Going through some paperwork last night I found a paragraph I had cut-n-pasted and printed about book sales. Unfortunately, I did not copy the source. The stats are from a company called Nielsen BookScan, which tracks all facets of book sales both nationally and internationally. I went to their website earlier and did some cursory searching, but could not obtain more current statistics in the few minutes I had set aside.
Anyway, it seems that 195,000 new book titles were published in 2004. That’s 25,000 more books than the previous year – apparently a very large jump. However, most of these books do not sell well. In fact, 93 percent – or some 180,000 new titles – only sell, at most, a thousand copies. These books account for only 13 percent of total book sales. So if you flip the numbers around, that means that 7 percent of the new books were responsible for 87 percent of total book sales.
I’m not sure what to take away from these numbers except a little better understanding of book sales. There’s a lot there that could get an aspiring author depressed. Or perhaps … motivated. Hey, 7 percent of the new books in 2004 were successful! So what if that’s only one out of every fourteen published. 7 percent translates to 15,000 books, and presumably, 15,000 authors! Would you sign up for an endeavor where there could be 14,999 other successful participants? You could be one of those 15,000. Hey, so could I!
Anyway, it seems that 195,000 new book titles were published in 2004. That’s 25,000 more books than the previous year – apparently a very large jump. However, most of these books do not sell well. In fact, 93 percent – or some 180,000 new titles – only sell, at most, a thousand copies. These books account for only 13 percent of total book sales. So if you flip the numbers around, that means that 7 percent of the new books were responsible for 87 percent of total book sales.
I’m not sure what to take away from these numbers except a little better understanding of book sales. There’s a lot there that could get an aspiring author depressed. Or perhaps … motivated. Hey, 7 percent of the new books in 2004 were successful! So what if that’s only one out of every fourteen published. 7 percent translates to 15,000 books, and presumably, 15,000 authors! Would you sign up for an endeavor where there could be 14,999 other successful participants? You could be one of those 15,000. Hey, so could I!
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