- Amazon’s net income in 2015: $596 million
- Amazon’s net income in 2016: $2.4 billion
- Amazon’s revenue from Amazon Web Services in 2016: $12.2 billion
- Amazon’s profit from Amazon Web Services in 2015: $3.1 billion
- Amazon’s revenue from worldwide media sales (including books) in 2016: $24.21 billion
- Increase in Amazon’s revenue from worldwide media sales in 2016: 7.5%
- Increase in Amazon’s revenue from Amazon Web Services in 2016: 54%
- Canadian print book unit sales in 2016 vs 2015: -6.4%
- Canadian print book unit sales in nonfiction in 2016 vs 2015: -10.4%
- US print book unit sales in nonfiction in 2016 vs 2015: +7%
- Canadian print book unit sales in fiction in 2016 vs 2015: -6.7%
- US print book unit sales in fiction in 2016 vs 2015: -1%
Sources: Media Sales Rose 7.5 Percent in 2016 at Amazon; Canadian Print Book Sales Fell 3.6 Percent in 2016; Jonathan Stolper’s “2016 in Review” (Digital Book World 2017 presentation)
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
