November Good for Books All Over

Last week, PW reported a 7.5 percent increase in bookstore sales for November—this morning, the Association of American Publishers released its figures for book sales in all venues, with a slightly higher uptick of 8.0 percent. The disparity becomes wider when the year-to-date sales are compiled, though; while bookstores only improved their business by 0.8 percent in the first eleven months of 2007, the entire book market expanded by 9.0 percent.

Big winners for November included children’s books (11.4 percent increase in sales for hardcovers, 24.8 percent for paperbacks) and—perhaps due to the release of the Amazon.com Kindle—e-books, which saw a 36.4 percent increase in sales. That number looks impressive, but here’s another perspective: The actual e-book revenue for November was $2.5 million; during the same timeframe, audiobook sales decreased by 24.1 percent and they still pulled in $15.4 million.

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