The Used Book Market
A new study has been released. NY Times Link. Excerpts:
In barely a decade, online booksellers have grown to account for two-thirds of the market for general-interest used books, a trend that calls into question the future of brick-and-mortar stores devoted to used books, according to a study financed by the publishing industry and released yesterday. . .
Used books account for a relatively small portion of overall consumer spending on books, with roughly $600 million, or 3 percent, of the $21 billion that Americans spent last year on general-interest titles going for secondhand books, the study found.
The market for used textbooks is far larger, at $1.6 billion, or more than 30 percent of the $5.3 billion spent by consumers on educational and professional books.
Over all, used-book purchases accounted for $2.2 billion, or 8 percent, of the $26.3 billion that American consumers spent in 2004 on books of all types. That total was up 11 percent from the previous year, the study found. . .
"It certainly is a threat," Paul Aiken, the executive director of the Authors Guild, said in an interview. The guild has complained in particular about Amazon.com, whose Internet site offers consumers the ability to buy used copies of a book on the same screen where it offers new copies. In many instances, used copies are made available for sale by outside parties almost as soon as a new book goes on sale. . .
A research paper released a year ago, however, found that online used-book markets like Amazon cannibalized potential sales of new books only about 15 percent of the time. The researchers - Anindya Ghose of New York University and Michael D. Smith and Rahul Telang of Carnegie Mellon University - also hypothesized that because the lower prices of used books leave more money in consumers' pockets, the gains from additional readership might result in more purchases of new books and in the increased exposure of authors to new audiences.
Thanks, People of the Book.
