BookFinder.com Journal

Big news. People have been talking about the new Book Industry Study Group’s comprehensive new report on the American used book industry for years. Well, it’s finally out.

Here’s what we now know about American used book sales in 2004:

• Overall sales were over $2.2 billion (over $600 million of that online)
• Overall sales grew 11% from 2003 to 2004 (4.6% offline, 33% online)
• 111 million used books were sold, making up 8% of all books sold (expected to grow to 9% by the end of the decade)

Academic books (textbooks) are where the money’s at:

• Used textbook sales were $1.6 billion, sold mostly offline (an 8.5% increase over 2003)
• Used textbooks cost an average of $42.31
• Used textbook sales account for 30% of the value of all textbook sales

But sales of general (non-textbook) titles are booming:

• General used book sales were $600 million (a 25% increase over 2003)
• General used books cost an average of $8.12
• General used book sales account for 3% of the value of all general book sales

See more details in the Washington Post and the New York Times.

(More posts on industry metrics: used books don’t cannibalize new book sales, problematic textbook pricing trends.)