On tabletops in my house, love objects await my attention, legs spread. I mean books you people with dirty minds.
Books I started and didn't finish because you told me someone else was better--you claimed I'd have a better time with someone else. And so I drifted away. Promiscuity is my name. Alas.
Seriously....
I'd like to compare the number of crime fiction novels published thirty years ago to those published today. Does anyone have any idea about whether there were a lot less books out then or if it just seems that way. I did read more-- 3-4 books a week and now maybe 1-2. Then and now, I read a lot of traditional fiction. Can it be possible in these times of declining readership, we are publishing more books than ever? What do you think? How do the number of books published each year compare with the number published in 1980?
24 comments:
There was something in the most recent issue of NEWSWEEK indicating that the number of books that will be published this year is more than three times the number published in 2000, so it looks like the number is moving steadily upward. It does seem like there are more new books that I want to read. Just last week I read new ones from James Lee Burke and Don Winslow, and this morning at the library I picked up new ones from Tana French, John Connolly and Peter Straub. It seems increasingly difficult to find time to read older stuff I've long meant to find time for.
Can it be possible in these times of declining readership, we are publishing more books than ever?
It could be that we're saturating the marketplace, getting supply and demand all confused. That happens sometimes.
When you add in ebooks a LOT more books are being published than ever before, but the individual sales per title is way down, as you'd expect. I'm reading more now than I was ten years ago because my job has become less stressful. but still I can't come close to keeping up.
I feel kind of frantic about which book to read next, which one is just not good enough to give a week to, which one is just this week's thing.
Seriously I found three under my bed, all with less than twenty pages read. And I do vacuum under there once a week. (Or so...)
Only probably one in every four books I read is contemporary. I do suspect that more books are published because the publishers don't know what to expect from any given title, except for know quantities like Lehane, Connolley, etc.
There are more books published now, but the definition of "book" isn't quite the same, I think and the market has divided itself into more and more genre-niches.
I think there are more children's books published now, and a lot more YA books. The balance has shifted some from the preponderance of fiction to nearly 50-50 fiction to non-fiction, though that may only be a change in what's commercially available in book stores vs. what has been available in specialized markets such as university presses. Also, as the large publishers have struggled, many small presses have sprung up each with their own offerings.
What I wonder about is total number of copies sold. I'd guess it's less than 1980.
The only thing you can really conclude is that publishing a book is less expensive when you consider more books and less readers.
More books are being published, but too many of them are ending up at remainder bookstores like the Book Depot in Canada and the Book Outlet in the U.S. The business model of publishing is breaking down.
Fragmentation is not necessarily a bad thing, though common ground may be harder to come by, even common topics to discuss.
A myriad of books . . . sounds vaguely taoist . . .
No way to keep up, no matter how enticing.
The business models of publishing have always been broken, which is why, for example, Patricia Highsmith was irritatedly making pennies from Knopf to Marijane Meaker's sawbucks from Fawcett Gold Medal when they lived together in the '50s. And then the paperbacks stopped selling so well, and they were nudged more into traditional publishing practice.
Today's figures for publishing do tend to include the likes of PublishAmerica (when 1980 figures would've left out vanity presses such as Vantage), but as everyone else has mentioned, more books are published every year in most fields other than western fiction. And a suprising number of those are published, too (suprising to someone like myself, who never sees the vast majority of those new books and reprints).
Contemporary mimentic fiction is traditional, or older work/reprints are traditional?
BTW, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT is a decent film.
And is readership declining? I'm not sure that's true. Fewer paper books purchased in toto, perhaps, but I suspect ebook sales might've reversed any trend in declining gross sales.
And then there are matters of labeling. The trailer for NEVER LET ME GO, the novel-source of which I haven't yet read, indicates an sf novel, as is the new Jennifer Egan, but you know their sales or existence won't be toted in those categories.
Planning on seeing it soon, Todd. Everyone seems to like that one.
And I would be so happy to think reading is all right, too.
I sure wish I lived nearer those stores, George.
Definitely SF. Or horror.
There's the danger that if you lived as close to the Book Depot and the Book Outlet like I do, you might end up with 30,000 books, too!
Megan asked me how it was organized and I confess I forgot to ask that. You were the most impressive topic on her visit.
With only limited access to remainder stores (there was one called Too Many Books in Potomac Mills outlet mall near my ex's family's nabe when I lived in Northern Virginia, and one of the temporary-lease remainder liquidation companies would set up camp for a few weeks annually in a former Woolworth's across the street from my previous apartment complex...), I've still managed to acquire at least that many volumes and issues. There are so many sources of inexpensive books. 30,000th taste still nearly free...
Hey, Patti, here's a book rec! Or have you read Kate Wilhelm already...
Intuitively I am going to guess WHERE LATE THE SWEET BIRD SANG and it sounds great. Stop recommending books, you guys. I am knee deep in them.
Well, that is the one that anticipates some of what the trailer suggests...but if I was to suggest a starter for you, it would be the more CFish (but typically boundary-trampling) DEATH QUALIFIED, where the title carries at least a tripple reading.
More books, Patti. Make you feel good ("good" echoes).
Tripple = triple with hint of trippy. True, but mostly bad typing.
Patrick organized the collection for me alphabetically. Tell Megan she has an open invitation to visit all those books anytime. And Pizza Junction, too!
I am so glad that I am so organized about my books. I know what books I had read and I know the books that I should read next.
Todd, I'm guessing readership is down, just by observational analysis. Take the express bus from Bay Ridge to Midtown Manhattan or back (as we occasionally do). Instead of reading most riders are:
a. calling everyone they know on their cellphones
b. texting same
We (bloggers and readers of same) are in a smallish universe of readers so we may not be as aware of what is going on 'out there'.
And since you mentioned Kate Wilhelm, let me urge Patti to run right out this morning and find a copy of Oh, Susannah!.
Jeff M.
Or CITY OF CAIN...or LISTEN, LISTEN...or...(I think I'm Tuckerized in THE PRICE OF SILENCE).
Perhaps so. Though the local commuter bus has always been a Lousy reading environment.
Post a Comment