It’s simple, says a new report from the Book Industry Study Group: “The publishing industry continues to put out more books than the public is prepared to buy,” synopsizes Hillel Italie in an Associated Press wire story. Business professor and industry consultant Albert N. Greco explains, “People are reading less, so what you’re seeing is the same phenomenon that has hit magazines and newspapers, a massive shift toward home video, DVD, internet and cable.” The non-profit BISG, notes Italie, “reported estimated sales of 2.295 billion books in 2004, compared to an estimated 2.339 billion the previous year. Higher prices enabled net revenues to increase 2.8 percent, to $28.6 billion, but also drove many readers, especially students, to buy used books.” In short, “The number of books sold dropped by nearly 44 million between 2003 and 2004, even as the annual number of books published approaches 175,000.” The BISG thinks the forthcoming new Harry Potter book will make for a better year, but “We see that as a temporary spike,” says Greco. The BISG expects things to flatten out “for the following four years” except in one area: “Religious titles.”