Publishing Industry Stats Encouraging
By Morgan Chilson
BookStats, an extensive survey released in early August, had surprising — and happy! — numbers about the publishing industry.
“Overall U.S. publishing revenues are growing. Publishers’ net sales revenue has grown annually; 2010’s $27.94 Billion is a 5.6% increase over 2008.”
Wow. And we’ve been hearing so much about the demise of books. The reality is there is always room for good stories — whether that be in an online format or a good old-fashioned, haul-it-with-you paperback. That’s exciting for an unpublished author like myself to hear!
It’s also interesting for me to consider that much of the fear we all feel as we watch the publishing industry change is just that: fear of CHANGE, and not really fear that our stories will go away. People have been sharing their stories since the beginning of time. Is it possible the storytellers who passed their memorized histories down to other tribe members were threatened by the advent of writing utensils, just as we question our future with ebooks?
Check out the survey here and be sure to follow the links to where they break down information on what genres are selling. A couple of tidbits:
*Adult fiction sales were strong and grew over the three-year study period. Overall net sales revenue increased by 9.7% and net unit sales by 3.5%. Non-fiction also grew, by 3.5%.
*Trade juvenile (children, teens, young adults) sales gained 7.1% over the three years in net sales revenue and 12.1% in net unit sales.
Nice point, Morgan. Despite the downturn of the economy in 2008, over 3 three years ago, and over the same period of this study, sales in entertainment: books and movies, and alcohol consumption, are still booming. In these troubled times people especially need escapism from economic difficulties and such. The publishing world is changing, but many of the changes are exciting, like the abitity to purchase a book and be able to begin reading it in minutes, or opening up a whole new demographic of young readers. Though never easy, change is inevitable.