Sisters in Crime, in conjunction with Bowker PubTrack, released the results of a survey of 1,056 mystery readers conducted in September 2010 on their book-buying habits. And while many of the results will not be a surprise both to those in the industry and in the mystery community, what struck me in particular is the gap between readers over and under the age of 40, and how current acquisitions may appeal more to the younger group while it neglects, for good or for ill, older readers. Generally, the majority of mystery/crime fiction buyers tend to be women over the age […]
Industry Statistics
AAP-Tracked eBook Sales Hold Steady, But Are Under 7 Percent of Month’s Sales
The AAP reported their October sales numbers this morning, with everyone’s favorite number to watch–their tabulation of ebook sales for 12 reporting publishers–up slightly at $40.7 million. (They have been about the same, month to month, since July.) With net print trade sales from a larger group of publishers reported at $569 million, ebooks comprised 6.7 percent of sales for the month. That’s below the 8 percent of trade sales that ebooks comprise for the entire year through October. (We’ve discussed previously that monthly ebook figures may not be all that precise; also as previously written, our percentages differ from […]
Wimpy Kid More Nearly Doubles Hefty Bush Opening-Day Sales
Jeff Kinney’s DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: The Ugly Truth, the fifth in his bestselling series, sold over 375,000 copies in its first day on sale according to publisher Abrams. The launch included an event at Book People in Austin, TX, where the author addressed over 1,600 fans to kick off his tour. The specially-branded tour bus will take Kinney to events in Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, and Birmingham, AL, with up to 2,000 fans expected in the various venues. That opening-day sale is said to be up 50 percent from the big first day for the fourth book in […]
A New Look at the Monthly eBook Percentage: Adult eBooks Are Roughly 9.5 Percent
The AAP reported their monthly industry sales statistics for September, including ebook sales compiled from 12 publishers (including the big six). They show ebook sales for the month of $39.9 million, ahead of August’s $39 million, but behind July’s $40.8 million. (We repeat our warning that insiders have told us not to make too much of the monthly precision on these numbers, based on how data is accumulated by publishers). With total trade print sales of $489.5 million for September, that makes ebooks 7.5 percent of sales overall for the month. The total of $304.6 million in ebooks for the […]
AAP eBook Sales Remain Strong
The AAP recorded reports of $39 million in ebook sales for August from the 12 publishers who provide data, another strong month, slightly below the $40.8 million from a month ago. (We’ve been warned by a participant that reporting methodology can vary and one should not get too attached to these numbers as reflecting a particular month’s activity; the cumulative numbers over a period of months are more accurate indicators.) The $263 million in ebook sales recorded for 2010 so far from that core group of reporting publishers comprises 8.3 percent of all net trade sales of $3.174 billion as […]
Blair’s Opening Sale Sets Record, Sort Of
Tony Blair’s memoir A JOURNEY sold 92,060 copies in the UK in the first four days on sale, in outlets tracked by Nielsen BookScan UK (which covers nearly the entire market over there). That qualifies as the biggest opening for a memoir since Nielsen started recording book sales in 1998, the Bookseller reports, though Margaret Thatcher’s THE DOWNING STREET YEARS was estimated to have sold 120,000 copies when it was first released in 1993.Bookseller In more Blair news, his “secret” book party is going ahead as planned tomorrow night at the Tate Modern, despite threats of protest from the Stop […]