This is kind of long – these are all the May deals I thought were interesting. I whittled out some of the guy-oriented books and some of the mystery/inspirational. I’ll do it on a weekly basis after this.
Major deal = $$$ money.
NYT bestselling author of WHAT THE DEAD KNOW and ANOTHER THING TO FALL Laura [...]
HarperCollins is experimenting with a no return policy. According to the GalleyCat article yesterday, 31% of books printed are returned to the publishers. Removing the right of return would reduce environmental waste. However, no returns will likely result in fewer books ordered by the chain stores. Independents might eliminate ordering books [...]
Borders, who financially might be on its last legs, is not going down without a fight. It opened a new store a few weeks ago and is now launching a new Latina book club (does the Latina instead Latino mean that the book club is just for women?)
Does this mean that there will be [...]
I haven’t done a good job of posting these figures recently, but net book sales for the year are up 6.2% in 2008 and 4.8% in February alone. Given that we are either in a recession or on the cusp, I would think any amount of increase is positive. Adult paperback is [...]
Business Week reports that ebook sales are up 59% in 2007 as compared to sales in 2006. I suspect some of this is due to the increasing availability of mainstream books in “e” form. I believe that all major publishers put out their romance books in ebook form except Dorchester (although I have [...]
As reported by Publishers Marketplace
A Better Quarter for Harper
HarperCollins rebounded in their fiscal second quarter after a “terrible” first quarter, with sales rising 3 percent compared to a year ago to $406 million and income of $67 million–up $13 million from the same time last year, though that was [...]
From Publishers Weekly:
The Publishers Weekly Stock Index managed to eke out a 1.7% increase last year, thanks largely to Amazon.com. Shares soared nearly 135% while the stock fortunes of traditional book stores fared much worse, particularly Borders Group, which lost half of it’s value in 2007. Even bookstore leader Barnes & [...]
It’s books, not gadgets, that is the top selling product online across the world. According to a new Nielsen report, 41% of internet users worldwide (48 countries) and 38% of US internet users (estimated 57.5 million) buy books online.
Nielsen expects this number to grow. Foner Books sales statistics show that 2007 sales numbers for [...]
Now through December 31, at Fictionwise, every MultiFormat eBook is discounted 20% and every Secure eBook receives a 20% Micropay rebate. A multiformat book is one that is sold without DRM and a Secure book (usually from a NY Publisher) has DRM. Happy ebook shopping folks.
Publishers Weekly (and every other book rag including mine now) reported that the bookstore sales for October were up again rising 8.0% to $1.10 billion in sales. Not too shabby. This is the fourth month of increased book sales. Great news because surely the October sales can't be attributed to Harry Potter [...]
In the fall of 2007, USA Today had an article declaring that Manga was dying. Despite that Tor has signed a joint venture with Seven seas Entertainment to produce and distribute original manga titles and compete for the licenses of top Japanese Manga.
Total sales for Manga is up by 10% to “more than [...]
According to the Business of Consumer Publishing 2006, the net revenue from retail sources in the U.S. accounted for $6.31 billion in 2006. Romance sales accounted for $1.37 billion or 21% of the overall sales just behind religious/inspirational sales which accounted for $1.68 billion. According to the Assocation of American Publishers, religious/inspirational sales [...]
This article tickled my fancy. Apparently, the Church of England approved the sale of hundreds of old Bibles and manuscripts to John Thornton, a small bookshop owner in Chelsea, West London for 36,000 pounds. Thornton, in turn, resold the religious collection for more than 500,000 pounds and plans to retire to the country [...]
Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Books a Million (BAMM) all experienced profitable quarters due to the scads of people buying Harry Potter books.
Borders
Sales in the quarter ending in August 2007 rose 10.4%.
Excluding the sales of Harry Potter, the same store sales for Borders showed only a 0.4% increase compared to the previous year sales. [...]
According to an Associated Press-Ipso poll held in August, one in four American adults did not read a book in 2006. The demographics of who reads falls largely by class and gender lines. Women who are better educated with higher incomes tend to read more, with those who are liberal reading slightly more [...]
According to figures from the Association of American Publishers, book sales in June rose 4.3% to $720.6 million and 7.9% year to date.
Increases
Audiobook: 25.9% to $12.9 million
E-books: 13.5% to $2.7 million
Children’s/YA hardcover up 22.2% to $42.3 million
Children’s/YA paperback: 7.1% to $38.4 million
Religious books: 19.4% to $37.3 million
Adult hardcover: 11.1% [...]
Word came down a few weeks ago that the brick and mortar Wal-mart stores were reducing the number of mid list authors it was going to carry. According to Black Romance Reader, that is not the only negative book shelving change that is going on. BRR reported that the following:
I'd already known [...]
According to the estimates by the Census Bureau, bookstore sales dropped 6.0% in April (following a 6.8% drop in March). The Census Bureau statistics are devoted to brick and mortar stores, however, and do not include direct mail or internet sales.
Via Publishers Weekly.
According to Shelf Awareness, libraries account for 10% of book sales. Apparently what libraries choose to buy is a mystery. We should Wendy, The Super Librarian, and Devon, come talk about library sales. I know that Wendy buys for many, many libraries. Hmm. [...]
The Association of American Publishers estimate that there is a total drop in sales from 2005 by 0.3%. Trade paperbacks increased by 8.5% ($8.28billion) and ebooks were up 24.1%($54.4million). Audio book sales were down 11.7% along with religion and book clubs. Maybe Amazon’s acquisition of Brilliance will lead to a surge in [...]
The AAP reported that net sales are on the rise–1.7% for March and 7.8% year to date. The big gainers were audiobooks (33.6%); adult hardcovers (27.5%), children’s/YA Paperbacks (13.7%); ebooks (12%). The losers were children’s/YA Hardcovers (2.2% decline); scholarly books and university press books; adult mass markets (5.8%); and religion books [...]
According to Shelf Awareness, the US Census Bureau estimates that bookstore sales were down for March by $998 or 4.1% compared to March 2006. The Census Bureau does not count electronic sales, mail-order or direct sales. With the increase in Amazon profits and the declining bookstore sales, it seems that more and more [...]
With everyone else posting positive years, Harper Collins had 2 glum quarters. In the third quarter of fiscal 2007, however, profits are up at Harper Collins by a whopping 11%. Overall profits in the first nine months of the fiscal year were down by 20%.
The 3d [...]
The Baltimore Sun had an article criticizing the selling of books online at ABE and Amazon by the not for profit organization, Book Thing. Under the name, Boards & Wraps, Russell Wattenberg has over 4,000 titles listed for sale online. These are books that Wattenberg receives in the form [...]
Booksales are up but bookstore sales are down. Perhaps the difference can be explained by Amazon who reported a profit of $111 million for quarter ending March 31 with sales up 32% from a year ago.
I remember when reports said that Amazon book sales only account for 5% of the book market. [...]
Despite fears of a dwindling readership, February book sales were up. Ebooks had the strongest gains, rising 44.7% with sales of 2.5 million. Adult hardcovers followed close behind with sales of $111.9m and Children/YA hardcovers rose 43.4% with sales of $37.4 million. I read a great young adult book yesterday by Melissa [...]
The Atlanta Journal Constitution has terminated the position of Books editor, Teresa Weaver. The Constitution says that in the future, it will use freelance writers. However, a publicist for Little, Brown based out of Atlanta believes that this is the sign of the book section being eliminated by the paper like so many [...]
Teleread.org is reporting on the appearance of a not so new contender to the used book market. Authors are cringing at more companies encouraging readers to trade books through the mail while readers are rejoicing.
BookMooch and PaperbackSwap work essentially the same way. You list the books you have [...]
Yesterday, Borders Rewards members received an email announcing changes to the Rewards program. Last year, when you made purchases, a percentage of those purchases were rebated back to you to spend during the Holidays. This year, you’ll receive a $5 Borders Buck coupon for every $150 spent. [...]
A very important consumer rule is being considered by the Supreme Court which would impact retail pricing in the US. Yesterday, in the case of Leegin Creative Leather Products Inc. v. PSKS Inc., No. 06-480, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether the rule which prevents manufacturers from dictating to retailers what price [...]
