4147.4.55.001 - Culture and Recreation News, Oct 2002  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 30/10/2002   
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OVER 100 MILLION BOOKS SOLD IN 2000-01

In 2000-01, 104 million books were sold by book publishers and other businesses with major book publishing activity. The value of these book sales was $1,261 million. Approximately 87% ($1,098 million) of sales were to the domestic market while the remaining 13% ($163 million) were exported overseas, primarily to the United States of America ($55 million), New Zealand ($27 million) and the United Kingdom ($23 million).

Businesses involved in book publishing sold $1,250 million of printed books covering education ($487 million), nonfiction ($432 million), fiction ($180 million) and children's books ($151 million). A further $10 million of electronic and audio books were sold.

The 228 businesses involved in book publishing earned a total income of $1,361 million and had expenses of $1,322 million in 2000-01. The largest cost was for printing ($247 million or 19% of total expenses) followed by expenditure on wages and salaries ($224 million). The 20 largest book publishers (in terms of income) accounted for 76% of the total income, 74% of total expenses and 66% of total employment of businesses involved in book publishing.

There was a 19% decrease in the number of books sold in 2000-01 when compared with 1999-2000. While the overall income of businesses involved in book publishing was similar to 1999-2000, there was a fall in operating profit from $106 million in 1999-2000 to $63 million in 2000-01, which is a decrease in profit margin from 7.8% to 4.6%.

Main features of Book Publishers, Australia, 2000-01 are available free of charge at this site.