PW: Trade book sales down across the board

[fjtorres]

From Publisher's weekly:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...-february.html

For the first two months of 2015, adult book sales were down 7.5% and sales of children/young adult titles were off 15.5%. At the end of the two month period, e-books accounted for 31.3% of adult sales compared to 33.0% in the first two months of 2014. In the children/young adult category, e-books accounted for 13.0% of sales in the January-February period in 2015, down from 18.5% in the comparable 2014 period.

Results are based on sales from 1,210 publishers who supply data to AAP’s StatShot program.

AAP numbers are normally year to year dollars, not unit sales.
Recently, they've been masking the decline of mass market paperback by combining those sales with trade paperbacks (so they could report growth in paperback) but apparently this time the drop was too big to mask so they're back to split reporting.

It lets them report a gain *somewhere*.

Gory details at the source.

[murg]

I find it interesting that the term 'adult' means different things in the book world vs the video world.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by murg

I find it interesting that the term 'adult' means different things in the book world vs the video world.

Not when it comes to 50 Shades.

I'm more amused by how all sorts of bloody and violent stories get lumped into "children".
Especially when they sell a lot.

[rkomar]

The prices just keep going up and up. They're up around $20 here in Canada. It makes you question whether you really need to read that book. And mass market paperbacks are released so late that hardly anyone cares anymore when they hit the shelves.

[crossi]

How do they know about ebooks? Can they even track ebooks without a ISBN number? This doesn't count Amazon does it? I thought Amazon didn't release that sort of data. This must be only about sales from the BPHs and Barnes & Noble and the like.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by crossi

How do they know about ebooks? Can they even track ebooks without a ISBN number? This doesn't count Amazon does it? I thought Amazon didn't release that sort of data. This must be only about sales from the BPHs and Barnes & Noble and the like.

"Results are based on sales from 1,210 publishers who supply data to AAP’s StatShot program."


It only covers participating publishers (don't know if Amazon Publishing participates). Doesn't cover self-pub stuff at all.

[pwalker8]

One of the fundamental issues with tracking sales of books (movies and music for that matter) is that a lot of sales are driven by individual authors. Sales jump when top authors release new books and slump when they don't. So you really need context for generic numbers to be meaningful.

[fjtorres]

Amazon is not a member of the AAP.
(Neither is BAEN.)
Melville house is. (Snicker)

The BPHs (except S&S) are members, with individual imprints listed separately. Here's a listing of the trade book membership:

http://publishers.org/members/trade/

It is mostly old-school tradpubs, although Rosetta Books is listed. Not Open Road. Interestingly, Samhain is listed separately from Skyhorse...
Kensington is in. So is Wiley.

Given that list, the numbers look to be dominated by BPH results.

Curious that the only American BPH is not listed as a member of the American Association of Publishers.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Not when it comes to 50 Shades.

I'm more amused by how all sorts of bloody and violent stories get lumped into "children".
Especially when they sell a lot.

Pretty easy - there is no age limit for books. Once you are old enough for the gory movie, why read. If you are in it for the story then it really doesn't matter if it is violent or not.

[Phogg]

I have been buying a whole lot of books.
Just few of the overpriced books from the big publishers.

My heart doesn't bleed for them
You reap what you sow.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Phogg

I have been buying a whole lot of books.
Just few of the overpriced books from the big publishers.

My heart doesn't bleed for them
You reap what you sow.

I enjoy it when people sow dragon's teeth.
And turn their backs.

[Barcey]

"It's absolutely vital that we control the retail price and we'll do anything it takes."

...

"Oh s#!+ we control pricing"

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Barcey

"It's absolutely vital that we control the retail price and we'll do anything it takes."

...

"Oh s#!+ we control pricing"

Short memories:

At the start of the conspiracy, an "unnamed" (penguin) exec confided to Shatzkin that he loved being able to raise prices at will, that he'd gone as high as $16 and was thinking of $18.
A month later, Penguin was at $13 and $16 a distant pipe dream.

Or maybe the word didn't get around.

[danskmacabre]

Here in Australia retail books are REALLY expensive. So I rarely buy physical books anymore.
I have loads of ebooks to be read anyway, so I'm good for some years.
The legally free books I can get could keep me entertained for years after that as well.
If the prices of pbooks and ebooks come down dramatically I'll buy books again, but I can't see that happening.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by saharmohamedali

- This spammer has been banned. Good riddance. -- MODERATOR.

Ebooks have ISBN numbers and what the hell is the graphic?