EBook Sales Held Steady Last Year at 21% of the Total Book Trade Sales

Slowing ebook sales may embolden publishers in Amazon spat

With Amazon.com (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos battling major publishers to divvy up the economic spoils of the book market, both sides could point to seemingly good news in the latest industry statistics.

U.S. publishers collected about $3 billion in trade ebook sales last year, virtually unchanged from 2012, according to the new report from the Bookstats Project, jointly produced by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group. Total revenue from print and digital books in the trade category, which excludes textbooks and journals, declined 2% to $14.6 billion. The figures are based on how much publishers collected, not how much retailers charged and consumers paid, but they still give a snapshot into trends in the business.

The World's 60 Largest Book Publishers, 2013

New York may be our publishing capital but the major publishers are mostly parts of conglomerates now. 

From Publishers Weekly: Despite concerns about consolidation among publishing houses, sales of the top 10 companies accounted for 55% of revenue of the 50 publishers that are on the list for both 2012 and 2011, down from 57% in 2011. One reason for the decline is the increasing number of publishers from emerging markets gaining sales worldwide. That has been especially true among publishers in the 20th to 50th spots on the ranking; total revenues from those 30 companies accounted for 25% of sales in 2012, up from 21% in 2011. In addition, several new companies have been added to the ranking this year, including two Chinese publishers and one from Russia, bringing the list to 60 publishers.

Reading is Fundamental Finds Need for Summer Reading Promotion

RIFand Macy's Reveal Reading Survey Results, Debut 2014 'Be Book Smart'. Reading Is Fundamental and Macy’s released the results of a new survey on Wednesday that disclosed that only 17 percent of parents view reading as a top summer priority for their children, although existing research indicates the importance of reading in preventing children from losing literacy skills during the months away from school. A full 60 percent of respondents to the new survey disagreed with that finding, indicating that they do not believe their children lose literacy skills due to a lack of summer reading. Conducted online in April, the survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, polled 1,000 parents nationwide with children ages 5–11. Survey results also revealed that kids devote nearly three times the number of hours to watching TV or playing video games during the summer than they do to reading. 

Apple Settles In E-Book Price-Fixing Lawsuit

Apple has reached an out-of-court settlement with states' attorneys general and a number of other complainants over e-book price fixing. Apple had been facing some $800 million in damages. Nearly a year ago, U.S. District Judge Denise Cotes found Apple guilty of colluding to set prices.--NPR

For more on this story, please see the below link:

http://www.npr.org/2014/06/17/323032752/settlement-brings-an-early-end-to-apples-price-fixing-case

Publishers Weekly Picks Some Good Summer Reads

There's the grisly thriller Cataract City by Craig Davidson about two abducted boys. The Antiquarian by Gustavo Faveron Patriau has a murderer locked up in an institution for killing his fiancee. And just when you thought it was safe to go into the water we have Bellweather Rapsody by Kate Racculia. We're billing it as The Shining meets Agatha Christie. If it's history you want, but keeping with the gritty theme, read In the Wolf's Mouth by Booker Finalist Adam Foulds which follows the soldiers and criminals of WWII's Africa and Italy campaigns. Summer House with Swimming Pool by Herman Koch will make you rethink your ideas about men and women, young and old. Then, sit back and hand yourself over to a fiction master, Jane Gardam, whoseThe Stories of Jane Gardam will make you glad you're reading, no matter what the temperature. (PW Article)

Local Author of Maggie's Wars to Talk About His book

Thursday, 6/19, 7:00 PM

Phil Pisani will be here to talk about his WW II novel about a female war correspondent Maggie’s Wars – partly told from a female point of view.

This is Phil’s first novel after many years as an Investigator for the NYS Department of Labor. His website is: http://www.philpisani.com.

Here is the GoodReads Link