Is yours the 288th novel to be published this week or the 489th?

A lot of different numbers are floating around the internet and traditional print media about how many novels were indeed published in 2004. It’s been reported as many as 25,000 and as low as 5000.

In an effort to get to the bottom of what various sources have been reporting – including me- I went right to the source, Bowker, and here is their take and conclusion.

According to Books In Print, there were 25,184 books published in the U.S. last year classified as adult fiction. This overall number is still preliminary, and will probably end up being somewhere between 26-27,000 when we stop counting in December of this year.

Excluding approximately 8000 plus self published titles from POD companies which Bowker can identify, they estimate that in the US last year there were at least 15,000 plus works of adult fiction published.

Which means there were at least 288 plus novels published each week.

Many of us were using the number released that included self published titles.

Where are the 15,000 plus titles coming from?

New adult fiction published in 2004 by the 12 largest NY trade houses (included in the 25,184) totaled 5,125. This number is final.

University presses contributed 295 adult fiction titles to the 25,184. This number is also final.

There are about 1,500 what Bowker calls "very large publishers not named Random, Simon, Harper, Penguin and Holtzbrinck," and they publish adult fiction. Then there are what Bowker calles "7000 to 8000 very respectable mid-size, publishers who publish adult fiction."

But my guess is that those 7000-8000 are not all traditional publishers. My guess is that many of them are self publishers. I was there once. My company was called Lady Chatterley's Library. Nothing quantified it as an author's own publishing company. So what percentage of the 7000-8000 are authors own companies that do a single title a year? I don't know. But I'd guess at least 2500. Anyone with any other stats on this, please let me know.

It is also worth noting that in 2004, Bowker reported that the major book review organs reviewed 7,752 works of adult fiction or just about half.

Comments

[Clea Simon]

Sobering, though always useful to know the odds. Does this mean you'll have to alter your blog subtitle (I know that's "all books," but is the number verifiable)?

[Clea Simon]

Sobering, though always useful to know the odds. Does this mean you'll have to alter your blog subtitle (I know that's "all books," but is the number verifiable)?