The Cost of Having Fun - Spending On Books

According to the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), consumers spent about $37.9 billion to purchase books in 2003, a figure that was projected to rise 2.9% to $39 billion in 2004. Of this total, retail sales of adult trade books accounted for an estimated $8.4 billion in 2003, which would rise to $8.5 billion in 2004, while juvenile trade book sales of $3.4 billion in 2003 were expected to increase to $3.7 billion in 2004. According to the American Booksellers Association, the average retail price of a new hardcover book was declining, hitting $22.75 in 2003, down from $23.73 in 1998. In addition to buying books, many people also borrowed them from libraries, purchased used copies, and shared, loaned, or passed books on to friends or family.

Reflecting the gradual decline in reading that was found by a Harris poll conducted in late 2003, the market research firm Ipsos-Insight reported in 2003 that book sales figures had remained relatively stagnant during the preceding five years. Among the group that historically purchased the most books, households earning $50,000 per year or more, sales had in fact declined. This was true despite the expansion of such chains as Barnes & Noble and Borders and the emergence of such Internet "e-tailers" as Amazon.com.

Ipsos-Insight found that 22.5% of book purchases in 2002 were made at large bookstore chains, while book clubs accounted for 19.2%, independent stores and small chains 15.5%, warehouse clubs 6.8%, mass merchandisers 5.5%, used bookstores 4.8%, and the rest divided among variety stores, supermarkets, drugstores, and other types of retail outlets. Internet sales, nonexistent in 1995, continued to grow steadily, up from 7.1% in 2000 to 8.1% in 2002.

The U.S. publishing industry as a whole saw wholesale revenues of $23.4 billion in 2003, as estimated by the Association of American Publishers in a press release dated March 31, 2004. Sales of trade books rose 1.2% from 2002, to $5.1 billion, while adult trade hardbound titles dropped 2.4% to $2.5 billion, and paperbound sales declined 0.6% to $1.5 billion. Sales of juvenile hardbound books increased 28.6%, to $698 million, while juvenile paperbacks dropped 5.2% to $448.6 million. Sales of book club titles fell 9%, to $1.3 billion, and mass-market paperbacks declined 1.7% to $1.2 billion. The biggest growth area was religious titles, which increased 50.2% to $1.3 billion.

Other major categories included elementary/high school educational books, which increased 2.5% to $4.3 billion; higher education titles, which rose 3.6% to $3.4 billion; professional and scholarly books, which grew by 3.6% to $4 billion; and standardized tests, which increased 12.4% to $592 million.