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The Economics of Writing a Book

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The value of a good book (Score: 2, Interesting)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-04-28 03:13 (#171)

15 Billion. That's the total net revenue that U.S. publishers took in last year. By some measures, it's a great deal of money-representing the hundreds of thousands of trade hardcovers, paperbacks, ebooks, and audiobooks that get bought and sold annually in the United States. By other measures, it's hardly a blip on the multi-trillion dollar economic landscape, a pittance of a percentage of the American GDP. To put it in perspective, it's about one-tenth of Apple's revenue and barely more than one-third of Apple's profit over the last fiscal year.
All U.S. book revenue added together = 1/10 of Apple's revenue is just a striking little fact to me. Either the value of books is vastly under-represented or the value of Apple is vastly over-represented. Probably both.

Re: The value of a good book (Score: 1, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-04-28 04:12 (#173)

The first comment below the story gives different numbers, like nearly $30 B in sales for the whole USA book industry. If you are going to read tfa, also read at least the first comment.

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Time Reason Points Voter
2014-04-28 16:38 Interesting +1 songofthepogo@pipedot.org

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Marked as [Not Junk] by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-01-04 19:15