Booknolia

In 2006, U.S. customers spent $56 billion for over 3 billion new and used books. They are between 25 and 54 with a female skew, educated and affluent, highly vocal, loyal and are more likely to engage in participatory reading activities.

Who writes these books? The 3 million authors in the U.S. who write more than 185,000 new titles annually. Who publishes them? Over 62,000 small, medium and large publishing houses with net annual revenues of $36 billion in 2006. There’s world of authors, agents, publishers, distributors, and booksellers working almost seamlessly such that we get to read the books we like.

How did all this come about? Read about it in Epstein’s short book “Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future” which reads like a personal memoir with focus on book publishers. His many years in the industry qualifies him perfectly to talk about the past and the present as well as giving him the vision to speculate on the future of this non-linear industry.