Industry Statistics

January retail sales at bookstores increased 5.5 percent compared to January 2012, according to preliminary figures recently released by the Bureau of the Census.

December 2012 retail sales at bookstores were up 2.9 percent compared to December 2011, according to preliminary figures recently released by the Bureau of the Census.

The 2013 post-holiday Independent Business Survey, conducted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in partnership with ABA and other indie business organizations, has found that independent businesses experienced solid revenue growth in 2012, buoyed in part by “buy local first” initiatives and growing public interest in supporting locally owned businesses.

Entrepreneur.com sees a rebirth of mom-and-pop shops; Preference for digital textbooks climbs; ALA releases e-book license scorecard; NRF forecasts 3.4 percent increase in retail sales for 2013

Among the topics put forth at morning sessions on Thursday, January 17, at the Digital Book World Conference + Expo were a discussion on how Kobo is helping independent bookstores reach the e-book market and a look at consumers’ attitudes toward e-books and how they’ve changed over the course of just a few years.

Communities as different as Las Vegas, New Mexico, and Louisville, Kentucky, have at least one thing in common: Their independent businesses recirculate a substantially greater proportion of their revenues back into the local economy than do their chain competitors.

ABA welcomed 43 indie bookstores that opened in 2012 in 25 states. Among them were six branches of existing businesses and seven selling primarily used books. California is home to seven new stores; New York, five; Florida and Texas, three; and Kansas, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, two.

On Tuesday, January 15,  at the Children’s Publishing Goes Digital Conference in NYC, two sessions presented key findings from recent studies on influencers of children’s book choices, methods of discovery, and attitudes towards books and reading.

November 2012 retail sales at bookstores were up 3.3 percent compared to November 2011, according to preliminary figures recently released by the Bureau of the Census.

ABA CEO Oren Teicher points to a number of indicators of the vitality of the independent bookstore channel in 2012 in his first letter to members of the New Year.