Sunday, June 06, 2010

More Interesting Book Stats

I came across interesting publishing statistics for Canada on Dan Poynter’s Para Publishing website. The page, http://bookstatistics.com/sites/para/resources/statistics.cfm shows 2008 and earlier years for several countries. In Canada in 2008, there was:

. Over $1.5 billion in sales, mostly generated through the 230 Indigo Books and Music stores

. About 50,000 titles published. (I’m not sure this is correct. Seems like a lot.)

. Over 630 publishers

. Government grants to publishers totalled $48 million

. Export books totalled $154.8 million; foreign rights, $313 million (probably under-reported)

In 2007, 31% of Canadian adults did not read a single book for pleasure. The percentage was 27% in the U.S., but of those who did read most read more than 20 books during the year, which was the same for U.S.

Here are highlights of stats on small press and self-publishing taken from http://www.brennerbooks.com/

. 54% of small independent publishers are male, 42% are female (3% won’t say)

. California has six times the number of small publishers than any other state

. Small presses publish an average of 7 titles each

. Half of the high income small publishers earned over $1 million in 1997 working out of home offices

. The typical independent publisher (indie) works 50 hours a week

. They produce four times as many nonfiction titles as fiction titles. Juvenile and poetry are the most popular fiction genres. Self-help, how-to and business lead in the nonfiction categories

. Their most popular publishing publications are the PMA Newsletter, Publishers Weekly and the SPAN newsletter

. Book design costs between $10 and $150 an hour

. They pay between $5 and $18 per page for interior page layout. (keep in mind this is for print books)

. On average it takes 475 hours to write a fiction title and 725 hours to write a nonfiction title

I would dispute that last stat. Either that or I take much longer than average. There are many more stats to browse over at the above links

As always, my amateur sleuth, Vancouver-based, Alex Bellamy mysteries can be purchased at
FATAL ENCRYPTION, http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl
TAXED TO DEATH, http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n

1 comment:

Julie H. Ferguson said...

The number of Cdn titles Poynter quoted includes reprints and foreign titles under licence. The actual number of new titles is much lower. Around 17,000 would be more accurate. However, Canada no longer produces stats every other year as StatsCan used to do.

It's maddening as I've been looking for 2008-09 for my presentation to Write on Bowen on July 3. I've resorted to asking Dundurn if they know.