Research Outline

Publishing in the United States

Goals

Provide an analysis of the US publishing market in print, e-book, and audiobook mediums, including the top five publishing companies by market share and the total market values of each category, as well as revenue comparisons between fiction and non-fiction.

Early Findings

Total US Publishing Market

  • The total publishing market revenue in the United States is estimated to be approximately $25.82 billion.

Top Publishers in the United States

  • The top five publishing companies in the United States by revenue are Penguin Random House, Hachette Livre, Harper Collins, Macmillan Publishers, and Simon & Schuster, in that order.
  • Penguin Random House has an annual revenue of $3.3 billion, accounting for approximately 12.7% of the total US publishing market (3.3 billion/25.82 billion).
  • Hachette Livre has an annual revenue of $2.7 billion, accounting for approximately 10.4% of the total US publishing market (2.7 billion/25.82 billion).
  • Harper Collins has an annual revenue of $1.5 billion, accounting for approximately 5.8% of the total US publishing market (1.5 billion/25.82 billion).
  • Macmillan Publishers has an annual revenue of $1.4 billion, accounting for approximately 5.4% of the total US publishing market (1.4 billion/25.82 billion).
  • Simon & Schuster has an annual revenue of $830 million, accounting for approximately 3.2% of the total US publishing market (830 million/25.82 billion).

Fiction and Non-Fiction Markets

  • In 2014, total publishing market non-fiction revenues surpassed fiction and have continued to increase by considerable margins while fiction revenues decrease.
  • Industry-wide non-fiction revenues reached $6.18 billion in 2017. At this time, fiction revenues had dropped to $4.38 billion.
  • This may not, however, be indicative of independent publishing revenue comparisons between fiction and non-fiction.

Individual Medium Revenues

  • Audiobook revenues have seen extensive increases, reaching $1 billion in 2018. This accounts for approximately 3.9% of the US publishing market (1 billion/25.82 billion).
  • E-book revenues reached $8.69 billion, or approximately 33.6% of the US publishing market (8.69 billion/25.82 billion).
  • Exact revenues of print book sales were not found available, with resources only mentioning total print unit sales, but it can be reasonably assumed that, as print is the only other primary medium for book publishing other than audiobook and e-book formats, this market share is approximately the remainder of the total US publishing market, $16.13 billion (25.82 billion - 8.60 billion - 1 billion). This is about 62.5% of the industry (16.13 billion/25.82 billion).