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Research Outline
Prepared for Andy S. | Delivered January 17, 2020
Fiction and Non-Fiction: Publisher revenue
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Goals
To identify the revenue breakdown between fiction and non-fiction in the book publishing industry in the US.
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Early Findings
According to the Association of American Publishers (AAP), US book publishing industry generated an estimated revenue of
$25.82 billion
, representing
2.71 billion units
in 2018.
The publisher revenue for adult fiction was
$4.40 billion
and
$3.72 billion
for children’s & young adult fiction in 2018, totaling $8.12 billion for the fiction category.
Since trade books (fiction, non-fiction, and religious presses) had a revenue of
$16.19 billion
in 2018 and fiction and religious books generated $8.12 billion and
$1.22 billion
respectively, we can conclude that the publisher revenue for non-fiction amounted to $6.85 billion during the period (16.19-8.12-1.22).
Other Findings
Non-fiction books showed the largest growth in revenue for publishers over the past five years with a
22.8%
increase in adult non-fiction and a
38.5%
increase in children’s & young adult non-fiction (2014-2018).
According to Forbes, "2013 was the last year that the adult fiction category beat non-fiction in revenue (at
$5.21 billion
in revenue to non-fiction's
$4.82 billion
). Revenues for adult non-fiction have rapidly risen every year since:
$4.97 billion
in 2014,
$5.59 billion
in 2015,
$5.87 billion
in 2016, and finally
$6.18 billion
last year. In the same five-year period, adult fiction revenues dropped from a high of
$5.21 billion
in 2013 to 2017's low of
$4.38 billion
."
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