Leaked documents show that Amazon’s original book business is booming

Reliable data on the industry is limited or tightly controlled, making it sometimes difficult to grasp the scale of the book business. This makes the new Amazon data particularly notable, especially as antitrust questions about the company’s dominance in the sector remain unanswered.

In the first 10 months of 2022, Amazon generated gross sales of $16.9 billion in the books category, the document shows. GMS measures the total sales volume of print and digital books, including e-books and audiobooks.

This corresponds to an average monthly book sales volume of almost 1.7 billion US dollars, or around 400 million US dollars per week. In the USA alone, Amazon recorded a total sales volume of around 9.5 billion US dollars in these 10 months.

This shows how well Amazon has managed to maintain its original business for nearly three decades. It also shows how print books have held up as a reading format, while e-books have failed to fulfill their initial promises when Amazon launched the Kindle e-reader in 2007.

“There’s nothing wrong with books in print format. Many people, myself included, prefer to hold a book in their hand and read a print book,” said John Warren, director and associate professor of the George Washington University publishing program.

“Monopoly Power”

Amazon’s book business has repeatedly come under antitrust scrutiny over the years. The Federal Trade Commission’s case against Amazon last year mentioned Amazon’s book segment, while the American Booksellers Association urged the FTC and Justice Department to focus on the company’s “monopoly power” in the market.

The document obtained by BI is 25 pages long and marked confidential. It was used for a weekly business report at Amazon. The company does not publicly disclose its book sales, nor does it provide a breakdown of revenue by retail category.

In an email to BI, Amazon spokeswoman Lindsay Hamilton said the company “continues to operate in a highly competitive book retail environment” in which online retailers, national chains and independent booksellers have “grown significantly” in recent years.

The USA accounts for more than half of sales

The document reveals some shocking figures that show how big Amazon’s book business is.

Here are some outstanding sales figures:

• Generally: In January 2022, Amazon sold just over $2 billion worth of books. In the following months, sales volume fell to around $1.5 to $1.8 billion.
• US: The US market is the largest for Amazon, accounting for over half of total gross sales for books. In January and August 2022, gross sales were over $1.1 billion. In other months, gross sales were around $900 million.
• Other markets: The three largest foreign markets were the UK, Germany and Japan. Each country had monthly gross book sales of US$130 million to US$190 million. FRITES, a geographic group that includes France, Italy and Spain, was similarly large.

• Japanese Manga: The market for Japanese manga and comics was large enough to be considered a separate item. Amazon sold over $35 million worth of manga every month, or about 11,000 copies.

And here are the sales figures:

• Generally: Amazon sold an average of 175 million books (both print and digital) per month during this period. In January 2022, more than 193 million books were reported sold, but in other months the figure was closer to 170 million.
• US: In the US market, Amazon sold an average of 87 million books per month during this period. In the first 10 months of 2022, the company sold 456.5 million print books and 419.8 million digital books.
• Other markets: In Japan, the company sold about 25 million units per month. In the UK, Germany and FRITES market, it was between 11 and 21 million units per month.

Mixed signals

Given that Amazon’s gross sales for books were nearly $17 billion for the first ten months of 2022, it’s likely that the company sold more than $20 billion worth of books for the entire year.

Although Amazon is a powerful player in the book business, it’s hard to say whether the company is having a negative impact on the market. According to industry data provider Circana, global book sales increased 8.8% in 2023 over 2019. And the American Booksellers Association reported an 11% increase in memberships and 200 new independent bookstore openings in 2023.

Retail signals are mixed. Barnes & Noble is on track to open 50 new stores in 2024, the highest number of store openings in 15 years. Costco, on the other hand, recently decided to stop selling books except on holidays or other special occasions. Booktopia, an online bookseller in Australia, is fighting for survival.

E-books versus print

A notable data point in the Amazon document is the difference between Amazon’s revenue from print books and e-books.

In the first ten months of 2022, Amazon sold over $7.7 billion worth of print books, while total e-book sales were around $2.1 billion.

The difference in the average selling price of the two book formats was also notable. Print books had an average selling price of around $15, while e-books only had an average selling price of around $4.50, the document says.

Although Amazon was a pioneer in the e-book space, these data suggest that digital book formats may not have evolved as quickly as many industry experts once predicted.

A 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that in the U.S., print book readers still far outnumber e-book readers: 65% of adults said they had read a print book in the past 12 months, compared to 30% who had read an e-book.

Warren, an associate professor at George Washington University, told BI that e-books were once expected to capture nearly 80 percent of the market. But those projections have largely failed to meet expectations, as print books are still the preferred way for many people to read. Still, he said, digital formats represent an “increasingly important part” of most publishers’ revenues.

Statement from Amazon

Hamilton, Amazon’s spokesman, offered further thoughts in an emailed statement, addressing the internal document and the company’s book business:

“Amazon has a culture of written storytelling, which means that at any given time there are thousands of documents floating around the company, providing information at a given point in time and with varying degrees of verification and accuracy,” Hamilton wrote. “We are committed to inspiring customers to read more and get the most out of reading. We offer innovative, unparalleled reading experiences, the widest possible choice, options for our customers to read how they want, when they want, and a variety of affordable ways to read.”

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Contact reporter Eugene Kim via the encrypted messaging apps Signal or Telegram (+1-650-942-3061) or E-Mail ([email protected]). Make contact with a private device. Read the Source Guide for more tips on sharing information safely.