Book Industry Information

From Australian Society of Authors talk. I didn't write down the source, but most of it is from Nielsen.

Size of the Australian market

Sales 2010

$1.5 billion 65% Trade (retail)
$0.8 billion 35% Educational*
$0.3 billion 12% Online (inc. in above)

*Libraries, schools, universities


Trade (non-educational) Units Sold 2012

15.3 million 27% Childrens/YA
25.5 million 45% Non-fiction
15.9 million 28% Fiction


Sales by Subject 2012 (%)

10.2 Children's fiction
9.6 General fiction/literary
8.9 Picture books
8.3 Romance
5.9 Crime, thrillers, adventure
5.4 YA
5.0 Food & drink
4.3 Biography & autobiography
3.0 Science Fiction & Fantasy
0.6 Sport
0.3 Politics & governmet


Ebook Sales

2005 $5 million
2010 $35 million
2014 $150 million
(estimated by Book Industry Strategy Group)


Production Costs for a book

40% Booksellers
12% Shipping
12.5% Editing
10% Royalties
10% Publisher's profit
9% Editing
6.5% Warehousing


Income of Authors 2007-8

Mean

$40,500 Made up from:
Creative income $11,000 27%
*Arts-related income 8,100 20%
Non-arts income 21,300 53%

*Reviews, teaching, mancuscript assessment etc.

Median

$30,100 Made up from:
Creative income 12%
Arts-related income 15%
Non-arts income 73%