Hello, readers! This month, I’m scrutinizing book sales in the first half of 2023, which entails crunching some numbers for Buffalo Street Books, comparing them to past years, holding them up to industry-wide figures, and then showing why that last activity is a ridiculous thing to do.
Sales are down. Perhaps you predicted the story would start that way? In-store book sales at Buffalo Street Books are down 12.7% from the first half of last year and online book sales are down a whopping 46.2%. Sales to schools and nonprofits are down 41.2%.
But wait!