In a move that surprises no one, the Book Industry Study Group endorses EPUB 3

In a move that surprised absolutely no one, the Book Industry Study Group has endorsed EPUB 3. The actual endorsement amounts to little more than a solicitation for new members for the BISG and IDPF (International Digital Publishing Fourm, the industry group that created and manages EPUB):

"ISG encourages organizations interested in the advancement of EPUB 3 to become members of both IDPF and BISG in order to work directly with those creating the standard and developing best practices."

The reality is that companies that join the two groups now are going to have virtually no influence over EPUB 3--and the specifications are public, so there's no real benefit to spending thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars to join. (Yes, I'm suggesting being a "free rider".)

In addition, EPUB 3 is less a standard than a suggestion: The IDPF doesn't require that companies implement the complete specification, nor does it prohibit implementation of proprietary extensions--which is why Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo all have their own proprietary multimedia extensions to EPUB 2.X. Also, Apple hasn't endorsed EPUB 3, and isn't likely to do so.

BISG survey says that eBook buyers are more willing to buy print

The Book Industry Study Group has just released the third part of Volume Three of its Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading research report. Here's a summary:

• The percentage of eBook buyers that exclusively or primarily purchase eBooks has dropped from nearly 70% last August to 60% in May 2012.
• The percentage of survey respondents with no preference for eBook or print formats, or who buy some genres in eBook format and others in print, has increased from 25% last August to 34% in May.
• Amazon's Kindle Fire has overtaken the iPad as the tablet of preference among eBook consumers. 7% of survey respondents owned a Kindle Fire last December vs. 20% in May 2012, while iPad ownership remained flat at 17% in both surveys. By comparison, 5% of respondents owned a Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet in May, and 8% owned another Android-based tablet.
• While overall use of tablets as primary eReading devices is increasing, the changes aren't uniform across devices:
• 35% of respondents cited Amazon's Kindle eReaders as their primary device for reading eBooks, down from 48% last August.
• Apple's iPad was cited as the primary device for reading eBooks by 9% of respondents in May, down from 10% in February.
• Respondents who cited Barnes & Noble's Nook tablets and eReaders as their primary device for reading eBooks declined from 17% last August to 13% in May.

U.S. book sales estimates from the 2011 BookStats report

Publishers Lunch reports that the AAP and BISG have released "headline" figures from their 2011 BookStats statistical survey of U.S. book sales, ahead of the release of the complete report next week. Here's a summary:

• The total US book publishing business accounted for $27.2 billion in sales in 2011, down 2.6% from $27.94 billion in 2010, although unit sales increased by 3.4%. 
• Trade sales of $12.52 billion for 2011 were down from $12.59 billion in 2010. (Publishers Lunch subtracts religious sales from trade to make the numbers consistent with the AAP's reporting practice.) 
• eBooks became the largest-selling format for adult fiction, comprising 31% of dollar sales and increasing from $585 million in 2010 to $1.27 billion in 2011. Trade eBook sales increased from $838 million in 2010 to $1.97 billion in 2011. eBooks accounted for almost 16% of all trade sales in dollars, and eBook unit sales increased 210% to 377 million units in 2011. 
• Children's and Young Adult books were the "fastest-growing category" in 2011, with sales of $2.78 billion, up 12% from $2.48 billion in 2010. 
• Brick & mortar sales declined 12.6%, due in part to Borders' bankruptcy and closure. Publishers' direct sales to bookstores (not through distributors) were $8.59 billion. Direct sales to online retainers grew 35% to $5.04 billion. Direct publisher sales to consumers were up 58% to $1.11 billion. 
• All numbers in the report are estimates, since actual source data accounts for only 61.4% of the total. Publishers Deluxe's Michael Cader details his concerns about the accuracy of both the BookStats figures, which are estimates, and the AAP's new StatShots reports, which are based on actual numbers from 1,149 publishers and distributors--but not Ingram, National Book Network, and others.