Book sales

Publishing is the business of creating books and selling them to readers. And yet, for some reason we aren't supposed to talk about the latter. Most literary writers consider book sales a half-crass / half-mythological subject that is taboo to discuss.

As the ongoing trade war between the United States and China rumbled on early this year, some interesting book industry statistics were coming out of the People's Republic. In January, OpenBook, the Beijing-based industry data monitor, announced that retail sales in China had jumped 11.3% to RMB89.4bn, or around $13bn.

UK book sales fell for the first time in five years in 2018, despite the success of bestsellers such as Michelle Obama's autobiography, Becoming.

The UK publishing industry was hit by a surprise fall of £168m (5.4%) in sales of physical books last year, ending a period of growth stretching back to at least 2014.  Read more

The UK print market has grown in value for a fourth year running, with 2018 showing a marginal volume increase too. Last year, 190.8 million books were sold for £1.63bn through Nielsen BookScan's TCM, a 2.14% increase in value and a 0.33% lift in volume against 2017. Average selling price also rose, with 2018's a.s.p of £8.53 a record high.

Amazon's dubious ethical employment standards are nothing new. You know the ecommerce giant is unrivalled when it comes to logistics and infrastructure. And their unscrupulous pricing strategy has long ceased to astonish - retailers simply cannot compete.  Read more