2005 Book Prices

Book prices are up, budgets are flat. How are you positioning yourself?

By Evan St. Lifer, Editor -- School Library Journal, 3/1/2005

The average price of a hardcover children's and young adult book continues its inexorable climb, inauspiciously topping the $20 mark for the first time. At $20.52, the average hardcover price for 2005 has increased by six percent, a gain of $1.21 over the 2004 average (see chart).

This year's increases reflect a 25-year trend of escalating book prices. Case in point: from 1990 to 1995, average book prices jumped by 9.5 percent; from 1995 to 2000, they increased by 12.3 percent; and from 2000 to 2005, the increase was even steeper, 14.4 percent. Overall, we have seen book prices increase by more than 35 percent in the last 20 years.

Examining this year's numbers more closely, the average hardcover price for the "preschool to grade four" category is up to $18.92 from $17.51, a 7.5 percent increase. Meanwhile, fiction for grade five and up stayed virtually the same, from $16.84 in 2004 to $16.85 in 2005. In fact, the average price of fiction for grade five and up has remained relatively steady since 2002. However, grade five and up nonfiction rose more dramatically—by more than $1.50 per book—a 6.7-percent hike, versus a 1.2-percent bump the previous year.

Rising book prices, coupled with a flat budget year, translate into fewer book purchases, certainly no reason to celebrate. However, given the fiscally austere landscape in which most school and public libraries currently operate, the fact that many libraries were able to hold the line on materials budgets is encouraging. Our information comes courtesy of the 500 librarians nationwide who responded to our Book Buying Survey (see "SLJ's Book Buying Survey," September 2004, pp. 42–46) last spring. The majority of them anticipated spending the same amount of money in FY 2004–2005 as in the previous year.

You now have the challenge of stretching your dollars a little further, a challenge that you will undoubtedly share with fellow educators seeking to enrich their classroom collections. Your skills of discernment have never been more essential. You'll need to use those skills to embrace the challenge of maintaining your school district's growing commitment to books directly linked to the curriculum, while continuing to cultivate a diverse collection that provokes reading engagement, fosters critical-thinking skills, and evokes wonder.

Evan St. Lifer
Editor
estlifer@reedbusiness.com

SLJ's Average Book Prices 2005

	2003	2004	2005
Hardcover (children's and YA titles)
Average price (all titles)	$19.18	$19.31	$20.52
Preschool to grade four	$17.45	$17.51	$18.92
Grade five and up (fiction)	$16.77	$16.84	$16.85
Grade five and up (nonfiction)	$22.99	$23.25	$24.92
Paperback (children's and YA titles)
Trade paperbacks (excluding mass market)	$20.26*	$18.88*	—
Hardcover (adult titles)
Fiction (excluding special editions, etc.)	$26.02*	$24.81*	—
Nonfiction	$40.64*	$41.07*	—
**Nonfiction	$74.48*	$73.64*	—
Paperback (adult titles, excluding mass market)
Fiction	$17.23*	$14.95*	—
***Nonfiction	$32.82*	$27.38*	—
Preliminary prices. Price includes single-volume reference titles. **Prices include reference and related resources. Source: School Library Journal, Bowker's Books in Print.

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