Any statistician will tell you that 50 percent of statistics are incorrect. Of that, 20 percent are pulled from thin air. In the spirit of using random numbers to analyze a complex industry, I’ve compiled a list of important statistics from many different sources. With these little nuggets, you will be able to impress all your friends at the library, just do so quietly.
- 78 percent of titles published come from small/self publishers. —PMA
- Advances from major publishers generally fall into one of two categories: $2,000 to $20,000 or $100,000 plus. But the six-figure advance is an endangered species in today’s market (especially for first-time unknown authors). —Greenleaf Book Group
- POD books sell 150 to 175 copies on average. —New York Times, March 1, 2004
- The industry average return rate is 35 percent. —Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2005
- Barnes & Noble bookstores generally carry 60,000 to 200,000 titles at one time per store.
- Bookstore co-op promotions typically range in cost from $5,000 to $30,000.
- According to preliminary estimates from R.R. Bowker, title output fell 9.5 percent in 2005 to 172,000 new titles and editions. —Publishers Weekly
- There are six large publishers (in New York), 300–400 medium-sized publishers, and 86,000 small/self-publishers. —Dan Poynter
- According to R.R. Bowker, there are 2.8 million books in print.
- Saurage Research reported that for every one book sold online, eight are sold in traditional bookstores.
- 59 percent of customers plan to purchase a specific book when entering a bookstore, according to the Book Industry Study Group.
- On average, a bookstore browser spends eight seconds looking at the front cover and 15 seconds looking at the back cover of a book. —Greenleaf Book Group
- 8,000–11,000 new publishing companies are established each year. —ISBN.org
- About 50,000 titles are published each year in Canada. —bookwire.com
- In 2002, 73,000 smaller and newer publishers grossed $29.4 billion. —PMA
- In 2002, five large New York publishers had U.S. sales of $4.102 billion and worldwide sales of $5.68 billion. —Publishers Weekly, June 16, 2003
- 2002 sales of Christian books and products through all channels were just under $4.2 billion, up from $4 billion in 2000. $2.4 billion sold through Christian retail outlets, $1.1 billion through general retail, and $725 million through direct-to-consumer ministry channels. —Christian Booksellers Association reported in Publishers Weekly
- A successful nonfiction book sells 7,500 copies. —Authors Guild
- The top ten U.S. cities by dollar volume of book sales and number of bookstores are Los Angeles-Long Beach, New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, San Jose, and San Diego. —Christian Science Monitor
- Entertainment content is the largest U.S. export. —Wall Street Journal
- Global piracy losses to the U.S. book publishers were estimated at $650.8 million in 2001. —International Intellectual Property Alliance
- Of the top 50 books, fiction outsells nonfiction about 60 percent to 40 percent. Fiction peaks in July at 70 percent, but nonfiction reaches almost 50 percent in December. —USA Today
- Of the authors surveyed by Business Week, 96 percent said they realized a significant positive impact on their businesses from writing a book and would recommend the practice. —Businessweek.com
The most important thing to take away from this is that the book industry is a competitive one. To have a shot, a book must be well written, well packaged, well distributed, and well marketed. Above all, the book needs an audience and that audience must want the book. If you’re looking for more provocative industry revelations, subscribe to the Big Bad Book Blog’s RSS feed. To find more book industry stats, we recommend Dan Poynter’s stats page and BISG.org.
Tags: bisg.org, book industry, book industry statistics, book industry stats, how many books are there, how many publishers are there, publishing book companies
Thought you would also be interested in Dan Ponyter’s Radio show …Publishing Poynters Radio. See the segment on “Can You Make a Living at Self-publishing?”
You can listen online at http://www.parapublishing.com/sites/para/resources/pubradio.cfm
Note: currently looking for guest on a show we’re doing about product placement in books. I produce the program and would love to hear your thoughts.
I loved this column. Thank you. I will probably use some of the stats in my newsletter, Sharing with Writers, the official bugle for Authors’ Coalition (http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). I’m not sure what we can make of all of these figures, but I’ll tell you one thing, all us authors need to know more about branding and promotion–specifically book branding and promotion.
Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author USA Book News’ Best Professional Book 2004 and Book Publicists of Southern California’s Irwin Award, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON’T
Thank you for listing these statistics along with their sources! Too often we don’t know what we can believe because the message gets distorted in the retelling and the original study parameters are lost. I’ll include a link to your site in the Bulletin for the Metro-Phoenix Chapter of the Society of Southwestern Authors.
Keep up the good work!
Mairlyn Haight, HOW TO MARKET YOUR NONFICTION ADVICE BOOK ON THE INTERNET: A GUIDE FOR NONTECHIES LIKE ME at Lulu.com http://www.lulu.com/content/531796
Let’s say a book company releases a book and prints 100,000 copies. The company knows the ISBN number range assigned to this printing. Assign a code to one of the ISBN numbers that flags the bookstore that this book is a winner in a lottery set up by the book company. Imagine the buzz for a book release if people know that buying one of the books could get them $10,000. Readership would go up; same with literacy. And profit margins would to.
Why don’t book companies do this, Justin?
Just curious
Buck
Hi Buck,
Thank you for your response. With over 500 books published every day, the competition in bookstores is fierce. Anything you can do to generate excitement about a book would certainly help. The idea of a sweepstakes attached to an ISBN is problematic because only one ISBN is assigned to a title. Each book does not have its own ISBN. Therefore, it would be difficult to have an “instant winner” attached to an individual book. You can certainly have a sweepstakes, there would just need to be a different method of entry. You would also need to make sure you follow all laws associated with a sweepstakes. I’m no lawyer, so I cant help you there, but there is a definite protocol that would need to be followed. Another thing to consider would be the prize. In a world where game shows are giving away millions and lotteries are giving away hundreds of millions, the prize needs to be interesting enough to stand out. Think about the genre of the book and what potential readers would be truly excited about. Sometimes a unique offering will resonate more with your audience than a cash prize.
Thanks for your feedback.
-Justin
Well said. Yes, I agree with you upon further reflection.
Regards
buck
Hi all!
Very interesting information! Thanks!
G’night
Thanks for this illuminating column. I found you today by Googling “do authors make money?” Not a typical phrasing for a search, but I was feeling frustrated that people don’t give real numbers about their publishing earnings.
Yes, “everyone” says writing a book will help your career. But what if your career IS writing? Yes, I suppose it helps that, too, but I want to make a comfortable living writing books. I could write one a month if I weren’t spending so much time marketing what I’ve already written.
A few authors have a monthly discussion by telephone, first Monday of the month except for official U.S. holidays. Would love to have more writers join us and share your knowledge. Email sellmorebooks-subscribe@yahoogroups.com