The book publishing industry made $98.6 billion in 2023, dwarfing music ($42.5 billion) and film ($29 billion). Books generate revenue for years and keep growing, while movies like Barbie have a short earnings window. People still buy books as gifts.
We severely underestimate the size of the book industry.
The new Barbie movie won't be making a lot of money 10 years from now, where a book that does really well this year, or maybe even comes out slow but builds, it's still going to be making money for the author 10 years from now. And the reason why is because books last longer and they tend to grow over time instead of diminish over time. In 2022, the music industry was $42.5 billion. A movie box office was $29 billion. In 2023, book publishing made $98.6 billion. Wow. People keep saying like, people aren't reading anymore. And I'm like, well, I guess I got to give all this money back I'm making off of books.
Well, even thinking about Christmas this year, I mostly bought people books and other people mostly bought me books. We all get to a certain age, it's like, hey, just give me the book that you most enjoyed this year and that's all I want for Christmas.
Yeah.
