Self-employment method
Book Retailers and News Dealers
12,357 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 12,357 people who filed under this code in 2022, 44.02% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 12,357 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full distribution Census publishes. The median above is interpolated inside the band that holds the 50th percentile.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 3,496 | 28.3% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 1,944 | 15.7% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 2,652 | 21.5% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 1,786 | 14.5% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 1,144 | 9.3% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 888 | 7.2% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 285 | 2.3% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 105 | 0.9% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 47 | 0.4% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $14,149 for the year — $1,179 a month in revenue. That is a real second income and a long way short of a first one, and Census cannot tell you which of those the typical filer intended.
12,357 people filed under this code — enough that the work exists everywhere and not enough that it supports a visible trade. Most people doing Book Retailers and News Dealers are doing it alongside something else.
10.7% of filers grossed $100,000 or more. That is a substantial upper tier by the standards of this dataset — the difference between a full operation and an occasional one is visible in the distribution rather than only in the anecdotes.
Independent hobby, book, sporting and miscellaneous retail suits people selling into an enthusiasm they genuinely share, because knowledge is most of the differentiation left.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 12,357 people did. Free entry is why the lower bands are as full as they are: the distribution below counts everyone who tried, not everyone who was ready.
Who should not do this
Bottom quarter under $4,415, top quarter over $41,353: 9.4x, or $3,078 a month. At this stretch the label has stopped describing one occupation, and every summary statistic about it — including the midpoint — should be treated with suspicion.
The bottom quarter of Book Retailers and News Dealers earns under $4,415 — $45,605 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.
Do not start this on enthusiasm alone; a shared interest with your customers is not by itself a margin.
Of the 12,357 people who filed as Book Retailers and News Dealers in 2022, 44.0% grossed under $10,000 for the year — 5,439 people who did not clear a part-time wage in revenue, let alone in profit.
That share is a floor, not an estimate: $10,000 is revenue, not earnings. Everyone counted inside it kept less than $10,000, and an unknown number of the filers above it also finished the year with nothing after costs.
What the spread tells you
At 9.4x, the gap between $4,415 and $41,353 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $14,149 is real and it is not a forecast — the people quoting the upper end at you are describing a minority.
In cash terms the middle half of Book Retailers and News Dealers runs $4,415 to $41,353 — $36,938 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $14,149.
Getting to $41,353, the 75th percentile, is worth $27,204 a year more than the $14,149 midpoint and $36,938 more than the $4,415 a quarter of Book Retailers and News Dealers settle for.
The top quarter of Book Retailers and News Dealers begins $27,204 above the $14,149 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $9,734 below it. A range stretched that far in one direction is the signature of a field where a small group earns a great deal more than the middle does.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Book Retailers and News Dealers takes $6.80 in revenue — $2.12 at the bottom quarter and $19.88 at the top. Costs have not been deducted from any of those figures, so none of them is an hourly wage.
Straight from the Census bands for Book Retailers and News Dealers: 3,496 filers under $5,000, 1,944 between $5,000 and $9,999, 2,652 between $10,000 and $24,999, 1,325 above $100,000 and 437 above $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
These are GROSS RECEIPTS: everything that came in, before expenses. Rent, stock, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax all come out of the $14,149 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $14,149 wage and should never be read as one.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $14,149 because we have no verified record of unpaid hours or out-of-pocket costs for this work, and we would rather convert honestly than adjust invented ones.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else