4172.0 - Arts and Culture in Australia: A Statistical Overview, 2008 (Second Edition)  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 22/10/2008   
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PRODUCTS

In 2003-04, book publishers sold 128.8 million books with a total value of $1,353.2m to book retailers and directly to the general public. Some $811.9m (89.2 million books) of these were sales of new Australian titles. Approximately 14% (by value) of all books published were sold overseas, predominantly to the United States and New Zealand.

Educational books accounted for 39% of sales, with general non-fiction accounting for 36%, general fiction 15% and specialised children's books 9%.

11.1 DOMESTIC AND EXPORT SALES OF BOOKS, By category - 2003-04

Domestic sales
Export sales(a)
Total
$m
$m
$m

Printed books
Education
Primary
124.0
33.5
157.5
Secondary
98.6
6.3
104.9
Tertiary
143.9
13.5
157.4
Professional and reference
85.4
**20.8
106.2
Total education
452.0
74.1
526.1
General
Hardback
Non-fiction
122.7
18.9
141.6
Fiction
55.2
4.4
59.6
Children's
31.8
5.5
37.4
Total hardback
209.8
28.9
238.6
Trade paperback(b)
Non-fiction
np
np
220.0
Fiction
np
np
49.6
Children's
33.8
4.0
37.7
Total trade paperback
235.4
71.9
307.3
Mass-market paperback(c)
Non-fiction
117.5
6.2
123.7
Fiction
94.0
4.4
98.4
Children's
46.9
4.8
51.6
Total mass-market paperback
258.3
15.3
273.7
Total general
703.5
116.1
819.6
Total printed books
1 155.5
190.2
1 345.7
Electronic books
Education
np
np
3.2
General
np
np
4.3
Total electronic
7.2
0.3
7.5
Total books
1 162.6
190.5
1 353.2

** estimate has a relative standard error greater than 50% and is considered too unreliable for general use
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated
(a) Domestic and export sales of books includes all books whether published by the business or not. Export sales includes re-export sales of $7.6m and excludes sales of rights which totalled $7.7m.
(b) An alternative format to hardback with the same dimensions, but with a soft cover.
(c) The conventional form of paperback book.
Source: ABS, Book Publishers, 2003-04 (cat. no. 1363.0).


Book publishers reported selling $305.9m worth of books to final consumers in 2003-04. By comparison, the 2003-04 Book Retailers Survey reported that 80 million new books valued at $1,406.5m were sold via retail outlets. Approximately 78% of these were sold by bookshops, 14% by department stores, 6% by newsagents and 2% by supermarkets and other large retailers. The figures suggest that some readers are by-passing book retailers with approximately 15% of the income from sales to final consumers being earned by book publishers, often selling by subscription or straight to public and private organisations and schools.

See Chapter 3 for information on household expenditure on literature.







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