Saturday, January 02, 2010

2009 Book Sales

Crain’s New York Business had some good news about book sales in 2009. So let’s start 2010 off on a positive note.
… some observers are thinking that pessimism over the future of books may be overdone.
Of course, not every genre ended up in sales:
The biggest decline by category was in adult non-fiction, with sales of 272 million units, down 7% from the prior year.
But some were up:
Sales of adult fiction hardcover books rose 3% to 36 million units. Trade paperbacks in the category also grew their sales, to 79 million, an increase of 2% over the prior year.
Why were sales up? Here’s Crain’s possible reasons:
There are several theories for the increase in sales of hardcover fiction, starting with the publication of Dan Brown's blockbuster thriller The Lost Symbol in September. Ms. Shanley also believes credit should go to the price wars that broke out in October between Amazon.com and big box retailers, most notably Wal-Mart, over new titles like Stephen King's Under the Dome and Dean Koontz's Breathless.

Another theory holds that consumers in a recession were looking for entertainment.
Good news to start the new decade. Yay! Feel free to share any good book news you have.
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20 comments:

  1. This IS good news. Best of all because it means people are reading! (Or, at least, buying books and planning to read.)

    Elizabeth
    Mystery Writing is Murder

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  2. That's a nice piece of news to start the new year with! Thanks :)

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  3. Here's an interesting tidbit. On Christmas Day, Amzaon's E-Book sales beat physical book sales.
    Of course, that's probably due to a whole bunch of people receiving a Kindle for Christmas and immediately jumping online to download a book. I-Tunes gets hit hard every year due to I-Pod, I-Phone, and gift card Christmas gifts.

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  4. A Happy New Year to all readers, especially those buying more books.

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  5. I'm thinking there are less interesting movies and people go back to reading?

    And your slide show is back, Yah! Love it.

    Really Angelic

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  6. Now THIS ... IS some good news for a change. And let's hope (and BELIEVE) it is a change to stay in 2010 and beyond. Thanks for the upbeat start to the NY, Helen.

    Marvin D Wilson

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  7. Helen, good news and an excellent reminder that often people report ONLY bad news.

    As long as there's readers, writers will sell books. And I suspect that there are more readers now, due to the Internet.

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  8. I think the fact that people turn to more reading during a recession was a big factor in the rise in sales. I also heard that movie attendance was up this year as well. People do like to focus on entertainment to get their minds off the negative news.

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  9. I can see how price wars increased overall sales. But with so many Borders Books and Music stores closing, I wonder if this trend will turn in 2010 as one more competitor begins to fade away.

    Stephen Tremp

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  10. Ooops, I write adult nonfiction and those sales went down! Maybe I need to learn to write mysteries, ha ha.
    I see reading as enriching people's lives, and my dh and I buy lots of books.
    I am glad to hear this encouraging news re book sales.
    Happy New Year to All,
    Terra

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  11. Well, there you go! I like hardbacks but I didn't think they were so popular these days!

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  12. I know Borders have closed their small stores housed within malls but around my area, their big stores seemed to be busting with business. The two weeks before Christmas you could hardly move about the store. It's very busy this week after also.
    I had crowds but I love seeing so many people buying books. I hope the trend keeps up. With the economy the way it is, those 'beach reads' might be 'lawn chair on the back deck' reads.

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  13. I did volunteer gift wrapping for the Bess Whitehead Scott Scholarship Fund in a Barnes & Noble just before Christmas. They seemed to be pretty busy and the folks that stopped by to have us wrap were upbeat, friendly, and nice tippers.

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  15. I noticed good bookstore sales here in Qld Australia this year. Book prices in Australia are too high. Its a joke to think I can buy books online, with postage and exchange rates, almost half the price of those sold in stores.

    Yay for good news! Happy new year everyone.

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  16. I noticed good bookstore sales here in Qld Australia this year. Book prices in Australia are too high. Its a joke to think I can buy books online, with postage and exchange rates, almost half the price of those sold in stores.

    Yay for good news! Happy new year everyone.

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