LESS THAN ONE BOOK !?
I’m not big on statistics. Industry likes 'em. There’s been a persistent stat floating around in book industry discourse that recently took a turn for the worse. Up until now, expert fingers have pointed at the dwindling number of books a person buys in one year. Dwindling, but always one and a fraction.
1.8 ... 1.7 ... 1.5 ... 1.3 ... 1.4 ...
... always one-point-something. Well, now that poor shameful lonely “one” has bottomed out to less than one.
The latest survey tells us so: on average, an average American* reads less than one book per year.
End of the world? It’s sure to have dire repercussions.
This numbers game is, after all, a kind of self-fulfililng prophecy. What will undoubtedly happen, at least in terms of blockbuster-mentality mainstream publishing planning: less books in coming years which people might actually read, and more books instead to buy then give to someone else, for them to, in turn, regift.
Whaddya think?
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* don’t ask me who an Average American is 'spozed to be, or be like: like I say, I'm not overly fond of statistics, but that's another blog
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Ericka Lutz says:
marketing...
so, now the marketing blurbs will now have to say, "If you only read almost one book this year, it should be this one!"
Gary G Gach says:
marketing...
good point!
[we note: blurbs themselves are already fractional]
Eric Nichols says:
Before we hammer the nail in the coffin
Does that figure only account for traditional "dead tree" versions of books? With all the alternative, hi-tech literature delivery systems available now...we might not be looking at as much of a literacy dearth as the numbers suggest.
The jury is still out.
Eric
Gary G Gach says:
Before we hammer the nail in the coffin
well, do you know of any statistics as to how many people read entire books in formats other than inksmeared deadtree?
do you yourself like to read whole books in palm pilots, kindle, etc?
[if anyone wants to send me a demo beta of suchlike for me to testdrive i'd like to see for myself what it's like ... ]
Eric Nichols says:
I'm a dead-tree, smeared-ink
I'm a dead-tree, smeared-ink Luddite sort of reader, but these folks have been working on the marketing statistics for a while:
http://www.openebook.org/pressroom/pressreleases/ebookstats.htm
Could be the gas price crunch could drive...er, rather, bicycle more folks back to the library, as well. :)
eric
Gary G Gach says:
I'm a dead-tree ink-smeared
Wow!! You are SO on the case, Steel! Thanks for that juicy heaping feast of statistics ('tho 3/4 of them might still be debatable: E.G., how many e-readers are used for magazine articles; also double sales doesn't say double what, nor how many people read the electronic puppies from head to tail, my original thread,here.)
Anyways, my one point still stands: the industry will interpret the stat of less-than-one-book read by taking less chances, creating more of a monoculture, etc.
But without beating the Cassandra-Jeremiah drum too hard, we shall see what we shall see ...
gary gach http://word.to
Gary G Gach says:
p.s.
those stats seem to be seven years old <?>
gary gach http://word.to
Eric Nichols says:
Hi Gary
I didn't cite them as the final word...just as evidence that folks have been thinking about this for a while. And it can probably be assumed that the figures leaning toward ebooks and their ilk have only increased in the past 7 years..
And, of course, we can't overlook Red Room and its kin, either. Several of our fellow denizens have more than subtly hinted that this format is their PRIMARY literary format....or becoming so.
So....we MUST depart Red Room immediately, and start smearing ink around like REAL writers, lest we all be doomed to oblvion!
Or not.
:)
Eric
Bob Levin says:
One solution is to encourage
One solution is to encourage people to have more children.
Gary G Gach says:
One solution is to encourage
... children's book editors would certainly have a stake in that! [and probably do already in the sense of a fractional rather than complete book]
RANDOM HOUSE BOOK OF RECIPES
TO LIVING FRUITFULLY & MULTIPLY