Book Sales Statistics

Amazon, Barnes&Noble and Borders Sales Numbers Annual Update

The following current year information about book sales is taken from the annual reports, SEC filings and company press releases for the full year from Barnes&Noble, Borders, Amazon.com, and BN.com. International sales numbers for Borders and Amazon not included. Amazon is now the biggest book retailer, both in North America and overseas, that Barnes&Noble saw sales drop around 5% on the year, and Borders is on its last legs. If you're wondering when the fiscal year 2010 data will be available, the answer is 2011.

Company 2009 FY North American Sales (Books, Media plus cofee, etc:-)

Barnes&Noble / B. Dalton¹ - (to Q1 2010) $4.30 billion (Not including $836 million from the newly acquired college book store division)

Borders / Waldenbooks - (to Q1 2010) $2.65 billion (Down 15% from 2009, excludes international)

Amazon Media (excludes electronics, services - books, includes books, music, DVDs) - 2009 calendar year $5.96 billion (Amazon International stores sold $6.81 billion in 2009, and growing much more rapidly than North America) for the first time.

BN.com - 2008 $573 million (Up from $466 million in 2007)

Total - 2009 $13.483 billion

¹2006 was the last year Barnes&Noble is breaking out B. Dalton sales in their results. I've always combined them for the total.

Amazon International passes Amazon North America

Amazon outsells brick-and-mortar chain stores

Sales growth (or loss) over previous seven years

Company - %'s all rounded 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001

Barnes&Noble Bookstores -5% -3% +2% +2% +2% +8% +7% + 4% + 3%

Borders / Waldenbooks -15% -9% -0% -1% +2% +2% +4% + 1% + 3%

Amazon Media (books, music, DVDs) North America +11% +16% +29% +17% +18% +14% +21% + 10% - 1%

BN.com +24% -2% +9% -1% +5% -2% +4% + 4% + 21%

Book sales through retailers fell in 2009, and overall bookstore sales have been treading water since 2003 according to the government (table below).The combined total for media sales (mainly books) of the Barnes&Noble and Borders chains plus Amazon North America and BN.com was $13.5 billion, with all the gain comng from online sales. These sums include a couple billion dollars worth of DVD's, CD's, coffee and brownies that aren't publicly broken out of the numbers. Barnes and Noble pointed out years ago in a conference call that "most" of their business is in stable backlist sales, and their most valuable asset is their real estate. They are trying to create new book selling realestate with their Nook eBook reader, and claim their share of the eBook market is now greater than their share of the printed book market. The decline in Borders North American sales accelerated in 2009, they opened no new superstores and closed many Waldens bookstores in malls. Amazon media sales grew at a healthy pace, thanks to Kindle and Prime. Amazon got serious about ebooks again in 2007 with the release of their Kindle reader, now over 500,000+ titles and with new Kindle readers and titles selling rapidly.

The $16.6 billion estimated by the US Census Bureau for 2009 retail book sales also includes the other non-book goods sold by those retailers, but doesn't include Amazon and other mail-order sellers. The $16.6 billion figure is a good $10 billion lower than total book sales estimates from various industry surveys, but those surveys include both mass merchandisers, such as Walmarts and supermarkets, where a relatively limited selection of titles are sold, the Elhi (Elementary through High School) market for textbooks, which accounts for approximately $5 billion in sales per year, and bookclubs. With specialty religion bookshops accounting for at least another billion in sales a year, and several billion dollars in professional books being sold through nontraditional channels, it's apparent that there isn't a huge slice of pie left over for the general indy booksellers by anybody's math.

Within the Barnes&Noble and Borders chains, book sales are falling at their small stores (B. Dalton and Waldenbooks) which are being shut down and replaced with superstores. In 2005, Amazon bought BookSurge LLC, an aggressive POD company whose performance had hitherto been limited by their lack of access to Amazon. They don't break out Booksurge in their annual report, and in 2009, rolled BookSurge into CreateSpace, another self publishing acquisition. Amazon stopped selling ebooks through their International sites in 2005 and dropped the Lightning Source ebooks that made up most of their North American ebook sales in 2006. Google announced they would start selling ebooks in 2006 but never did, 2010 is Google's new target date for selling eBooks. Amazon's international media sales are now greater than their North America sales may be breater than Borders and Barens&Nobles North American sales combined.

Third Party Sales As Percentage Of Amazon Item Sales
Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

% Total Item Sales 6% 13% 17% 22% 26% 28% 28% 28% 28% 30%

Year over year growth N/A 116% 31% 29% 18% 7% 0% 0% 0% 7%

Amazon MarketPlace (Third Party Sales) reached 30% of Amazon item sales in 2009. That's easily over a hundred million of sales, every one producing a profit, and Amazon's percentage on MarketPlace sales is pretty stiff for most items, and may also including listing and closing fees. I haven't tried doing the math, but it's entirely possible that Amazon, as a store selling new products, runs in the red, and the whole operation is subsidized by their verision of eBay.

Book sales from the US Census Bureau

$Millions/Month 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002

Jan 2,294 2,233 2,285 2,175 2,206 2,053 2,135 2,056 1,973

Feb 1,013 1,010 1,144 1,012 1,082 1,070 1,099 990 1,001

Mar 1,013 998 1,019 999 1,071 1,082 1,064 923 1,009

Apr 917 969 1,002 908 967 979 1,014 974 968

May 1,108 1,156 1,101 1,150 1,098 1,102 1,105 1,118

Jun 1,103 1,074 1,130 1,210 1,129 1,196 1,178 1,046

Jul 1,104 1,124 1,189 1,108 1,187 1,161 1,125 1,038

Aug 2,422 2,462 2,285 2,091 2,167 2,101 2,132 1,799

Sep 1,584 1,507 1,562 1,521 1,511 1,549 1,567 1,491

Oct 1,030 1,053 1,103 1,023 1,030 1,063 1,042 998

Nov 1,023 1,054 1,187 1,103 1,111 1,083 1,032 1,060

Dec 2,027 2,014 2,113 2,057 2,179 2,190 2,055 1,949

Total (year) 16,604 16,893¹ 16,768 16,589 16,596 16,757 16,179 15,450

¹Months are frequently revised on the Census spreadsheet after the fact, you just have to go back and check:-)

Included in survey:

4512111 Book Stores, General

Establishments primarily engaged in retailing a general line of new books. These establishments may also sell stationery and related items, second-hand books, and magazines.

4512112 Specialty Book Stores

Establishments primarily engaged in retailing specialty books, such as general reference, religious, and professional books.

4512113 College Book Stores

Establishments primarily engaged in retailing textbooks, generally on the college level. Most of these establishments are located on or near college campuses, and some sell more apparel than books. These establishments may also offer second-hand textbooks. School book stores, other than college, are included in this industry.

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