The good people at the Association of American Publishers announced today the book sales figures for 2006, showing that the industry dropped by a slim 0.2%, down to $10.03 billion from $10.04 billion in 2005. AAP says the industry is "steady," with Adult Hardcover, Paperback, and Mass Market sales backing their claim (those categories rose, respectively, 4.1%, 8.5%. and 4.6% year-over-year). But some of the biggest money-making categories in the industry (like religious books) showed considerable decreases for the year -- some more than 20%.
Kid's books suffered significantly as well, showing obvious pains in a non-Harry Potter year. Kids Hardcover sales plummetted 29%, with paperback sales falling a mere 1.3%. With Rowling's Deathly Hallows hitting stores July 21, 2007, YA Hardcovers will no doubt see a significant spike in sales, probably in excess of 40%. A book like Potter traditionally increases traffic to stores (especially with the latest film installment going wide the previous week), so the industry can expect to see an increase on books located near or related to the Potter series. However, with B&N and Borders both offering on-line pre-sales of Hallows at about 40% off the list price, it's likely, says analyst Mark Rowen, "that none of these retailers will make any money on the book itself." That said, at the time of this release, Rowling's latest (again, not yet available until July) occupied both the No.1 and No.2 spots on Amazon.com's most popular titles, based on (pre)sales.
There is further promise: eBook sales rose more than 24% on the year. Though figures are still the lowest among all major categories, it's a very auspicious start. With eBooks celebrating the highest profit margin of any other book sold, thanks to the nomial costs of production and distribution, the industry could finally be opening its eyes to the importance of digital publishing.
This article syndicated from voidmagazine.blogspot.com. Chris Steib is the editor in chief of VoidMagazine.com.
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