Bookstore Sales Down

On Friday I reported here on e-book sales for August.

Friday's Publisher's Weekly had an article on bookstore sales:

Bookstore sales fell by their largest rate of 2010 in August, declining 6.5%, to $2.29 billion, according to preliminary estimates released this morning by the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to PW, August should have been a strong month for sales because of back-to-school college textbooks.

For the eight months ending August, 2010, bookstore sales were down 2% compared to a rise of 6.1% in overall retail sales for the same period.

Go here to read Publishers Weekly.

This reminder comes in a note from Shelf Awareness:

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, bookstore sales are of new books and do not include "electronic home shopping, mail-order, or direct sale" or used book sales.