One definition of something that sucks: One in four American adults read no books in 2006. The average number of books read by those surveyed who did read was seven.
According to a report from Bowker, there were 276,649 new titles and editions published in the U.S. in 2007 (2008’s stats should be revealed any day now.) If you add in the 134,773 on-demand and short run titles, that brings the U.S. production total up to a whopping 411,422 books. If you were going to read all of them, you’d have to read 47+ books an hour twenty-four hours a day for a year.
In 2004, 950,000 titles out of the 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen Bookscan sold fewer than 99 copies. Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies. Only 25,000 sold more than 5,000 copies. The average book in America sells about 500 copies (source: Publishers Weekly, July 17, 2006).
There are no available statistics on the average number of books an author publishes per year, and individual production and sales to publishers varies, but most writers agree that an author has to publish a minimum of two titles per year to build and maintain their readership.
Dan Poynter cites statistics from the Brenner Information Group in his .pdf Time to Write that claim it takes 475 hours to write fiction books and 725 hours to write nonfiction. I’ve written a 100K fiction book in less than 500 hours, and I think I could do it again, as long as I have proper prep time and don’t do anything else during that time but write, eat, sleep, and write. I’m not the fastest, though; I know a couple of authors who have written short novels (70K or less) in under 50 hours. If you really want to feel lazy, you should consider how you compare to Lester Dent, author of the Doc Savage series, for which he produced 165 full-length novels (of at least 55,000 words each), one each month for about 17 years.
We’ve all heard how dismal our chances for success in publishing are. “.03 percent (3 out of 10,000) of all submissions are accepted for publication. Of those, 9 out of every 10 published novels fails to pay back its own production costs.”
Why all the depressing numbers this week? I love publishing statistics. I especially love the squeaky sounds they make when something or someone stomps on them. Numbers are such cold, definite little things, while they strike terror into the hearts of the uncertain, they’re also defenseless against the unknown, the unexpected, and the unfathomable.
That last part? Hopefully that’s represented by you and me.
Let’s wrestle first with the depressing statistics on how few books the average American reads. SpeedReading.com claims the average reading speed of an adult is 250 – 300 words per minute. When motivated, I can read a 100K book in under two hours, which would make my reading speed about 833 words per minute. Although I’ve slowed down quite a bit, I still consider myself a voracious reader, and when I’m not in a reading depression (which doesn’t happen very often) I read between 10 – 15 books a week, which would be about 104 times the national average.
Even as much as I read, there’s no way I can read even a healthy fraction of the new titles out there every year. Fortunately I’m not like that guy in the Twilight Zone episode; I don’t constitute the only reader on Earth.
I operate off the conviction that people who don’t read can be turned into readers. I give away books I love as gifts to my family, friends and blog visitors. I put free e-books on the internet which are accessible to everyone on the planet. I encourage everyone I know to read more; if they say they don’t have time I recommend audio books to listen to in the car. If they haven’t got room in the budget to buy books, I nag them to visit the library. My favorite conversation starter is “Last week I read an incredible novel…”
Am I obnoxious about it? Borderline. But just imagine how healthy Publishing would be if everyone in the industry, published or working toward it, did the same.
It’s enough work to write books, but now authors are expected to help sell them, too. The traditional avenues of book selling are rapidly becoming obsolete, so writers really have to think outside the box now. I won’t lecture you all again on the marvels of the internet – at least, not this week – but I do believe this is the future of intelligent self-promotion, and I explore it and think about it and use it as much as possible. I also encourage other writers to do the same, and talk about ideas with them, and listen to what they think. As blog writers and readers, we are the internet think-tank of Publishing.
With the pressure of day jobs and family and social demands, writers are discovering that they have almost no time to write, and when they do sneak in an hour here and there, they’re often too exhausted to produce anything of value. Simply to finish two books per year, I think the average writer has to work at least twenty hours a week. If you give yourself weekends off, that’s four hours a day. When was the last time you had four hours off from your life?
I’ve harped on creating and defending writing time since I started this gig, and it’s one of the most important aspects of being a writer. If you want to do this professionally, you’re probably going to have to sacrifice some non-essential activity. A good place to start is to cut back on the amount of television you watch, and instead use that time to write. Get up an hour earlier and write before you go into work. Dedicate every other day you have off to include one decent writing session. If you genuinely want to write, you have to make the time to write.
Rejection is difficult to deal with, especially if all you’re getting in return for your efforts are rejections. I sympathize, I really do. Come to my house some time and I’ll show you the boxes of rejection letters I have – ten years’ worth. I think it’s safe to say that I’m a modestly sucessful writer, and I still get rejected. Does it bug me? Sure. Does it stop me? No.
I’ve always said this is an endurance game, and the writers who keep at it, look for ways to improve their work, and keep trying new things have the best chance of getting into and staying in print.
First, if you’ve only written one novel, and you’ve submitted everywhere and have an entire box of rejections for it, I want you to file it away for now. No, to be honest, I want you to take it out in the backyard and burn it, but just for now, put it away. Once you’ve done that, I want you to do the one thing that every successful pro writer does: Write. Something. Else. When you’re done, submit that. Then repeat.
Determination cannot be measured. Neither can creativity, innovation or sheer mule-headedness. Whenever someone says to you “You can’t . . .” or “You won’t . . .” or “You’ll never. . .”, pity them. They’re trapped in the fortress of number fear, and they’re too busy quivering and whimpering over what they’ve been told to ever figure out a way to defy it. But why accept defeat before you even try to do something about it? Why not see it as a personal challenge?
I’m out here every day, challenging those statistics. I’ve already stomped them, many times over. I defy them to define me, my career or my industry. Because when it comes down to it, they’re only numbers. They can’t think, or innovate, or improve themselves. They really can’t do anything but look scary. But you and me? We can do so much more than that.
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Another excellent post, Lynn. Thanks. I know I can count on you for inspiration. I’m still slogging through the mines, but I keep writing – and I keep working toward improving my writing. Sooner or later something will break, as long as I keep moving forward. =o)
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You’re doing exactly what every sucessful writer does before the success, B. I think being persistent may be the only real secret handshake in the biz.
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Thanks for this very informative post. I also love stats, and you’ve provided me with some numbers I’ve been wondering about but hadn’t yet found.
I am confused about one thing, though. If there were 276,649 new titles published in 2007, and only .03% of those submitted were accepted for publication, wouldn’t that have to mean that approximately 921 million books were submitted? This seems way too high, so I’m wondering what I’m missing here. Could that number be skewed by the fact that most books are submitted to multiple publishers? Or am I just completely doing that math wrong?
Given the multiple submission factor, I’d love to know how many new books are being shopped at any given time. I read somewhere that it was over a million, but I can’t remember where that was and have no idea of its accuracy. If true, however, 276,000 new books would mean that one in 4 are getting picked up. That also seems too high, so I’m wondering if there’s any way to find out what the ratio of shopped to published manuscripts actually is.
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If all the titles published were first-time-in-print books, you’d be correct, and I’d have to take a Valium (who the heck can compete against 921 million subs?) Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) I think the majority were reprints and new editions, aka books that were already in print. I hunted around to see what stats I could find on how many reprints are published versus new titles per year, but couldn’t find any. I’ll keep looking, though; I’m sure someone has some figures.
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Always fun to see numbers. Getting smacked with the reality stick can be painful at times though. I wish all of those people in the past few months who have decided to write since they are unemployed would have been given those numbers, so they had an inkling of what they were getting themselves into. Writing takes more patience than just about any other profession, I think. You have to be willing and want to do it regardless of publishing, because the odds, at least in the short run are miniscule. They go up slowly, very slowly, the more you write. If one is dedicated to being a writer and working at becoming a better one, the long term prospects are better. I believe that I will eventually get published. I believe I have the talent to tell an engaging, interesting story. My writing may not quite be there yet, but I at least know that I have the ability to do so. I love telling a story. I love the creation process. Writing is my creative outlet, so regardless of ever selling, I will always do it, but I don’t do this with the expectation of selling. You can’t come into this business of writing with the expectation that you will sell. That’s the path to frustration and failure. You can’t expect that just because you are a good writer that you will sell, either. Just look at the numbers. There just aren’t enough spaces on the shelves or spots on the monthly releases for every good story to make it into print. It’s these newer writers out there with the sense of being entitled to publication if they’ve written a good story that annoy me to no end. They need to see these numbers and understand what it means, and that all you can really do is just keep writing.
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Agreed. But in a way that sense of entitlement does more to get rid of that sort of writer than Publishing does, as those who believe they’re entitled to publication just because they can write a hundred thousand words that make sense are usually quick to give up after a few dozen rejections.
I don’t mind people who take up writing as a hobby or something to do while they’re unemployed, though. Sometimes adversity and disappointment force them to grow beyond that attitude and become more diligent and committed. I don’t think it happens often, but if that needs to be part of the process, I can stand listening to them whine.
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I read over 150 books last year so I’m skewing the stats there. I wonder how many others are on the high end of the readership?
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I’d love to see a survey of how many books active readers and writers read. I think that survey missed too many of us.
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I’m with gigi…I read on average 2 books per day depending on the size. I’m retired, don’t watch television, and after checking my favorite blogs, I read as long as I want, whenever I want. And Lynn’s right about turning non-readers into readers. My husband wouldn’t touch a book until I watched what movie genres interested him, and then introduced him to books with similar themes. He now is almost as voracious a reader as I am.
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I’m just drooling a little over the idea of being able to read whenever I’d like . . . maybe after the kids are off to college, my guy retires, and all I have to manage are the furry faces around here . . .
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Thanks, Lynn! This is right in line with what I’ve been learning/musing on this week (ie, yesterday’s blog post!). I’m learning to shut the door and tune it all out. None of it matters but the writing itself and getting it done. The rest is all noise, even the numbers.
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Noise, yes — I wish I’d used that analogy. Or squawking. Stats are like skinny chickens — a lot of squawk, no substance.
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A small note of dissent from my corner, Jim.
I’d have to say that I did come to this profession with the expectation of being published, but I don’t think that necessarily equates to a sense of entitlement. As with any other career I might have chosen, I do expect to succeed. I also expect to have to work – hard – for that success. I recognize that ours is a profession that is subject to the vagaries of public opinion and publisher needs (and sometimes, I think, plain old bad-hair days for editors!), and I do see and understand the numbers. Those numbers, however, mean that I need to be realistic, not that I have to give up on my dreams, Frankly, if I wasn’t writing a story with the expectation that it would be published, I wouldn’t put in nearly the work I do to learning the craft (or obsessing over finding just the right word/turn of phrase, etc.) or the business! 
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I think there are two schools of thought for writers, that you write for yourself and Publishing will take you or not, instead of “to be published,” OR you write for Publishing and fit yourself into what they want. Not that the latter is bad, but it’s the whole “Artiste” thing. A balance between the two is most healthy, I think, but not being published I wouldn’t know.
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I think we all come to the profession with some sort of expectation(s), but I don’t see that as an attitude of entitlement. You hope instead of presume. You build on a dream instead of a demand. It’s my experience that determined, hopeful dreamers go a lot further that the presumptuous & demanding.
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I over generalized a bit. The entitlement whiners are a small subset. They just have been rather vocal in the blogosphere of late, and it drives me nuts. Someone needs to ressurect Miss Snark so she can go on a rampage with her clue gun.
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I think that lady would eat them for breakfast. Without milk.
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Exactly, Lynn! Only you said it much better!!!