August 09, 2011 
John 
Who would’ve thunk that with the economy going to hell in a handbasket, publishing would actually offer a beacon of hope?
Believe it or not, a survey conducted by the The Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group concluded that in the past three years the publishing industry has actually expanded. While the reported increases in net revenues and sales are only in the single digits, hey, that’s a lot better than plenty of other industries. Better yet, it appears that the growth is across the board—trade as well as professional/educational publishing. It’s also encouraging that ebooks, while they certainly contributed to the growth, were not the only driving factor. And kudos to adult fiction!
So for those of us who’ve been feeling pretty low watching the stock market collapse, I hope this raises your spirits a bit—we ain’t dead yet!
Amen! Good to hear!
Don’t feel low. When we’re happy, we’ll read. When we’re sad, we’ll read. When the world goes under, we’ll still bloody read. Nothing to worry about.
Wow, I’m really surprised! Even if the increased revenue is due to inflation, it still shows people are buying things to read, which is good!
Everywhere I go people are talking about books and talking about buying e-readers. People who’ve never read before are now discovering reading in a new way. I hope it continues.