News & Trends: Fast Stats

$0 Amount Massachusetts-based, nonprofit Concord Free Press charges consumers for its books, including shipping. In exchange, the publisher asks readers to make donations to a local charity or someone in need in their community, and to pass on the book. Concord plans to publish two titles a year as part of its effort to “expand the definition of publishing and re-invigorate the book” (according to its Web site). Each book will be limited to about 1,000 copies. 90 Number of backlist and forthcoming titles Sourcebooks acquired through its purchase of Nashville-based Cumberland House, including titles from best-selling author Gregory E. Lang. Cumberland will become an imprint of Sourcebooks.

25,000 Approximate number of publishers who are currently participating in Google’s Book Search program. More than 1.8 million books are now accessible via the online tool.
Source: Book Business webinar, “Google Book Search: How to
Promote All of Your Books on Google—For Free”

$868.8 million Amount of Borders Group consolidated sales for the nine-week holiday period from Nov. 2, 2008, to Jan. 3, 2009, an 11.7-percent decline over the same period last year.

Barnes & Noble reported store sales of $1.1 billion for the same nine-week holiday period, a 5.2-percent decrease over that same period in fiscal 2007. BN.com holiday sales were $114.2 million, an 11-percent decrease over last year.