I've been curious about how book-buying has changed, but only recently saw some statistics on it (these apply to book-buying in the US, but I suspect the trends are not very different in the UK). These figures are from a broadcast of "On the Media," from National Public Radio:
* 60% of books are bought at airports or check-out counters, Wal-Mart or Costco, Toys R Us, or online.
* 11% are bought from Amazon.com
* The rest are bought mostly at big-chain bookstores
The membership of the American Booksellers Association, which comprises mostly independent book stores, has declined from 5,000 to about 1,700 in the last ten years.
Here are a few additional interesting stats:
The number of books published is between 200,000 and 300,000 per year.
With the endorsement of most of the literary establishing and fantastic newspaper and magazine reviews, Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections" sold 90,000 copies; when Oprah endorsed it, it sold 600,000 copies.
(If you want to write, my book "Your Writing Coach" (published by Nicholas Brealey) will take you all the way from idea through to publication. You can get it at bookstores or online...and if you know Oprah, please tell her about it...you and she can get more information at the website: www.yourwritingcoach.com)
