Exports of trade books rose 7.2% in 2011 to $357.4 million, a new report from the AAP’s BookStats statistical report shows. The sales increase came despite only a 0.9% increase in units. Exports of e-books had the largest increase, 332%, but at $21.5 million, represent only a small portion of the overall export market. Print exports rose 2.3%.
Growth was spread out rather evenly across the major markets, with exports to the U.K. showing the biggest gain with exports up 22.9%, to $64.1 million. Continental Europe was the largest market for exports at $83.2 million, a 14.7% gain over 2010. Exports to Latin America rose 15.4%, to $16.7 million, while sales to Africa increased 21.9%, to $3.8 million. Canada is excluded from all figures.
Publishers attributed the increase to more efforts by American houses to market and publicize their titles abroad plus easier access to titles provided by e-book editions.
The report is based on data compiled by BookStats for its forthcoming report on 2011 industry sales and includes figures from 161 publishers (including distribution clients).The full report is available for sale from the AAP.
