Bowker followed those self-publishing-focused statistics we noted yesterday with the formal release of their estimates of print book production in 2011. What they call “traditional” output–which includes self-publishers like Create Space, but excludes public domain POD factories like BiblioBazaar–grew for the sixth consecutive year. The preliminary title count was 347,178, up almost 6 percent from 2010’s final count of 328,259. (NB we have observed that the final count is almost always higher than the preliminary tally; that 2010 number listed here is about 12,000 titles higher than the preliminary estimate issued this time a year ago.) As reported yesterday, at […]
Industry Statistics
People, Etc.
At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Angela Zurlo has been promoted to production manager for the Books for Young Readers and Paul Wiseman imprints, effective June 1. Navah Wolfe and Julia Maguire have been promoted to associate editor, BFYR. In addition, Richard Ackoon moves up to executive coordinator, Laura Roode has been promoted to associate art director, and Krista Olsen moves up to design associate. Knopf announced that in six weeks, they have sold over 10 million units (in all editions) of EL James’s three FIFTY SHADES books. They have printed 9.5 million books so far, available in 15,000 physical retail […]
eBooks Grow to Comprise 6 Percent of Export Sales
As part of their expanding BookStats project, the AAP is now breaking out some meaningful export sales data for the first time. Many US publishers have known that export is the prime growth areas and have been devoting resources towards maximizing the opportunity. The interesting insight is that, while digital clearly cannibalizes print sales in the US, it’s fueling both print and ebook sales in export markets. From 161 reporting publishers, print export sales in 2011 were $335.9 million, and ebook sales into the same territories were $21.5 million (or 6 percent of all export sales). Significantly the biggest “export” […]
Trade Sales Up 22% In February, While eBook Sales Flatten Out (Sort Of)
The AAP reported sales for February, the second installment in their expanded Stat Shot tabulations. Though it doesn’t fit the narrative in the general and tech press, trade sales of $438 million were up 22 percent over last year’s revised count of $360 million, driven by a $58.5 million gain in children’s and YA (not doubt due in part to the major success of the Hunger Games books, which added 12.5 million units in print in the first three months of the year). Those sales were cleaner as well, with the absence of the big Borders returns a year ago […]
AAP Launches Expanded Stats As Trade Reports A Good January
The AAP released sales numbers for January 2012, launching a significantly revised and expanded data set under the new name StatShot. The new counts reflect data from 1,149 publishers overall across all the sectors the AAP tracks, and provide a variety of more granular data breakouts. Trade statistics are enhanced by the inclusion of data from multiple major distributors, including all of Perseus’s distribution lines, IPG (which accounts for 663 publishers), and clients distributed by Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette Book Group. (Previously only 20 to 25 publishers contributed to most of the trade statistical pool.) The University […]
Even with eBooks, New Title Count In UK Falls
In the UK, ISBN agency Nielsen says that new titles published during 2011 declined slightly from the previous year, totaling 149,800 books. Of those 35,000 were ebooks (or online resources), 28,000 were hardcovers, and 71,000 were paperbacks. The Nielsen UK figures have not reflected the same explosion in ISBN-carrying content as the US, where “POD farms” and self-publishers have accounted for many hundreds of thousands of units. Nor does the Nielsen data–or even Bowker’s US data–tabulate the increasing number of self-published ebooks that carry only proprietary store identifiers (like Amazon’s ASIN) rather than receiving registered ISBNs.