Industry Statistics

The International Digital Publishing Forum collects quarterly US trade retail eBook sales in conjunction with the Association of American Publishers (AAP).  For details on the AAP's statistics program, please refer to the AAP website.  The IDPF has aggregated quarterly statistics from the AAP's program and earlier IDPF statistics program represented in the graph below. Please also see important notes below on the data.

The IDPF has collected additional eBook statistics from various sources below.  The IDPF was not involved in collecting these statistics, however, and only includes them as a convenience.

US Trade Wholesale Electronic Book Sales

Q3 2010 = $119.7 Million

Compare Q1 - Q3 2010 ($304.6 M) vs. 2002 - 2009 Annual Trade Wholesale Sales

Quarters 2002 through Q3 2010

Quarters Revenues Quarters Revenues Quarters Revenues
Q1 02 $1,556,499 Q1 06 $4,100,000 Q1 10 $91,000,000
Q2 02 $1,258,989 Q2 06 $4,000,000 Q2 10 $88,700,000
Q3 02 $1,329,548 Q3 06 $4,900,000 Q3 10 $119,700,000
Q4 02 $1,649,144 Q4 06 $7,000,000 Oct 2010 $40,700,000
Q1 03 $1,794,544 Q1 07 $7,500,000    
Q2 03 $1,842,502 Q2 07 $8,100,000    
Q3 03 $1,789,455 Q3 07 $8,000,000    
Q4 03 $1,917,384 Q4 07 $8,200,000    
Q1 04 $1,794,130 Q1 08 $11,200,000    
Q2 04 $1,887,900 Q2 08 $11,600,000    
Q3 04 $2,460,343 Q3 08 $13,900,000    
Q4 04 $3,477,130 Q4 08 $16,800,000    
Q1 05 $3,161,049 Q1 09 $25,800,000    
Q2 05 $3,182,499 Q2 09 $37,600,000    
Q3 05 $2,310,291 Q3 09 $46,500,000    
Q4 05 $2,175,131 Q4 09 $55,900,000    

Important Notes About Collection & The Above Graph

  • The data above represent United States revenues only
  • The data above represent only trade eBook sales via wholesale channels.  Retail numbers may be as much as double the above figures due to industry wholesale discounts.
  • The data above represent only data submitted from approx. 12 to 15 trade publishers
  • The data does not include library, educational or professional electronic sales
  • The numbers reflect the wholesale revenues of publishers
  • The definition used for reporting electronic book sales is "All books delivered electronically over the Internet OR to hand-held reading devices"
  • The IDPF and AAP began collecting data together starting in Q1 2006

Please report additional eBook sales statistics information to the IDPF for posting consideration.

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