Sunday, May 09, 2010

Stats on books

Does anybody have any sort-of reliable statistics of how many manuscripts written get published?
And how many books of 100 published make a profit?

Update:
Thanks to Jan for this interesting article. Quote:
This led me to create a “not-to-do” list. Number one was no book touring or bookstore signings whatsoever.

Yesssssss! I've been reading about authors being exhausted by book tours, and I'd vowed to never make them. For writers, it's not your job to do the publisher's promotional work for them, your job is to write your next book.

4 comments:

Pat McGee said...

I've heard that people that read slush piles are expected to pick out at most 3% for further review.

Of course, most of the manuscripts in a slush pile were probably sent to several houses during their lifetime.

Jan said...

Books published per country per year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_published_per_country_per_year

Books turning a profit: ha ha ha :-(

How to pull off publishing a bestseller:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/08/06/how-does-a-bestseller-happen-a-case-study-in-hitting-1-on-the-new-york-times/

A friend is currently trying to get his book published. It takes effort, patience and perseverance.
If you can't find a publisher, you can always have it printed yourself, but that probably means it won't be widely distributed nor very profitable, or you can turn it into an ebook.

Jan said...

Sorry, misunderstood the question.

Ganesha Games said...

the book signing is where you pick up the babes...