In this week’s Entertainment Weekly (10.30.09) there’s an article in the ReviewsBooks section, which notes that books by some heavy hitters, even some that started strong, have sputtered a bit in the sales department. Most notably, Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol, which started out with 1.2 million copies sold in the first week of release, has dropped in subsequent weeks to 400,000 copies, and then 214,000 the next, according to Nielsen BookScan. Perennial bookseller faves such as Mitch Albom with his new book “Have a Little Faith”, and solid bets like Audrey Niffenegger’s “Her Fearful Symmetry” and Ted Kennedy’s memoir “True Compass” have had similarly low numbers. OK, much lower.
What does this MEAN, the major publishers are asking. Just WHAT!? Heads interviewed for the piece suggested that somehow still the holiday season will see book sales increase as Sure Things like Stephen King, John Grisham and Michael Chrichon have books coming out soon. Whistling in the dark, the slump I noted above doesn’t mean anything. Sure. But the word “recession” comes to mind. We’ll see if people loosen the purse strings toward November and December, eh?
As for me and my fellow wannabe authors, I just thought it was worth noting. If the Big Guys are having trouble selling their books, we may have to work a bit harder on a personal basis with our audiences to be sure we succeed where the majors are failing.
No doubt about it man, no doubt.
Toss in to the mix the top 10 bestseller price war going on and it is a bit more concerning.
Low numbers? Do you know how many mid-list authors would sell their grandfather’s left nad for 214, 000 copies? It’s not the numbers, per se, that’s the problem. It’s the way the whole damn industry works. Publishers having to pay a special fee to get their books on the “front table,” Wal-Mart buying books at a fraction of the cost of small indy booksellers. Tons of overhead at the big houses and the author gets pennies on the dollar. Seems to me, the parties involved should learn to work together a little better.
Methinks the marketing money is being diverted elsewhere. Where? Only time will tell.
Point taken, John. But it’s a matter of scale. If you’re with a major pub and you’re not pulling down 100s of thousands of copies, you’re not a top tier author. The problem is you have top tier authors who are selling a fraction of what they used to be able to count on. I know it’s silly to cast a million seller as “disappointing” but this is part of what you’re seeing in the industry right now.
We’ll see if things improve when King, Chrichton and Grisham release their books this coming season.
I wonder, do these numbers relate to overall sales of a title or do they cover only physical copies sold from bookstores and online retailers? What with the success (is it a success?) of products like the Kindle, a success to be perpetuated by Barnes & Noble’s upcoming similar device, I wonder if the sales of the titles in this digital format are being included considering their intangibility and, most likely, reduced prices.
I’m actually assuming that these numbers are included (including those of other versions such as audiobooks), but I bet if you look you could find a press report about sales of books to the Kindle talking about how revolutionary those numbers have been.
I could write an essay on this. I’m reading Brown’s book – it’s crap. I should have expected it to be so, but it’s more crap than I even gave it credit for. It combines the symbology of the Freemasons (mildly interesting) with (and hold onto your hats) “The Secret” (yup – that woo-book Oprah was peddling). Only it’s referred to as “Noetic science”. Out on a limb, here, but perhaps these conspiracy theory subjects are getting tired and old?
I was at a screening of “The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus” last night. One of its central themes (if you can accuse Gilliam of ever having one) was how the old world of imagination and mysticism is overrun by modern-day technological distractions (videogames, iPhones, twitter, etc). Old-school just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Authors such as Brown and King have often peddled in books which deal with mystical other-worldly subjects, but perhaps the subject matter modern audiences want deals more with a real-world, skeptical outlook.
Brown hit big sales by being controversial a few year’s back with “The Da Vinci Code” because it hit a chord with a large public (the divinity of the Christ). He’s fallen victim to the Law of diminishing returns here, trying to do it again, but whether we were offended or intrigued by his previous book, we’re probably shrugging it off as a marketing ploy we won’t fall for again.
If you’re after sales in the millions, the old methods are probably not cutting it, but perhaps the subject matter and what authors are renowned for could be a contributing factor, also.
PS: I don’t think you have to worry about working harder. Just work smarter, and consider your subject matter and your potential audience. Sometimes sales for Crichton, King and Brown are published because of a feedback loop – their audience is the publisher who’s evidence is sales figures, and sales figures come largely from the publishing deal in the first place: move X amount of copies to Y amount of bookstores. Calculate profit based on bookstore purchase (not individual customer sales). Numbers justify a larger print run increasing the value of X, and phone-calls to more bookstores to increase the value of Y. “Bestseller” appears on the cover of so many books, it’s hard to think of who they’re really “besting”. They can’t all be “the best” by definition.
Argh. You’ve hit a crazy-nerve in my brain, Steve, and I’m failing to get things done.
It’s OK, Paul. It obviously tweaks my crazy nerve as well, which is why I air the subject for public comment here in this esteemed forum.
OK you. Break’s over. Back on your head.
It is so easy to blame everything on the “recession, isn’t it? I think Paul’s rant about this stuff just getting tired and old might hit a little closer to the mark. I think you see the same thing in other areas, films and music.
Not that I, a Star Wars fan, have any right to speak about content getting tired and old…
I remember a time before, videogames, iPhones, twitter, Facebook, blogs, email, computers, Internet, Netflex, when I bought and read many more books a year than I do now.
There is a percentage of people who will read books regardless of those distractions, and then there are the rest of us who will read less because of those distractions.
I read a book once long ago on Time Management. It was only then that I realized that one’s daily time is a limited resource. You can’t expect people to read books when videogames, iPhones, twitter, Facebook, blogs, email, computers, Internet, Netflex, take up so much of their time each day.
As the book reading generation dies off (my generation) books sale will decline. People will not stop reading, but there will definitely be less book reading in the future.
Kori