Print Book Sales on the Rise Since Thanksgiving, But Trail 2010

Thanksgiving weekend may draw lots of media coverage about holiday sales, but book sales of print titles have been trending upward every week since the start of the holiday shopping season. According to Nielsen BookScan, sales of print books in the stores it covers totaled 12.0 million the week ending November 27 and then jumped to 15.5 million units the week ending December 4. The following week, units rose again, to 18.6 million, and increased 26% the week of December 18, to 23.4 million.

 

Compared to the same week in 2010, unit sales the week of December 18 were down 14%, with the closing of Borders and the growth of e-book sales likely the two biggest factors in the decline. During the last week, print backlist was doing better than frontlist, with backlist sales down 9% compared to a year ago and frontlist off 19%.

 

* From PW Daily

Buddhapuss weighs in - "Call me crazy, but buying ebooks as gifts for friends and family is a little less than satisfying, and if you are unsure just what type of ereader they own, it can be difficult as well as confusing. On the plus side - there's fewer gifts to wrap and on the negative side - well, there's fewer gifts to un-wrap too.

Just my opinion but I think when it comes to gift-giving, the print book is going to prevail for a while longer as the present of choice."