Mass-market paperback market crumbling in US

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Doug Pardee
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Mass-market paperback market crumbling in US

Post by Doug Pardee » June 23rd, 2011, 12:44 pm

The Association of American Publishers released its monthly statistics for April. Mass-market paperbacks had yet another a dismal showing, and the lowest sales figure in many years.

Average sales per month (wholesale, US dollars):
2006: $65 million
2007: $70 million
2008: $67 million
2009: $65 million
2010: $56 million
2011: $38 million (based on first four months)

April is historically a weak month for MMPB sales, so lets look at just that month:

April sales history (wholesale, US dollars):
2006: $41 million
2007: $52 million
2008: $53 million
2009: $51 million
2010: $49 million
2011: $28 million

MMPB sales are off by almost half over recent years, and the trend is pretty obviously downward. Of course, e-book sales continue to increase, and so far this year, e-book sales have been just about double (in dollars) the mass-market paperback sales. Or, in other words, e-book sales this year have been right around where mass-market paperback sales used to be.

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Mira
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Joined: December 7th, 2009, 9:59 am
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Re: Mass-market paperback market crumbling in US

Post by Mira » June 24th, 2011, 4:22 pm

Yes, again, not surprising.

Thanks for sharing all these figures, Doug. It's really cool of you.

I think we're seeing a powerful technological shift in motion.

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