The trend of plummeting book sales continued in November and December, the industry's two most important months, to end the year 17.5% down for adult hardcovers and 15.6% for adult paperbacks, compared to 2010 sales. The hardest hit was the mass market segment which lost more than a third of its business, down 36% for the year. Suggesting a snowballing decline, December mass market sales were off 41% against a year prior. Hardcover adult book sales fell 21% in November, but only 12% in December for both hardcovers and paperbacks.
Sales of ebooks rose 117% for the year.
Facing a crisis, publishers have two options for the titles they acquire: Make radical changes in the kinds of books they offer to attract new readers, or become even more conservative in hopes of minimizing their losses.
Buy Nick Downes cartoon from Conde Nast.
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