Industry Trends and Fluctuations Revealed
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) released the latest BookStats report for June 2014, revealing that book industry sales in 2013 remained flat during the year when publishers had actually anticipated a dip in sales. The report, which provides a comprehensive overview of the U.S. book publishing industry (quantified by publisher’s net unit and dollar sales), unveils informative industry data that is useful for tracking trends and fluctuations in the marketplace.
2012 was a stellar year in publishing, with the success of blockbusters like the “Fifty Shades” and “Hunger Games” series, that the expectations for 2013 were low. Surprisingly, the report noted only a slight drop in units and revenue for 2013 (versus 2012) and saw numbers overall increasing at the same pace as in earlier years. The strongest year-over-year growth among the trade subcategories — adult fiction, adult non-fiction, juvenile fiction, juvenile non-fiction, and religion — was seen in adult non-fiction.
R.R. Bowker’s annual report on print book publishing notes a slight reduction (of about 2%) in books produced in 2013 as compared to 2012 — perhaps because of that conservative expectation for the year’s sales. One area of market correction did occur in the non-traditional publishing market, where publishers held back production of books such as reprints of public domain titles. However, the overall decrease is slight enough to lead Bowker to note that despite eBook competition, traditional print publishing remains strong.
That fact seems to be borne out by the Nielsen Books & Consumers 2013 survey, which showed print outselling eBooks. However, publishers are selling more of those hard copies through online stores than in brick-and-mortar. The survey also showed that, in the UK at least, one in four consumer books purchased is an eBook, and in the adult fiction category, eBooks make up more than 40% of total sales.
This data about the mix of people who want physical books but want to buy them online is helpful to publishers who are currently planning for end-of-year sales. Now is the time to implement and ramp up eCommerce sites as well as develop your direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales strategy for the holiday season and beyond.
Also of interest, according to a Publishers’ Weekly ranking of the current top-sellers of 2014, is the fact that young readers are a driving force in the market. Young adults are buying titles such as John Green’s “The Fault in OurStars” and Veronica Roth’s “Divergent”. It’s good to know that publishers have a strong existing and future audience — and that books are definitely in the media mix for young people.
The takeaway from these industry accounts is that publishers no longer need to wonder whether print or digital is their main business. Publishing provides such an integrated mix of media, their main business is BOTH.
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