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Thursday, May 9, 2002
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R.R. Bowker Releases U.S. Book Production Statistics
R.R. Bowker, a provider of bibliographic information
in North America, has released statistics
regarding U.S. book production from its Books
In Print database. Books In Print is a bibliographic database listing
over millions of audio, video, in-print, forthcoming and
out-of-print titles.
The most notable finding from the report is that total
book production, led by a huge increase in the output of adult
fiction titles, will likely reach an all-time high of more
than 135,000 in 2001, an increase of more than 10 percent
over 2000. This data is interesting because estimates from the
Association of American Publishers (AAP) found that book sales
were flat for 2001. The AAP reported that US book sales totaled
$25,356,500,000 billion in 2001, a meager 0.1 percent
increase over 2000.
The growth in overall book production in 2001 was fueled by
the adult fiction category. Adult fiction continued its record
growth of recent years, increasing by a staggering 20% over
2000. The jump in adult fiction titles last year comes on the
heels of an equally impressive increase of 18% in 2000.
"While the record title output for 2001 does not necessarily
signal a crisis of overproduction in the publishing industry,
recent estimates of flat book sales by the Association of
American Publishers (AAP), suggests that there may be a market
disconnect between what is published, and what is ultimately
sold. It would be both interesting and useful to further
analyze the correlation between annual book production and
net dollar sales," said Andrew Grabois, senior director of
publisher relations and content development for New Providence,
N.J.-based R.R. Bowker. "Taking the long view, book production
in 2001 was the continuation of a phenomenal 20-year run for
publishers. Since 1980, almost 2 million books were published
in the U.S., more than the 1.3 million books published in the
preceding 100 years."
Other interesting findings in Bowker's report include the
following:
- Book production in the U.S. is the highest in the world,
surpassing that of Great Britain, which had been the
recognized leader in international title output. In the U.S.,
a new book in published nearly every four seconds.
- On a per capita basis, U.S. book production is actually
relatively low compared to other industrialized,
English-speaking nations. Most recent census and production
statistics show that the U.S. produced a book for every 2,336
people, a distant fifth behind the U.K. (545), Canada (577),
New Zealand (779) and Australia (2,041).
- In 2001, the top three production categories were Adult
Fiction, Sociology/Economics, and Juvenile. Together, these
categories accounted for 1 in every 3 books published in the
U.S.
- In other adult categories, production in the Music category
increased by more than 1,100 titles, and Religion followed its
2.6% jump in 2000 with an increase of 2.7% in 2001.
- After dropping by 8 percent in 2000, juvenile output rebounded
strongly in 2001 and will once again reach the 9,000+ levels
maintained by this category since the early 1990s.
The book production figures in this preliminary release are
based on year-to-date data from U.S. publishers. If changes
in industry estimates occur, they will be reflected in a later
published report. Books In Print data represents input from
70,000+ publishers in the U.S.
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