Books news and publishing industry statistics
Here are some fascinating publishing industry statistics about the book industry in general and book news on self-publishing in particular. Our goal is to provide the media, authors, publishers, librarians, booksellers, agents, editors, and all book enthusiasts with publishing industry statistics and self-publishing facts. The most recent figures available are quoted in this compilation of book news and publishing industry statistics.
We welcome your input! Please see the Comments section, below.
- The New York Times reported that “According to a recent survey, 81 percent of people feel that they have a book in them…and should write it.” If you do the math, that represents over 200 million people in the U.S. who want to write a book in their lifetime! No wonder self-publishing is thriving as never before!
- A new survey found that 23 percent of readers polled have visited an author’s web site, while only 18 percent have gone to a publisher’s site. The survey, conducted by advertising firm Spier New York, surveyed 813 readers, 35 percent of whom were under 35 years old. The survey also found that 50 percent of those queried had purchased a book as a gift within the past year. Online purchases represented 28 percent of books bought, while 89 percent came from a brick-and-mortar retailer.
- USA Today has added a searchable database of 10 years of bestseller data. You can find it on the page where their weekly bestseller list is posted. A key discovery: the all time best-selling writing/reference guide in the United States is The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. (Note that it was originally a self-published book!)
- Consumers in the Northeast spend the most on reading materials, while spending is the lowest in the South.
- Sales of religious paperback books represent a significant market share in today’s publishing arena. The new gospel on book sales has spiritual and religious titles crossing over into mainstream bookstores and taking upwards of 7 percent of all book sales. The Purpose Driven Life, for instance, has sold over 22 million copies. And this is not a New York phenomena: the publishers, agents, and authors are primarily a whole different group than the Big Apple players.
- There is a new concept, “wag the long tail,” which means if you rack up enough small sales, especially consumer sales on the Internet, it will add up to big profits in the long run. Technology is turning mass markets into millions of niches. Independent presses, self-publishers, and authors can sell effectively into these micromarkets. This bodes well for new and mid-list authors, not to mention creative-minded smaller presses.
- Blogs can lead to books. A blog is a great place to flesh out ideas, get reader feedback, and sometimes catch the attention of an agent or publisher.
- The ratio of customers to bookstores is highest in Nevada, Texas, and Mississippi.
- Statistics provided by publishers to the Association of American Publishers revealed that net sales in February 2006 were at $358.4 million, up 12.3 percent over the same period in 2005. Genre leaders were higher education and adult mass market paperback.
- About 20 percent of online sales are of titles not available in traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Projections are this figure will soon reach a third of all book sales.
- Many famous authors and their books were rejected multiple times. Publishers turned down Richard Bach’s Johnathan Livingston Seagull no less than 140 times; Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind received 38 “no’s,” while Stephen King’s Carrie was turned down 30 times. J. K. Rowling’s original work was pooh-poohed by 12 publishers…guess who’s kicking themselves now that they passed on Harry Potter? And E. E. Cummings first work—The Enormous Room, now considered a masterpiece—was ultimately self-published…and dedicated to the 15 publishers who rejected it.
- What element of a book is the most important? Seventy-five percent of 300 booksellers surveyed (half from independent bookstores and half from chains) identified the look and design of the book cover as the most important component. They agreed that the jacket is prime real estate for promoting a book.
- Speaking of promoting, niche magazines, which focus on a single topic, are becoming increasingly popular. This trend to specialization — everything from magazines on poker playing to horse people, from interior design and decor to wedding titles, from dog magazines to golf periodicals — provide targeted opportunities for promoting books on these topics.
- It is good that these fragmented magazines exist. Book review column inches in newspapers have dropped by 20 to 50 percent.
- University presses are rebounding. They increased their title input to 14,484 (up by 6.3 percent) in 2004, an all-time high. The growth engines were history, biography, and law, which represented 55 percent of the increase. A Princeton University Press title even topped the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list.
- From 8,000 to 11,000 new publishers enter the field every year; they are mostly self-publishers.
- There are about 1.5 million books in print at any one time in the United States.
- Bookstore sales by month would surprise the average consumer. You probably think December is the high month. Yet the big bounce is in January and again in August and September when university sales are made. The lowest month is April with only $0.987 billion in sales.
- Some 300 to 400 mid-sized publishers exist.
- 78 percent of titles brought out come from a small press or self-publisher.
- California is the stronghold of small presses with approximately six times the number located elsewhere. Colorado and Minnesota also have large independent and self-publishing communities.
- On the average a bookstore browser will spend eight seconds looking at the front cover and 15 seconds scanning the back cover.
- The size of the small press movement is estimated to be $13 billion to $17 billion a year, as opposed to trade publishers who are responsible for bringing in $26 billion.
- Nonfiction typically outsells fiction by two to one. However, at least 20 percent more fiction is being published these days via the Internet and (POD) Print on Demand.
- Interest in poetry and drama has grown by more than 33 percent since 1992.
- The average number of copies sold per title of a POD company that printed 10,000 different titles: 75 books.
- One book per year is produced in America for every 2,336 people— in contrast to one for every 545 individuals in the U.K. Other countries ahead of the U.S. on a per capita basis are Canada (577), New Zealand (779), and Australia (2,041).
- A poll of 2,700 U.S. Internet users, representing about 100 million U.S. Internet users, indicates that about 8 million unpublished novels and 17 million unpublished how-to books have been written by that Internet-using population alone.
- Women buy 68 percent of all books sold.
- Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.
- 52 percent of all books are not sold in bookstores! They are merchandised via mail order, online, in discount or warehouse stores, through book clubs, in nontraditional retail outlets, etc.
- 64 percent of book buyers say a book’s being on a bestseller list is not important.
- The #1 nonfiction bestseller for 2001 was the Prayer of Jabez, exceeding 8 million copies. Self Matters was #1 on the 2002 list with a mere 1,350,000 copies sold. John Grisham’s The Summons topped the fiction list with 2,625,000 copies. The best-selling trade paperback during 2002 was, of all things, a cookbook: Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook. How-tos, memoirs, and religion were also strong sellers.
- Parables, short tales of fiction that teach a life lesson, have many avid fans that drive them onto bestseller lists. One of the most recent is Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, MD. Dr. Johnson began his career as a self published author
- Bookstores are famous for returning books to publishers. The industry return rate is typically 36 percent for hardcovers and 25 percent for softcovers.
- It takes an average of 475 hours to write a novel. Fiction is considered successful if it sells 5,000 copies. Writing a nonfiction book requires about 725 hours. A nonfiction book is deemed successful when it reaches 7,500 copies sold.
- The largest advance ever paid for a self-published book? A whopping $4.125 million. Simon & Schuster paid that for Richard Paul Evans’s The Christmas Box.
We have researched a multitude of sites and publications to pull these facts together for you. They include the ISBN agency, Harris Interactive poll, Book Industry Study Group, Bookwire.com, Seybold conference, IBPA, the American Association of Publishers, Authors Guild, Lulu.com, Jupiter Media Matrix, parapublishing.com, Foreword magazine, Department of Commerce, Publishers Weekly, various news releases, Books in Print, R.R. Bowker, Forrester Research, Morris Rosenthal, Romance Writers of America, Shelf Awareness, U.S. News & World Report, Poets and Writers, M. J. Rose, Borders, and SIMBA information.
Great discussion. And I REALLY like that you practice what you preach. That’s when you can tell a post has come together.
].
And I’m also fascinated by how fresh you made the routine [admit it: what you just shared has been regurgitated millions of time.
Ben Johnson said people don’t need taught as much as they need reminding.
Good work.
VQR (Fall 2010 issue) cited Assn of American Publishers to indicate combined book sales in US were less than 25 million in 2009. This VQR issue is on the “paperless revolution” and at first glance it looks to be very interesting reading. However, VQR’s fact checker must be asleep at the switch – or AAP is bad source. That is, book sales must be greater by a factor of 10 (or more).
Thought I would do a quick google search to get the “right” number. However, it’s not so easy. Do you have reliable data?
Yes, Frank, I agree–that certainly sounds “off.” Have you tried the Bowker site to see if they have any data?
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!
[...] according to the web site Self Publishing Resources, “8,000 to 11,000 חеw publishers enter the field [...]
[...] that there is an astonishing–and growing–number of self-publishers. According to the web site Self Publishing Resources, “8,000 to 11,000 new publishers enter the field every year; they are mostly [...]
“The average number of copies sold per title of a POD company that printed 10,000 different titles: 75 books.”
That makes me feel a lot better about the 1,800 of my POD books that have sold so far. I believe one reason POD books don’t sell is that authors do not know how much promotion is involved.
Writing is the easy part. Promotions and selling require time, time, time and more time.
Behind the Velvet Curtain is a self-pub book. Through rejected several times by publishers, I have faith and will not loose faith. Thanks…keep it up!
[...] giving shelf space and inventory cash to self-published titles. But don’t let this depress you: Selfpublishingresources.com claims that 52% of all books sold are purchased outside of these “brick-and-mortar” bookstores; [...]
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Very interesting article. Technology has in many ways levelled the playing field, while altering the way we live and do business. It has caused many doors to shut, but, so many more to also open.
[...] Found this article the other day re some interesting publishing/self-publishing data. The cites are at the bottom of the article. There are a few dozen bullet points here to peruse through but here are the ones I find most interesting: [...]
[...] [1] http://selfpublishingresources.com/resources/books-news-and-publishing-industry-statistics [...]
[...] Here are some fascinating publishing industry statistics about the book industry in general and book news on self-publishing in particular. This is featured onhttp://selfpublishingresources.com/resources/books-news-and-publishing-industry-statistics/ [...]
[...] Sources: Bowkers, Self-Publishing Resources. [...]
[...] aren’t the only ones turning to self-publishing–in fact, it is estimated that nearly 80% of books published each year are either self-published or published by small publishing companie…. Consequently, many business owners are re-evaluating their options to see whether self publishing [...]
I would like to know the price to self-publish a book. How much will a printer charge me per book? How much should I sell the book to a store for. How much profit should I expect per book. If the book costs two dollars to print a book how much should I ask for each book?
No I have not asked this question yet
Barbara–The price per book will depend on a number of factors, including number of pages, trim size, color use, bleeds or no bleeds, as well as the printer you are using. As far as pricing…ideally your book is priced at 7 times the unit cost, so a book that costs $2 to print would price at $14. However, there are other factors to take into consideration as well, including what other books of a similar size and in the same genre are going for. It’s easy enough to get on Amaozn and check out the competition. You don’t want to price too high or too low…there’s definitely a balance.
My name is Barbie and I would like to bring to the attention of a scam. xulonpress,com
is ripping people off left and right. A friend of mine had his book pulblished by them and they swear up and down that there have been no sales. The author has bought many of his own books-hundreds and sold them to people. Likewise I and other people have bought his book also. Hundreds of books have been bought and xulonpress swears on a stack of bibles that there have been no sales. They claim to be a Christian publishing house.
They stink. Beware of them!
[...] Books news and publishing industry statistics [...]
[...] to Self Publishing Resources, 8,000 to 11,000 new publishers enter the field every year; most of them are self [...]
[...] people than it is to me and other authors who share head space in the sand: The highly reliable SPR (Self Publishing Resources) reports (bullet-point number 30) that their studies and research show “most readers do not [...]
[...] “Many famous authors and their books were rejected multiple times. Publishers turned down Richard Bach’s Johnathan Livingston Seagull no less than 140 times; Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind received 38 “no’s,” while Stephen King’s Carrie was turned down 30 times. J. K. Rowling’s original work was pooh-poohed by 12 publishers…guess who’s kicking themselves now that they passed on Harry Potter? And E. E. Cummings first work—The Enormous Room, now considered a masterpiece—was ultimately self-published…and dedicated to the 15 publishers who rejected it.” -selfpublishingresources.com [...]
[...] http://selfpublishingresources.com/resources/books-news-and-publishing-industry-statistics/ The size of the small press movement is estimated to be $13 billion to $17 billion a year, as opposed to trade publishers who are responsible for bringing in $26 billion. 52 percent of all books are not sold in bookstores! They are merchandised via mail order, online, in discount or warehouse stores, through book clubs, in nontraditional retail outlets, etc. 64 percent of book buyers say a book’s being on a bestseller list is not important. Bookstores are famous for returning books to publishers. The industry return rate is typically 36 percent for hardcovers and 25 percent for soft covers. It takes an average of 475 hours to write a novel. Fiction is considered successful if it sells 5,000 copies. Writing a nonfiction book requires about 725 hours. A nonfiction book is deemed successful when it reaches 7,500 copies sold. [...]
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[...] All of this ebook talk is becoming a business in itself. Money is being made out of thin air in this strange new speculative meta-practice: there are seminars, conferences and courses springing up everywhere, even at the Society of Authors (a writers’ union which, until recently, was largely against epublication). Television and radio programmes are being made about self-epublishing (I’ve personally been asked to speak about it on 12 occasions since August). Everyone can be a writer now: it only takes 10 minutes to upload your own ebook, and according to the New York Times “81% of people feel they have a book in them … And should write it” [...]
[...] All of this ebook talk is becoming a business in itself. Money is being made out of thin air in this strange new speculative meta-practice: there are seminars, conferences and courses springing up everywhere, even at the Society of Authors (a writers’ union which, until recently, was largely against epublication). Television and radio programmes are being made about self-epublishing (I’ve personally been asked to speak about it on 12 occasions since August). Everyone can be a writer now: it only takes 10 minutes to upload your own ebook, and according to the New York Times “81% of people feel they have a book in them … And should write it” [...]
[...] All of this ebook talk is becoming a business in itself. Money is being made out of thin air in this strange new speculative meta-practice: there are seminars, conferences and courses springing up everywhere, even at the Society of Authors (a writers’ union which, until recently, was largely against epublication). Television and radio programmes are being made about self-epublishing (I’ve personally been asked to speak about it on 12 occasions since August). Everyone can be a writer now: it only takes 10 minutes to upload your own ebook, and according to the New York Times “81% of people feel they have a book in them … And should write it” [...]
[...] All of this ebook talk is becoming a business in itself. Money is being made out of thin air in this strange new speculative meta-practice: there are seminars, conferences and courses springing up everywhere, even at the Society of Authors (a writers’ union which, until recently, was largely against epublication). Television and radio programmes are being made about self-epublishing (I’ve personally been asked to speak about it on 12 occasions since August). Everyone can be a writer now: it only takes 10 minutes to upload your own ebook, and according to the New York Times “81% of people feel they have a book in them … And should write it” [...]
[...] All of this ebook talk is becoming a business in itself. Money is being made out of thin air in this strange new speculative meta-practice: there are seminars, conferences and courses springing up everywhere, even at the Society of Authors (a writers’ union which, until recently, was largely against epublication). Television and radio programmes are being made about self-epublishing (I’ve personally been asked to speak about it on 12 occasions since August). Everyone can be a writer now: it only takes 10 minutes to upload your own ebook, and according to the New York Times “81% of people feel they have a book in them … And should write it” [...]
[...] All of this ebook talk is becoming a business in itself. Money is being made out of thin air in this strange new speculative meta-practice: there are seminars, conferences and courses springing up everywhere, even at the Society of Authors (a writers’ union which, until recently, was largely against epublication). Television and radio programmes are being made about self-epublishing (I’ve personally been asked to speak about it on 12 occasions since August). Everyone can be a writer now: it only takes 10 minutes to upload your own ebook, and according to the New York Times “81% of people feel they have a book in them … And should write it” [...]
[...] All of this ebook talk is becoming a business in itself. Money is being made out of thin air in this strange new speculative meta-practice: there are seminars, conferences and courses springing up everywhere, even at the Society of Authors (a writers’ union which, until recently, was largely against epublication). Television and radio programmes are being made about self-epublishing (I’ve personally been asked to speak about it on 12 occasions since August). Everyone can be a writer now: it only takes 10 minutes to upload your own ebook, and according to the New York Times “81% of people feel they have a book in them … And should write it” [...]
[...] writer now: it only takes 10 minutes to upload your own ebook, and according to the New York Times "81% of people feel they have a book in them … And should write it"But all of this gives me an alarming sense of deja vu. There's another name for what happens when [...]
[...] All of this e-book talk is becoming a business in itself. Money is being made out of thin air in this strange new speculative meta-practice: there are seminars, conferences and courses springing up everywhere, even at the Society of Authors (a writers’ union which, until recently, was largely against e-publication). Television and radio programmes are being made about self-epublishing (I’ve personally been asked to speak about it on 12 occasions since August). Everyone can be a writer now: it only takes 10 minutes to upload your own e-book, and according to the New York Times “81% of people feel they have a book in them … And should write it” [...]
[...] All of this e-book talk is becoming a business in itself. Money is being made out of thin air in this strange new speculative meta-practice: there are seminars, conferences and courses springing up everywhere, even at the Society of Authors (a writers’ union which, until recently, was largely against e-publication). Television and radio programmes are being made about self-epublishing (I’ve personally been asked to speak about it on 12 occasions since August). Everyone can be a writer now: it only takes 10 minutes to upload your own e-book, and according to the New York Times “81% of people feel they have a book in them … And should write it” [...]
I would also add that by the time you are done putzing around trying to beg and plead a publisher or an agent to consider your works, you can have the book done, ready and already selling on the Internet. I would also argue you stand a better chance of becoming a successful writer self-publishing and then getting recognized by a publisher or agent than cold calling or going the traditional route. Of course, if you’re already successful self-publishing why trade in your 70% commission for a paltry 5-25% commission?
[...] is the cover. A bookstore browser will spend on average eight seconds looking at the front cover[source]. That might seem too short to worry about, but in eight seconds a book cover [...]