Help navigation
- Friday, 25 May
Log in to TheBookseller.com
News
-
RELATED STORIES
-
Waterstones and Kindle
James Daunt’s resolut...
-
Café W to be rolled out at Waterstones
Waterstones is planning to ...
-
Langton's in Twickenham to close
Independent bookshop Langto...
-
Kindle becoming 'Hoover' of e-readers, says SoA's Davis
Society of Authors chair Li...
-
Unbound title on 2012 Fiction Uncovered list
A title from crowd-sourcing...
Bookshop owners "earn £22,000 per year"
25.05.11 | Lisa Campbell
Independent bookshop owners paid themselves an average wage of £22,200 in 2010, according to a new survey.
Figures revealed that the average sales of those bookshops which took part in last year’s Bookseller Fitness Programme (BFP) equalled £370,000. The average profit an independent bookseller made was £44,400 with the owner paying themselves £22,200.
Last year’s figures also revealed that of the average turnover of £370,000, just over 70%of that figure from book sales.
The shops reported a slight increase of 1% in sales in the latest figures compared to the previous year, although the growth came from non-book rather than book sales. On average book sales dropped by 2%.
Staffing represented the largest single overhead, accounting for an average of 38% of the total, and representing 13% of turnover. Rates, rents and mortgages represented 15% of the overheads, and 5% of sales, whereas spending on marketing and websites represented just 3% of overheads.
The figures are taken from a survey of the 34 bookshops which took part in 2010’s BFP. This year the Booksellers Association, which runs the scheme, is calling for more indies to sign up.
The programme aims to help booksellers monitor the fitness of their business against the sector as a whole by asking them to provide year-end figures on a range of "key performance indicators".
Trackback URL for this post:
http://www.thebookseller.com/trackback/44579
TheBookseller
-
Axe joins Aurum: Aurum has appointed Jessica Axe to the role of... t.co/u70eq7oY
-
Tax protest disrupts Amazon shareholders meeting: A protest demonstration has disrupted Amazon.... t.co/xrSxWG0u
-
James Daunt's vision for Waterstones now becoming clearer, coffee house with reading : full story here t.co/DX7zJUNd
©2012 Bookseller Media Ltd rights reserved.
Comments: Scroll down for the latest comments and to have your say
By posting on this website you agree to the Bookseller comments policy. Comments go direct to live please be relevant, brief and definitely not abusive. Report any "unsuitable comments by clicking the links"
Sort: Oldest first | Newest first | Readers' most recommended
HaHaHaHaHaHa. Very wishful thinking over here. My figures would of brought your average down !!!
the lease is up it will soon be all over.
monitor your fitness, Bank account at start of year xxx, luckily bank account at end of year same xxx, but stock level £10,000 lower.
pessimist says that means you lost money.
optimist says well at least you didnt actually lose cash.
Account says. "oh dear"
hehehehe you gotta luagh or you'd cry
Really not worth bothering. Get a job in Amazon's new centre and probably earn more.
Confucius say: Bookseller with poor grammar soon break lease.
A £22,000 salary plus a £44,000 dividend - doesn't sound too bad to me...
22K ? 44K ? These are tiny numbers considering the responsibility, the long hours, the expertise, the risk and everything else that goes into being an independent bookseller. Its a vocation for which they get little support and little reward. I take my hat off to "The Indies".
Oh come on — get real! A survey of 34 shops? Not exactly what anyone could call a representative sample, is it? Balderdash and piffle, to put it mildly...
Post new comment