Book Publishing Facts

What are the odds of getting published?
Traditional publishing vs. self-publishing.
No matter which route you go, will you make any money?
The answers are varied, inconclusive and not very promising.
Below are some facts I gathered from various sources you might find interesting, depressing or maybe even hopeful.

Publishing facts

There are about 1.2 million books published each year in the US. Nielson Bookscan tracked the records for 2004 and came up with that number. The rest of the statistics:

1. Of those 1.2 million books, 950,000 sold fewer than 99 copies.

2. Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies.

3. Only 25,000 books sold more than 5,000 copies.

4. Fewer than 500 sold more than 100,000 copies.

5. Only 10 books sold more than a million copies each.

6. The average book in the US sells about 500 copies

Traditional Publishers

Typically, an author can expect to receive the following royalties:

Hardback edition: 10% of the retail price on the first 5,000 copies; 12.5% for the next 5,000 copies sold, then 15% for all further copies sold. Paperback: 8% of retail price on the first 150,000 copies sold, then 10% thereafter.

How many books on Amazon?

The latest rough estimate and growing is: Paperbacks 22.9m, Hardcover 8.1M and Kindle 1.2m

POD

Print on demand with digital technology is used as a way of printing items for a fixed cost per copy, regardless of the size of the order. While the unit price of each physical copy printed is higher than with offset printing, the average cost is lower for very small print runs, because setup costs are much higher for offset printing.

POD has other business benefits besides lower costs (for small runs): Technical set-up is usually quicker than for offset printing. Large inventories of a book or print material do not need to be kept in stock, reducing storage, handling costs, and inventory accounting costs. There is little or no waste from unsold products.

These advantages reduce the risks associated with publishing books and prints, and can lead to increased choice for consumers.

How many POD publishers are there? Many! Here are just a few

AuthorHouse, Aventine Press, Blurb, CreateSpace, iUniverse, Infinity Publishing, Lightning Source, Lulu, Luminare Press LLC, Outskirts Press, Replica Books, Virtual Bookworm, Wordclay, and Xlibris.