We have spent the last month and a half looking at statistics from 2009 in this StatSeries. The goal was to arm you with information about trends so you could make wise decisions about what you are publishing. But what does that mean? When I read that 40% of books published are adult fiction does that mean adult fiction books are selling well so I should hop on board, or does it mean adult fiction is a glutted and highly competitive market and I should focus somewhere else?

I think of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Poppa Bear’s chair was too hard, his porridge too hot. He was over-the-top. Momma Bear’s chair was too soft, her porridge cold. Her stuff was nothing special and was quickly passed over. But Baby Bear was just right. His chair was interesting enough to get Goldilocks to sit down, but she still knew it was a chair and what she was to do with it.

There is tension between falling within expectations and standing out. It is a fine line to walk and I cannot tell you where that line is. The publishing industry is finicky. Cormac McCarthy got away with incomplete sentences and didn’t use any quotation marks for dialogue in The Road. And he won a Pulitzer Prize for it. Anyone else that might try to send something like that to an editor is likely to get their manuscript with red marks and slashes everywhere.

How come McCarthy can get away with that while most people can’t? This may not be a fair question since The Road stands out with its exceptional writing (at least in this blogger’s opinion, and the opinion of Pulitzer judges). But this sort of thing happens all the time. I’ve heard so many accounts of well-known books that received multiple rejection letters before they were published. They did something different and it eventually worked for them. But for every book that makes it through, there are thousands that don’t. We are expected to stay within the lines.

Benchmark
Industry standard
Consumer expectations

We could take a bunch of different angles and have lots of diatribes about things like why subject categories are limiting or how pricing structures make it hard for authors and publishers to even recoup publishing costs, let alone make a living. And we can do that in other blog posts (comment on what you would like to see discussed!)

But as we round out this StatSeries, I guess the main thing I want to point out is that there is tension. And as a publisher, you need to recognize and expect that on any given book on any given day, you may fall on one side of the line or the other. Look at what the trends are so you have something to start with, and then see how you can deviate just enough to stand out among so many other books.

We often tell publishers to head to their local bookstore and look at the section where they would like to see their book shelved. Use that to give you an idea of what is expected, and then look for what is not there. How can your book fill that void?

How can you get your readers to say, “ah, this is just right” and sit and stay for a while? At least until the bears come home.

This is the last post in a series based on publishing trends. Look for posts with StatSeries in the headline or check the StatSeries category to see all posts in this series.

Picture from http://www.flickr.com/photos/25559122@N06/4339338951/

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In this series, we look at data from 2009 to make decisions about publishing now. Today we want to look at various genres of books and how well they sell to determine what you should publish.

The question is what you should publish, or from the author’s perspective, what should you write? One answer is you should write what you know and what you are passionate about. But writing without an idea of what readers want or what booksellers are reserving their space for could hurt your sales. There are ways to use the things you know and are passionate about in a way that meets the demand of the reading public. Take a look at the following statistics to get an idea of what people have been buying

Books by Genre– General

40% adult fiction
20% juvenile
16% adult non-fiction
13% academic and professional
8% religion
3% scientific, technical, and medical

Books for general audiences top the charts. Adult fiction is the big winner in types of books sold taking 40% of the market.

The higher education market (academic/professional and scientific/technical/medical) still makes up a good portion of the market, though, with 16%. These books are usually very targeted and are priced higher.

Books by Genre – Fiction Breakdown

8% general
6% romance
6% espionage/thriller
5% mystery/detective
5% juvenile
3% fantasy
2% literary/classics

No one subgenre of fiction stands out immensely over the others. Even though general fiction books topped the list of type of fiction sold, there are more books in the general fiction pool, too. Behind that, romance and thrillers stand out, followed closely by mystery and juvenile fiction.

Books by Genre – Juvenile Breakdown

23% juvenile fiction
19% picture/story
17% young adult
9% series/chapter books
5% beginning/early readers
5% coloring
5% non-fiction
2% leveled reader
2% activity book
12% other juvenile

Some of these categories seem like they might start to overlap, which tends to sometimes be an issue when categorizing many books. But juvenile fiction came out on top of juvenile books. Picture books are next, and these are usually highly illustrated books. Rounding out the top categories is young adult, which has seen significant growth over the past few years as more young adult books are being read by adults.

Books by Genre – Non-fiction

First, I want to remind you that 16% of all books sold in 2009 were fiction. That 16% breaks down across the following non-fiction categories:

18% biography and autobiography
14% cooking
8% health and fitness
8% self-help
6% body, mind, and spirit
6% humor
5% sports and recreation
4% travel
4% craft and hobby
4% games
4% art and design
18% other

It would be an interesting exercise to see how these percentages lined up against what percentage of shelf space these categories take up in various stores.

The statistics in this series are from Bowker’s Essential Facts 2009: About the U.S. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors (free download available here, I suggest checking out the report for charts, graphs, and other visuals).

This post is a part of a series of posts based on publishing trends and statistics every Tuesday and Thursday through the middle of November. Check back often to see posts in this series. Look for StatSeries in the headline or check the StatSeries category to see all posts in this series.

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In this series, we look at data from 2009 to make decisions about publishing now. Today we look at the breakdown of where books were purchased.

Where are books purchased
27% large chain bookstores
20% e-commerce
11% book clubs
8% mass merchandisers
5% independent bookstores
2% Christian bookstores
3% non-traditional stores

With all they hype about books selling online, thus ruining traditional bookstores, it might be a surprise to see that only 20% of books were sold online in 2009. Yet that 20% has taken a large chunk of profits from bricks and mortar stores. Plus that trend is on the rise through 2010, especially when you consider the striking rise in e-books in addition to physical books sold through e-stores.

This statistic also points to why so many independent bookstores have had to close their doors over the past couple of years. Their market share is just so small.

One stat that could be a bit misleading are the 8% that are sold through mass merchandisers. Consider a big box store near you. How many books do they actually carry? Most carry only best-sellers, so this 8% is mostly made up of top-sellers. Not that they are top-sellers because they are in these stores (though it certainly helps), but they were either top-sellers before the store picked them up, or they were by proven top-sellers with big names.

Both Borders and Barnes and Noble have been in the news lately for their own financial woes. Where people purchase books could change drastically over the next few years.

With all of this in mind, perhaps it is a good idea to try to diversify your reach. AtlasBooks is a big help in this. We sell to the top chains and the independents, we send title information to online retailers, we have connections that reach far into the market. This is good insurance in the event that any of the big players would actually fail. We have the reach to everyone that would be making a move in the vacuum such an event could create.

The statistics in this series are from Bowker’s Essential Facts 2009: About the U.S. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors (free download available here, I suggest checking out the report for charts, graphs, and other visuals).

This post is a part of a series of posts based on publishing trends and statistics every Tuesday and Thursday through the middle of November. Check back often to see posts in this series. Look for StatSeries in the headline or check the StatSeries category to see all posts in this series.

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Last time we covered what percentage of gifts are bought as gifts verses bought for self. Now we are going to look at what types of books are most often bought as gifts and which are most often bought for self. This will help you to hone your marketing even more.

Cooking is the genre most often bought as a gift. 22% of cookbooks are bought as gifts.

Mystery and detective novels are most often bought by the reader for his or herself. This happens 94% of the time. With a statistic this high, you might change your holiday marketing campaign from, “buy this book for your loved one” to “take a break from the hustle and bustle and indulge  yourself.”

The statistics in this series are from Bowker’s Essential Facts 2009: About the U.S. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors (free download available here, I suggest checking out the report for charts, graphs, and other visuals).

This post is a part of a series of posts based on publishing trends and statistics every Tuesday and Thursday through the middle of November. Check back often to see posts in this series. Look for StatSeries in the headline or check the StatSeries category to see all posts in this series.

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The holidays are coming which makes this the perfect time to look at books as gifts. In this series, we look at data from 2009 to make decisions about publishing now.

Here is another

“Why Purchased” Stat

85% of books purchased are bought for self
15% are bought as a gift
Of those 15% bought as a gift, 51% were bought for someone under 18 years old

The first thing I pull from this stat is that you should market directly to the reader. Of course more books are probably bought as gifts during the holidays, but with the stats this high, people are probably still buying books for themselves when they are shopping for others.

Then notice that children’s and YA books have a huge portion of the market of books bought as gifts. This does make sense considering many things are bought for kids, like their food, clothes, etc. Still, this could effect your marketing plans. If you have a book for kids or young adults, you may want to market to adults as well. Teens, especially, will probably lobby for particular books and then the adult buys them, but a well-run marketing campaign could inspire the adult to pick up a book for a kid without a specific request.

The statistics in this series are from Bowker’s Essential Facts 2009: About the U.S. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors (free download available here, I suggest checking out the report for charts, graphs, and other visuals).

This post is a part of a series of posts based on publishing trends and statistics every Tuesday and Thursday through the middle of November. Check back often to see posts in this series. Look for StatSeries in the headline or check the StatSeries category to see all posts in this series.

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In this series, we look at data from 2009 to make decisions about publishing now. Today we want to look at planned purchases versus impulse purchases.

Why Purchased
31% Planned to buy that specific book during that particular shopping excursion
26% Planned to buy a book on that particular shopping excursion
25% Impulse purchase
19% Planned to buy that specific book but not at that particular shopping excursion

This round of statistics is fairly evenly split. The question here is, what is the purchasing intent of the consumer? And how should the publisher react for each of these segments?

They know what they want
For the 31% that knew what they wanted and when they wanted it, it is important to hit them with marketing outside of the store. Based on statistics regarding how a consumer became aware of a book (see this earlier post), it is likely that this consumer would hear about the book via a recommendation. Word-of-mouth can be tricky to generate, but you can do things to help like start recommending it yourself through social media, by placing an ad in consumer media related to your content, or by challenging your friends to recommend your book to their friends.

Impulsive
For the next two segments, those who plan to buy a book on that excursion but leave the book choice as an unknown, and the impulse buyer, the strategy might be a bit different. For these types of shoppers, you first need to please the gatekeeper, that is, the book buyer for the store. If someone knows what they want, they can track it down in the store, and if it isn’t there, ask to have the book ordered in. But for these casual browsers, they will be much more limited to what they see on the shelves. These folks will likely be swayed by in-store promotions, the number one reason someone became aware of a book according to the results I mentioned earlier.

Getting past the gatekeeper is difficult on many levels. (See Book Trade 101 in our Publisher Resources for an in-depth discussion of the buying process). This is tough news, but important to know to understand your market. A good way to get at least some shelf space is to focus on bookstores near you. Though you might not have much notoriety across the country, most stores have a section for local interest, and many feature local authors. Politely introducing yourself to your local booksellers (and buy a book while you are there, booksellers hate when authors come in wanting the store to promote their book when the author doesn’t even support the store!), letting them know about your book and reminding them that you are open to do events. This will compliment the sales effort by your distributor.

Packaging
Another key point here is the importance of packaging. These impulsive buyers need a reason to pick your book above all the rest with little to go on. Even if they spend hours in the bookstore, they still will not carefully consider every book on the shelf. The cover must be attractive, the back cover copy simple and inviting, and the price within expectations.

Don’t wait, buy the book now
The final group, those who plan to purchase a specific book, but not on that particular shopping excursion, is pretty much like the first group. They need to hear about the book, likely through recommendations. But getting past the gatekeepers and being on the shelf when that consumer is in the store is important, too. You want them to seal the deal before they forget that they were intending to buy your book.

The statistics in this series are from Bowker’s Essential Facts 2009: About the U.S. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors (free download available here, I suggest checking out the report for charts, graphs, and other visuals).

This post is a part of a series of posts based on publishing trends and statistics every Tuesday and Thursday through the middle of November. Check back often to see posts in this series. Look for StatSeries in the headline or check the StatSeries category to see all posts in this series.

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Most people know they should be using social media in almost any business. But how does social media help to sell more books? In this series, we look at data from 2009 to make decisions about publishing now. Today we want to discuss how much effort you should give to social media based on your target audience for your book.

Social networking use by generation
80% Gen Z
83% Gen Y
70% Gen X
55% Boomers
36% Mature

Social networking has been the buzz for marketing for a while now. And as a blogger, my actions prove that I think this is important. As you might expect, younger generations use social networking more than older generations. But even the majority of baby boomers use social networking. This is a great place to reach your audience. Unless your target audience is an older crowd, you should be spending time on social networking. And if you are targeting teens, a good chunk of your promotion should be though social networking.

It is one thing to know that social networking is big, but quite another to figure out how to harness it to effectively promote your book. Blatant self-promoters can turn off customers. Social networking is about being social, not marketing a message with no other interaction. Again, this could be a whole post itself, but a few quick tips are:

• Engage in conversations
• Promote others’ work as well as your own
• Join relevant groups and try to answer questions, then recommend your book

A majority of your time should be spent working on relationships. Get the relationship first, then promote your book.

The statistics in this series are from Bowker’s Essential Facts 2009: About the U.S. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors (free download available here, I suggest checking out the report for charts, graphs, and other visuals).

This post is a part of a series of posts based on publishing trends and statistics every Tuesday and Thursday through the middle of November. Check back often to see posts in this series. Look for StatSeries in the headline or check the StatSeries category to see all posts in this series.

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In this series, we look at data from 2009 to make decisions about publishing now. Today we want to discuss how to market based on the reasons consumers give for purchasing a book.

General Reasons for Purchase

13% Topic/subject
13% Author
9% Series
7% Looked through the book
7% Recommended
6% Title
6% Price
5% Like a character
4% Cover/jacket design/testimonials
4% Special offer

It should be encouraging for first-time authors or those that haven’t had great sales records on previous books that the topic or subject is just as effective as author appeal for getting a consumer to purchase a book. Make sure your title or subtitle clearly portray what the book is about. With subject, it is important to highlight what people want. Do your research to see what gaps you can find and fill those needs with your book.

A word about series: when done well, series can be great for bookstores, as evidenced here, but they are also great for libraries. Many libraries have programs where they will automatically buy the next book in a series as it becomes available. This is a great way to jump start sales figures at a book’s release.

A final thought for this section of the survey is the importance of the interior, and I don’t just mean content. Clearly labeled chapters and an informative index can be key sellers for nonfiction. For fiction, it is important to have good writing throughout the book. Many consumers will read the first page or so to find out if they are interested. But many will also read a section from the middle of the book to test the quality of the writing. Everyone works hard on getting the beginning perfect and engaging, but it takes a good writer to uphold that quality throughout the book. Font, font size, margins, and the like are also important. Stay in line with industry expectations or the book will go right back on the shelf.

The statistics in this series are from Bowker’s Essential Facts 2009: About the U.S. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors (free download available here, I suggest checking out the report for charts, graphs, and other visuals).

This post is a part of a series of posts based on publishing trends and statistics every Tuesday and Thursday through the middle of November. Check back often to see posts in this series. Look for StatSeries in the headline or check the StatSeries category to see all posts in this series.

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We will take a break today from Bowker’s 2009 statistics to look at a report of August 2010 sales brought to us by the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

For publishers that report to AAP, book sales increased 3.4% on 2009 sales to $1.6 billion and were up by 6.9% for year-to-date.

Perhaps the biggest news is that e-books now make up 9% of trade books sales, according to year-to-date statistics. Trade book sales (not including books for academic study) for the period January-August 2010 had sales of $2.91 billion. E-book sales in the same period were $263 million. This compared to 3.31% at the close of 2009.

E-book sales have increased 172.4% over August 2009.

The biggest loss was the Adult Hardcover category, down 24.4% in August with sales of  $83.8 million.

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In this series, we look at data from 2009 to make decisions about publishing today. Today we want to discuss how to market based on the statistics from this report.

First, it is important to determine who your target audience is so you can market effectively to them. The advice over the next several installments of this series will be more effective when you have a specific audience in mind. For example, if you have a book about geriatric issues geared towards an older audience, it probably doesn’t make much sense to spend a majority of your marketing time and dollars on social networking sites. Only 36% of Matures use social networking.

Here are some relevant statistics:

How Buyer Became Aware of Book
18% In-store promotion
13% Recommendation
6% At school
4% Book was on a best-selling list
4% Online book review
4% Online advertisement
4% Recommendation from store staff
3% TV/radio advertisement
3% Recipient asked for the specific book
2% Online, bought from the author’s website

The top reason a consumer became aware of a book is because of in-store promotion. These are pretty hard to get, especially at the chains. They also often require co-op money. Most in-store promotions are buyer-driven, meaning the buyer initiates the promotion and then asks publishers if they would like to pay to participate. Independents, especially those in your area, may be more open to a promotion, especially if you come to them with an idea that includes a whole theme, including other books. This could be a whole post in itself, so I will suffice here to say that if you are able to secure a promotion, great, if not, it is good to move on down the list and work on those things.

The next highest reason on this list is recommendation. Word of mouth is a powerful thing. It is much easier to trust a friend’s opinion than a marketing pitch. Social networking can be a huge help here. Also, encourage your own friends and family to talk about the book. Visit book clubs, talk at topic-related events, anything to get the word out. Grassroots efforts can be very effective.

The statistics in this series are from Bowker’s Essential Facts 2009: About the U.S. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors (free download available here, I suggest checking out the report for charts, graphs, and other visuals).

This post is a part of a series of posts based on publishing trends and statistics every Tuesday and Thursday through the middle of November. Check back often to see posts in this series. Look for StatSeries in the headline or check the StatSeries category to see all posts in this series.

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