eBook Sales 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

Compare against Q4 08 chart below

Quarters 2002 through Q3 2009

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