There is only one official, publicly available, source which estimates the total value of the UK book market at retail prices (i.e. taking into account sales of all types of books, through all sources). This is the Publishers Association (PA), which bases its estimates on data collected through an annual survey of its members. Responses are received from publishers accounting for c50% of estimated industry turnover, who show their home and export sales in broad categories. Year-on-year changes in sales recorded by the survey are applied to validated 1990 base figures in order to estimate total UK publishers' sales.

The data for UK publishers' home sales are then grossed up to retail price using average total gross margin figures (i.e. based on the difference between the price paid to the publisher and the final retail selling price, and where possible taking into account direct sales, discounting, etc).

These grossed-up figures represent estimates of the total UK book market, and the latest published figures from the PA show this at £3,176m in 1999 (Source: Book Trade Yearbook 2000, Publishers Association).

The UK consumer book market can refer both to sales of what are defined by publishers as 'consumer books', and to purchases of books by consumers (i.e. the general public).

The PA split the total market (£3,176m in 1999) into three broad categories (consumer, school/ELT, academic/professional), based on grossing up to retail price publishers' sales in these categories, using average total gross margin figures for each.

The grossed-up figure for the consumer book category represents total UK sales of consumer books, which the PA showed to be £2,165m in 1999. (Source: Book Trade Yearbook 2000, Publishers Association).

Preliminary 2000 figures are available on the PA website www.publishers.org.uk, and these are summarised below:

Table 1 UK book sales at retail value
1998		1999
Consumer	2,080	2,165
School/ELT	220	239
Academic/professional	760	766
Total	3,060	3,170

Data for the whole of 1999 has not yet been released by the ONS, but is expected in June 2000, following which it may be subject to some revision. For more information please contact the Office of National Statistics, or view their web site www@ons.gov.uk.

BML's own data drawn from its' Books and the Consumer survey, show that consumer spending grew to £2172m in 2003, a value growth of 8% over 2002. This was accompanied by a 5% increase in volume purchases.