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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.