Bookstore sales slip while Amazon sales rise

Book sales at brick-and-mortar stores appear weak this fall, while Amazon's sales increased at a healthy clip.

Bookstore sales tanked 7.7 percent in August to $2 billion, estimates the U.S. Census Bureau. The decline comes on the heels of a 9.3 percent drop in bookstore sales in July.

But Amazon's media sales for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 climbed 15 percent, to $785 million. During the same period in 2005, growth was 21 percent. Amazon doesn't break out book sales from its media unit.