Some Book Statistics

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Reading remains too far behind the TV.

10 days to Christmas.

I’m just gonna go ahead and apologize in advance for what I know will be a few weeks of sparse posting.  Holidays, holidays with the husband’s family, holidays with the husband’s family who don’t speak English…  You get the idea.  It doesn’t help that the Muse and I seem to be at odds at the moment.  She wants me to sleep, eat cookies, and watch the snow, while I want to finish this book I’m writing.  Alas.

Number of Books Published (in 2005):

  • United States: 172,000
  • United Kingdom: 206,000
  • Germany: 96,000

The UK leads the world for the per-capita new titles per year.  The UK has 61 million inhabitants, and the US has 308 million.  Why are we behind the UK for number of books printed!?!? This is terrible.  Come on, people.  Read!  Or, perhaps the UK deserves a big pat on the back.

Other Book Statistics in the US:

  • 68% of book-buyers are women.
  • Readers over the age of 55 comprise 1/3 of book-buyers.
  • Genre fiction break-down:
    • ~55% of all trade paperbacks sold are Romance.  This is hands-down the most popular genre.
    • Mystery/Suspense are next up with ~25%
    • Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror follow with ~10%
    • That doesn’t add up to 100, so…I presume other genres  make up the final 10%. (hey, it was really hard to find these numbers, okay?)
  • Americans spend over 1,500 hours per year watching television, but only 100 hours reading a book.
  • 80% of books published by major publishing houses come through agents.  (that should be a strong indicator of the importance of getting an agent)

Well, I hope that was as enlightening for you all as it was for me.  I think that the statistic on TV-hours and reading-hours should be flipped for me…  I hope it’s the same for you!

-S.

Walt Disney’s Fantasia: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

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