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. Sales of new Australian titles accounted for 60% ($811.9m or 89.2 million books) of the overall total. Approximately 14% (by value) of all books published were sold overseas, predominantly to the United States of America 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: 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 (ABS 2005b) 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.
See Chapter 3 for information on household expenditure on literature.
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