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May 22 – May 29, 2011 Edition Bookstats Report Offers Deep Look at Publishing
New York, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/May 24, 2011–A new annual survey capturing the size and scope of the total U.S. book publishing industry is being introduced today along with preliminary analyses covering 2008−2010. The full report will be completed and made available in July 2011.
Incorporating net sales revenue and unit data from more than 1100 U.S. publishers, BookStats will represent the most comprehensive evaluation and analysis of the industry currently available. Upon its completion, it will include information from Trade, Scholarly, Education (K-12 and Higher Education) and Professional publishing houses as well as overall industry totals.
BookStats will reflect the transformational changes in the dynamic industry and the evolution of book production and sales. It was designed from the ground up to support publishers strategic priorities and will analyze data in a three-dimensional cube:
By content categories these include trade fiction and non-fiction, juvenile (early readers, middle grade and young adult), religious, K-12, higher education, professional and scholarly By formats these include physical (hardcover, paperback, audio and mass market), non-physical (e-Book, enhanced e-Books, downloadable audio, paid mobile apps, internet products and services), bundles By distribution channels these include physical retail (chains, independents, mass retailers and specialty), online retail, institutional sales (libraries and schools), direct-to-consumer, jobbers, wholesalers, book fairs and export sales
BookStats was developed by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Book Industry Study Group (BISG). Bowker was retained as the data collection provider.
The surveys methodology is being outlined, along with a preview of emerging trends, by AAP and BISG at BookExpo America, the book industry annual conference in New York. The session is being held at 2:00 PM Eastern at the Javits Convention Center, Room 1E16.
Preliminary data analysis, in the Trade market, shows such emerging trends as:
Between 2008−2010, there was growth in revenues and units sold for publishers of all sizes with medium- and small-sized publishers leading the increases particularly in print formats while simultaneously expanding their digital offerings. Industry shifts in format, content category and distribution channels are in the midst of growth and change. Predictably, the hardcover and softcover markets have declined while digital formats¯predominantly e-Books and apps (excluding digital audio)saw significant growth. Physical and digital audio did not see significant shift in market share. The Adult Fiction Market continues to be the dominant Trade publishing category, seeing modest growth in revenue and consistency in units across all three years of the survey. Childrens/Young Adult sales show substantial growth in its unit share over the three-year span. Sales and distribution channels continue the evolution to online while bricks-and-mortar outlets show varying levels of change. As expected, online retail has experienced increasing growth. Yet while larger chain retailers (including their online sales operations) have seen erosion during the three years, independent booksellers have remained relatively stable.
The full report to be released in July 2011 will include hard data of revenue and units along with numerical analyses from all sectors of the industry.
BookStats Origin
Both AAP and BISG are well-known in the book publishing industry for separately producing annual studies of the market. In 2010, they decided to end their individual reports and instead partner to develop a new joint industry statistics model. The new study would examine and document the full spectrum of publishing with emphasis on data and analytics publishers had identified as most important to their long-term strategies.
The goal of the project was to secure the widest possible base of publisher source data; it was agreed that 700 participants would be significant. To date, more than 1100 book publishers have provided information. Participants represent the entire range of U.S. publishing: the largest to smallest organizations and those within global media conglomerates to emerging regional micro-publishers.
General Methodology and Analytics
BookStats provides a comprehensive view of book publishing sales aggregated by revenue and units. Data for 2008−2010 was collected and is currently being analyzed using a cube approach presented across three distinct cross-sections: by categories, by formats and by distribution channels.
Data includes print and digital products and was submitted using three different survey levels:
Complex cube data feeds for large publishers Basic cube spreadsheets for independent midsized and smaller-sized publishers Simple revenue and units web survey for the smallest publishers
Following collection, data is now being segmented by sales tiers. This step is being done to a) provide its users with perspective regarding how publishers of similar size statistically align and b) create tight banding around publishers for the purposes of extrapolating a number for non-participants that falls within that range based on ancillary data.
The decision to collect three years of sales data was made to help validate year-over-year performance in certain aspects of the cube data and allow publishers to have an immediate and comparable historical trend line view.
Ancillary data from booksellers (including wholesalers and retailers), public documents and aggregate sales providers will also provide an accurate accounting of industry size overall and within each segment of the cube. Additional uses of the ancillary data will be used for tier sizing estimates to validate lower level tier segments and cube percentages.
Next Steps and Report Availability
The full report with all hard data and analytics will be issued in July. For those interested in purchasing a subscription, more information is available at www.bookstats.org
Concurrent with the complete reports issuance, a press release with highlights will be distributed to media and posted on both AAPs and BISGs websites (www.publishers.org and www.bisg.org respectively).
