained 7.5 percent, up $47.5 million, with increases in nearly all tracked sub-categories, to $665 million for the month. In part, however, fall titles shipped earlier in 2013 without the presidential election to steer around. Which may be why the October numbers show a slight decline, down 1.5 percent (or $11 million) at $664.5 million […]