Industry Resources
Below please find a list of book industry statistical resources compiled by the AAP as they relate to the book publishing industry including literacy, reading trends, book-buying and other statistics to assist the book trade, academia, providing qualifying data for research and other related projects.
Industry sources are listed in chronological order. For more information on the compilation of data below, please contact the related organizations producing the reports supplied.
"Consumer Book Trends 2009" Webinar, December 2009
"Consumer Book Trends 2009," a webinar co-hosted by Bowker and the Association of American Publishers, explores the changing climate of book buying and shifting patterns of book consumer behavior. Highlights of the webinar include detailed channel analysis, including a breakdown of the book buyer demographics within top outlets, cross-selling at these outlets, as well as highlights on purchase behaviors and shopping visit behavior of different customer segments. Watch the saved webinar here.
“The Big Picture” on US Consumer Book Buying Webinar, October 2009
Who is today’s book consumer, where are they shopping, and how successful are we at reaching them is the subject of an hour-long webinar for industry professionals, a first-of-its-kind sneak peek into book buying trends for the first half of 2009. Publishers, booksellers, and other industry professionals are given the opportunity to understand consumer book buying behavior through Bowker’s PubTrack™ Consumer, one of the industry’s leading sources for intelligence on consumer book buying behavior. The saved webinar is here.
The Retail Perspective: What’s Up? What’s Down? Nielsen BookScan Presentation at BISG’s Making Information Pay, May 2009
Nielsen BookScan tracks book sales at the retail and point-of sale book data since January 2001, collected from over 12,000 location nationwide, including national chains, independents, college bookstore, Internet, discounter and fod retailers. Over 500,00 unique ISBNs are processed nearly each week, and capture end user consumer sales. Book trends for 2009 in the areas of adult non-fiction, (biography/autobiography) Personal memoirs; literary, politics, travel, economics management finance, spiritual); adult fiction (literary, historical political, mystery, graphic novels; audio, children’s/YA and backlist, among other data points are included. For a copy of the report, please click here. (Copyright 2007 The Nielsen Company).
The Customer’s Always Right….Who Is Today’s Book Consumer? Bowker’s PubTrack Presentation at BISG’s Making Information Pay, May 2009
R.R. Bowker’s PubTrack provides consumer book buying trends in the United States, including who reads and buys what, age medians of book buyers, the types and format of books consumers are interested in reading/buying -- including fiction, mystery/detective/romance, science fiction, and other categories – broken down by gender and economic backgrounds. PubTrack also identifies where books are purchased, including mass merchants, independent bookstores, chains, electronic retailers, and book clubs, as well as identifying how consumers find out about titles (store displays, advertising, book reviews etc.). For a copy of the report please click here (Copyright 2009, Bowker PubTrack).
Nearly One in Two Americans Read a Book Last Year, According to Bowker’s 2008 PubTrack Consumer Survey, May, 2009
In first of regular “Bowker Book Facts” data releases, company reveals age range of American readers, whether women or men are more likely to read books and how much time Americans spend reading versus other entertainment activities Forty-five percent of Americans over the age of 13 read a book last year and one in three of them were over the age of 55, according to newly released data from PubTrack Consumer. For a copy of the press release please visit http://www.bowker.com/index.php/press-releases
Bowker Reports U.S. Book Production Declines 3%, but “On Demand” Publishing More than Doubles, May, 2009
Traditional publishing faces pivotal year of retrenching, while emergence of new technologies leads to soaring growth in short-run book publishing Bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information management solutions, today released statistics on U.S. book publishing for 2008, compiled from its Books In Print® database. Based on preliminary figures from U.S. publishers, Bowker is projecting that U.S. title output in 2008 decreased by 3.2%, with 275,232 new titles and editions, down from the 284,370 that were published in 2007. For a copy of the press release please visit http://www.bowker.com/index.php/press-releases
AAP Reports Book Sales Reached $24.3 Billion in 2008
In March, 2008, The Association of American Publishers (AAP) released its annual estimate of total book sales in the United States. The report, which uses data from the Bureau of the Census as well as sales data from eighty-one publishers inclusive of all major book publishing media market holders, estimates that U.S. publishers had net sales of $24.3 billion in 2008, down from $25.0 billion in 2007, representing a 2.8% decrease. In the last six years the industry had a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.6%. Trade sales of adult and juvenile books fell 5.2 percent from 2007 to $8.1 billion, CAGR fell to 2.1 percent. Growth was found in paperbound books for children and adults, with growth rates of 6.4% and 3.6% respectively. Sales in the hardcover fell 12.4% in children's hardcover and 13% in adult hardcover.
Over the period covered by the estimated data, the CAGR for hardbound books was 0.4% for adult books and 1.5% for juvenile. Paperbound books grew 3.9% and 2.8% over the 6 years.
Educational titles had a mixed year. Sales in the Elementary (El-Hi) category, those books produced for K-12 education, fell 4.4% to $6.1 billion in 2008, CAGR for this category was 0.8%. The Higher Education category, which includes sales of college textbooks fared better. Total sales reached $3.8 billion this year up 2.7% on 2007. This brought the CAGR for college textbooks to 3.8%. Mass Market paperbacks decreased 3.0% and brought the category CAGR to -1.9%. Total sales were $1.1 billion in 2008. Book clubs and mail-order fell for the sixth year to $600 million, a fall of 3.4%. Audio book sales for 2008 totaled $172 million, down 21% on the prior year, CAGR for this category is still healthy at 3.1%. E-books continue to grow in significance, sales reached $113 million in 2008, up 68.4%. Religious book sales dropped 7.6% to $724m in 2008. However over the period of the estimate it has still performed well with CAGR of 4.5%.
For a complete list of the preliminary estimated book publishing industry net sales for 2008 prepared by Management Practice, Inc, please click HERE.
Nielsen BookScan Finds Flat Market, Publishers Weekly, January 12, 2009
Nielsen BookScan tracks book sales at the retail and point-of sale (AAP publishers at wholesale), recently released its 2008 sales in Units in subjects including adult nonfiction, adult fiction, juvenile and other categories. For the article appearing January 12, 2009 in Publishers Weekly, please visit: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6628121.html?
More American Adults Read Literature According to New NEA Study, January 12, 2009
Literary Reading on the Rise for the first time in History of Arts Endowment Survey
“For the first time in more than 25 years, American adults are reading more literature, according to a new study by the National Endowment for the Arts. Reading on the Rise documents a definitive increase in rates and numbers of American adults who read literature, with the biggest increases among adults, ages 18-23. This new growth reverses two decades of downward trends cited previously in NEA reports such as Reading at Risk and To Read or Not to Read.” Literary reading increas, demographics of literature readers, trends in media and literary preferences, and a breakdown of trends among ‘readers’ and ‘nonreaders’ is presented.
For a full press release issued by the National Endowment for the Arts please visit: http://www.nea.gov/news/news09/
ReadingonRise.html.
For additional resources as they relate to literature and reading produced by the National Endowment for the Arts, including “To Read or Not to Read” published in 2007, and Reading at Risk, published in 2002 please visit: http://www.nea.gov/research/ResearchReports_chrono.html. To Read or Not to Read, published by the National Endowment for the Arts November 2007 provides a comprehensive overview of American reading today (http://www.nea.gov/news/news07/TRNR.html). Amongst its findings: Greater academic, professional and civic benefits are associated with high levels of leisure reading and reading comprehension, and deficient readers are more likely than skilled readers to be out of the workforce. This is the follow up study to the original November 2004 Reading at Risk Study (http://www.arts.gov/pub/RaRExec.pdf)
Break Media Reveals Portrait of Today’s 18-34 Year Old Male: Providing attitudinal and Behavioral insights into the elusive consumers, December 2008.
Break Media, the premier online entertainment community for men, in December 2008 completed research to sharpen the media industry’s understanding of the 2008 young male Web user. The study, conducted by Q2 by Hall and Partners, surveyed a national representative sample of more than 500 men aged 18-34 that access the Internet at least once per month. Reading included one of the many activities fewer men make time for every week. With a time budget of 112 waking hours, 46% of men take time for reading books, amongst other media related leisure activities. For a copy of the full survey, please visit http://blog.wired.com/business/files/onlineadvertising.pdf
Publishers Weekly Article: Looking At Who Buys What Where: Examining Book Consumers with Bowker's PubTrack, Publishers Weekly, December 2008
Teenagers largely bought their books at the national bookstore chains in 2007, while their grandparents shopped for books from a variety of outlets. That was one of the findings drawn from PubTrack Consumer, the R.R. Bowker service that uses a national online survey to track various aspects of consumer book-buying behavior and patterns.
According to the data, the three major chains accounted for 46.3% of all units bought by teens in 2007, while readers 60 and older divided their purchases among chain stores (16.9%), the Internet (14.2%) and book clubs (13.5%). Readers between 18 and 28 (Generation Y) showed the most different characteristics among the five groups measured. Generation Y was the only group where the Internet was the top source of book purchases, and they were the most comfortable buying nonprint products—digital downloads of audiobooks, e-books and other nonprint items accounted for 4% of purchases. The group also spent the least amount of dollars on fiction, spreading their purchases among an array of nonfiction areas. For readers over 60, fiction accounted for more than half of the books they purchased in 2007, with the mystery/detective category the most popular, accounting for 23.4% of book purchases.
The article features data on the number of teen book buyers, types of books purchased, dollars spent, where a book was purchased, and more. To read the full Publishers Weekly article, please visit: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6617764.html?q=R%2ER%2E+Bowker
The 2008 Kids And Family Reading Report™ Conducted By Yankelovich And Scholastic
Reading in the 21st Century: Turning the Page with Technology, August 2008
Tweens and Teens who Participate in Online Activities Are More Likely to Read Books for Fun Daily. A study released in 2008 found that 75% of kids age 5-17 agree with the statement, “No matter what I can do online, I’ll always want to read books printed on paper,” and 62% of kids surveyed say they prefer to read books printed on paper rather than on a computer or a handheld device. The Kids & Family Reading Report ™, a national survey of children age 5-17 and their parents, also found that kids who go online to extend the reading experience – by going to book or author websites or connecting with other readers – are more likely to read books for fun every day. An analysis on kids anre reading, technology and the printed book, the Internet as an extension of reading, and Parents’ Role in Kids Reading are among the many topics addressed.
The 2008 Kids & Family Reading Report, a follow up to a similar 2006 study, both of which were conducted by Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, and TSC, a division of Yankelovich, a leader in consumer trends research, again found that the time kids spend reading books for fun declines after age eight and continues to drop off through the teen years. Among its findings
For the data points presented, a video presentation, and a copy of the full report, please visit: http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/news/readingreport.htm
Bowker Reports The Number of Titles Produced in 2007 Flat in 2007, May 2008
R.R. Bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information management, released statistics on U.S. book publishing for 2007, compiled from its Books In Print® database. Based on preliminary figures from U.S. publishers, Bowker projecting that U.S. title output in 2007 increased slightly to 276,649 new titles and editions, up from the 274,416 that were published in 2006. The report also provides statistics on print on demand service output. According to Bowker, 50,071 new fiction titles were introduced in 2007, up 17% from 2006, and there was a 19% rise in new literacture books, to 9,796, which followed a 31% increase in new literature titles in 2006. For more a copy of the full press release, additional category breakdowns, and research methodology, please visit the R.R. Bowker web site at http://www.bowker.com/index.php/press-releases-2008/526-bowker-reports-us-book-production-flat-in-2007
One In Four Adults Read No Books Last Year; Biggest Readers Were Women, Older People
R.R. Bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information management, released statistics on U.S. book publishing for 2007, compiled from its Books In Print® database. Based on preliminary figures from U.S. publishers, Bowker projecting that U.S. title output in 2007 increased slightly to 276,649 new titles and editions, up from the 274,416 that were published in 2006. The report also provides statistics on print on demand service output. According to Bowker, 50,071 new fiction titles were introduced in 2007, up 17% from 2006, and there was a 19% rise in new literacture books, to 9,796, which followed a 31% increase in new literature titles in 2006. For more a copy of the full press release, additional category breakdowns, and research methodology, please visit the R.R. Bowker web site at http://www.bowker.com/index.php/press-releases-2008/526-bowker-reports-us-book-production-flat-in-2007
AAP Reports Book Sales Rose to $ 25 Billion in 2007.
In March, 2008, The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has today released its annual estimate of total book sales in the United States. The report, which uses data from the Bureau of the Census as well as sales data from eighty-one publishers inclusive of all major book publishing media market holders, estimates that U.S. publishers had net sales of $25 billion in 2007; a 3.2 percent increase from 2006 with a compound growth rate of 2.5 percent per year since 2002.
Trade sales of adult and juvenile books grew 3.0 percent from 2006 to $8.5 billion, at a compound growth rate of 3.6 percent. The strongest growth in this category came from adult hardbound books whose sales rose 7.8 percent on last year to a total of $2.8 billion with a compound growth rate of 3.4 percent. Adult paperbound books rose by 0.2 percent from 2006 to $2.3 billion with compound growth of 4.0 percent.
Sales of titles for children and young adults (juvenile) hardbound fell slightly by 0.5 percent to 2.0 billion compared to last year; however paperbound saw an increase of 4.1 percent to 1.4 billion from 2006. Over the longer term, juvenile books are performing well, with compound annual growth rates of 4.6 percent for hardbound and 2.1 percent for paperbound since 2002.
Audio books had a good year with an increase of 19.8 percent from 2006 to a total of $218 million, at a compound growth rate of 8.8 percent per year. 2007 was also a good year for Religious books which saw an increase of 5.2 percent compared to last year with $783 million in sales. Compound growth is strong at 7.1 percent per year. E-books saw a 23.6 percent increase from last year with $67 million in sales and a compound growth rate of 55.7 percent since 2002.
After an increase in 2006, Mass market paperbacks saw a small decline of 2.0 percent in 2007, reaching $1.1 billion; compound annual growth fell to 1.7 percent . Sales through book clubs fell by 2.8 percent from 2006 to $622 million in 2007.
Educational titles had a solid year; sales of K-12 products (El-Hi) rose by 2.7 percent to $6.4 billion compared to 2006, with a compound growth rate of 1.9 percent. Higher Education titles saw sales of $3.7 billion, up 6.5 percent on 2006 with a compound growth rate of 4.0 percent.
For a complete list of the preliminary estimated book publishing industry net sales for 2007 prepared by Management Practice Inc, please visit: http://www.publishers.org/main/IndustryStats/indStats_02.htm
For additional information: Tina Jordan, AAP New York (212-255-0200 ext. 263, tjordan@publishers.org).
Read Across the Nation Chartbook, November 2007
Published by Reach Out & Read, a national non-profit organization that promotes early literacy by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud in pediatric exam rooms across the nation. representing 50,000 pediatricians who prescribe books in their pediatric offices, published a Read Across the Nation Chartbook in November 2007. Amongst its findings: Only 30% of children from households where the primary language is not English were read to daily, compared with 51% where the primary home language is English. The hyperlink is: http://www.reachoutandread.org/press_chart.html