The largest growth area in publishing is currently eBooks. In January 2006, eBook sales jumped by over 50%.

Consumers in the Northeast spend the most on reading materials, while spending is the lowest in the South.

Sales of religious paperback books represents 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% 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.
 

Half of all books sold today are to people over the age of 45. Thank you Boomers!

Used book sales are mushrooming, thus cutting out revenue for both authors and publishers. Estimates are that used books are now a $300 million plus industry. Three years ago they were barely a blip.

Wonder about America’s most literate cities? Here they are ranked from 1 to 10:

         Minneapolis, Minnesota
         Seattle, Washington
         Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
         Madison, Wisconsin
         Cincinnati, Ohio
         Washington, DC
          Denver, Colorado
          Boston, Massachusetts
          Portland, Oregon
          San Francisco, California

There are about 1.5 million books in print at any one time in the U.S.

The explosive domestic growth enjoyed by Amazon comes from third party sellers, both individuals and businesses, merchandising through Amazon Marketplace and their Z-Shops. The Internet giant lost $1.96 million on shipping, but considers this a marketing or promotional cost.

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.

The top 10 most popular American novelists in terms of sales are: Tom Clancy, Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, John Grisham, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Tim La Haye with Jerry Jenkins (co-authors), James Patterson, Nora Roberts, and Danielle Steel.

Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.

Women buy 68% of all books sold.

64% of book buyers say a book's being on a bestseller list is not important.

52% 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.

More booksellers are turning to publishing, says an article in the June 5, 2006 Publishers Weekly. It seems some independent bookstores are installing instabook machines so they can produce Print on Demand (POD) books right in the store. They're catering to customers who write local histories, genealogies, memoirs, coursepacks, dissertations, poetry, etc. So far those climbing on this bandwagon are all in the East: Book Ends in Ridgewood, NJ; The Bookloft in Great Barrington, MA; and the Book House in Albany, NY.

The ratio of customers to bookstores is highest in Nevada, Texas, and Mississippi.

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%.

Over 195,000 new titles are published each year in this country.

Romance fiction is responsible for 48% of all paperbacks sold, bringing in $1.41 billion a year.

There are 5 colossal publishing conglomerates that control 80% of book sales. They are: Bertlesman (Random House), Time Warner, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, Disney, and Viacom/CBS. Four of these are foreign owned. They won't take on a title unless it will sell at least 50,000 copies.

Some 300 to 400 mid-sized publishers exist.

78% 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% more fiction is being published these days via the Internet and (POD) Print on Demand.

Approximately 85 different nonexclusive distributors will work with small publishers. They typically expect a 55% discount off the retail price - This is the regular discount for books and is the standard in the industry. Books without this discount will have the hardest time find distribution through retail store.

Today there are approximately 80,000 publishers. In 2003, there were about 56,000 publishers; compare that to 12,000 in 1980.

Women buy 68% of all books sold.

52% 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.

Bookstores are famous for returning books to publishers. The industry return rate is typically 36% for hardcovers and 25% 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' The Christmas Box.