Sunday, January 08, 2006

Adding Machine, Stat

Bookwire has put up its finalized U.S. Book Production Stats for hardcover and paperback books from 1993 through 2004.

Problem*: based on the figures from this earlier report, as well as this PR, did Bowker's stat guy forget to carry over some ones? Or am I reading this new report wrong?

*Problem solved: Sharp-eyed PBW reader Terry pointed out via e-mail that the new stats are probably for industry trade (how-to, professional pubs, etc.) production versus all book production shown in the earlier report (which does not have "trade" in the title. PBW doesn't need an adding machine, she needs new glasses.)

Observation: that would mean we published 5,125 trade books on fiction (how to write it, perhaps?) in 2004. Seems like a lot more how-to's than I'm seeing in the book store. I wonder how many are sold exclusively online?

2 comments:

  1. Carrying ones seems to be a lost art. Yes, there appears to be at least a "1" and, in some cases, I suspect a "2" missing from in front of all the totals on that most recent chart.

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  2. They'd have to be direct mail or classroom based.

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