31 Eye Opening Book Sales Statistics

Book Industry Statistics

There are approximately 10,200 bookstores in the United States. Independent book stores account for over 1900 locations owned by a majority of small business owners. Barnes and Noble operate over 1300 store locations to include retail and college sites. Books a Million operates over 250 stores with Hudson Booksellers operating 59 retail outlets. The book industry has seen annual revenue of $23 billion a year.

Top 6 Book Publisher Companies

1. Random House, Inc.
2. Penguin Putnam, Inc.
3. HarperCollins
4. Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings
5. Time Warner
6. Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Top 5 Countries for Book Publishing

The following five countries have seen the highest numbers of annual books published.

1. United States – 328,259
2. United Kingdom – 206,000
3. China – 189,295
4. Russian Federation – 123,336
5. Germany – 93,124

Book Publishing Business

An explanation as to how the book publishing industry is still thriving and its current trends.

Best US Cities for Book Sales

The following top cities saw the most book sales last year.

• Los Angeles
• New York
• Chicago
• Boston
• Washington DC
• Philadelphia
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• San Jose
• San Diego

Cities with Most Book Stores

1. Seattle
2. San Francisco
3. Cincinnati
4. Minneapolis
5. St. Louis

Additional Book Industry Statistics

• 54% of small and independent publishers are male. 42% are female.
• The average independent publisher publishes 7 titles each.
• The average publisher earns $420,000.
• Over 60% of publishers operate out of their home office.
• California has six times the number of small publishers than any other state.

Traditional vs. Digital Book Industry

A comparison of traditional books vs. e-books. The average American purchases 57 books a second, equating to 5 million books a day. The following infographic outlines current statistics to the economics of digital books.