Publishers sold 3.08 billion copies in 2008, down 1.5 percent from the 3.13 billion copies sold the previous year, according to Book Industry Trends 2009, an annual report that analyzes sales in the United States. Higher retail prices helped to lift net revenue just 1 percent, to $40.3 billion from $39.9 billion.

The numbers confirm a litany of dreary news that has emerged from the publishing industry since last fall, when booksellers began seeing significant declines in store traffic. The trend has not abated this year, as publishers have continued to report double-digit sales declines. Borders Group announced Tuesday that first-quarter sales dropped 12 percent.

Against this backdrop, publishers, authors, booksellers and librarians are gathering in New York for BookExpo America, the industry's annual convention, which runs through Sunday.

Bookstore sales, which were bolstered somewhat in January by back-to-school buying at college stores, declined 10.8% in February, to $1.02 billion. Sales for the full retail sector fell 11.5% in the month. For the first two months of 2009, bookstore sales were down 3.2%, to $3.32 billion. Sales for all of retail tumbled 9.9%.

Company CEO George Jones said that after completing a thorough review of its options, the company determined it was best "to remain as we are," adding that he was "quite pleased" that the review is over and that Borders will remain an independent, publicly-traded company. The company still has the option to sell its Paperchase division to Pershing Square Capital, Borders's largest shareholder, for $65 million. That option expires Jan. 15. The company said it is talking to Pershing about different financing arrangements.

Similar to its competitors, Borders blamed a lack of customer traffic for the decline in sales, noting that the drop was most significant in September and October. Jones said the higher decline in comp stores compared to its competitors was due in part to its aggressive inventory reduction program which he acknowledged cost some sales. Jones said the decision to prune slow moving titles from Borders's store shelves was the right one, although he acknowledged the program "was not perfect." The company is starting to "fine tune" its inventory program and may return some books to stores, Jones said. According to Jones Borders is "well stocked" for the holidays. "It's a tough retail environment, but we feel we'll get our share of sales," Jones said.