The Facts About Traditional Book Sales

In Jane Friedman's most recent The Bottom Line newsletter (it's free!), she discusses traditional book sales. 

"The general public, along with authors and readers, tends to believe books sell far more than they actually do..." 

In fact, the numbers are awful. 

• 0.4% or 163 books sold 100,000 copies or more

• 0.7% or 320 books sold between 50,000–99,999 copies

• 2.2% or 1,015 books sold between 20,000–49,999 copies

• 3.4% or 1,572 books sold between 10,000–19,999 copies

• 5.5% or 2,518 books sold between 5,000–9,999 copies

• 21.6% or 9,863 books sold between 1,000–4,999 copies

• 51.4% or 23,419 sold between 12–999 copies

• 14.7% or 6,701 books sold under 12 copies

"That means 15 percent of big publisher frontlist (new) books sold less than 12 copies."

The times I've wandered into Barnes & Noble, I've wondered about those books occupying the prime spots on tables near the entrance. As I posted before, I never see customers perusing them. Why not? Well, to me, they all look (literally look) the same---same cover design, sameness of titles, which are generally morose or self-pitying. Hey, kids! Who wants to be sad! Get your buzzkill right here!

It seems that The Big Five are inveterate gamblers. Essentially, they "take a chance" on a book, crossing their fingers that it'll sell, and if it doesn't? No biggie. The 0.4% of hits subsidize the books that are losers. 

Still, I'm flabbergasted by the low (pitiful, really) sales numbers. Under 12 copies? Really? Even I've sold more than 12 copies! And any indie author who publishes in a popular genre can easily match the 12 - 999 sales threshold. 

A first-time author whose book is grabbed by one of The Big Five does get a nice advance, $10,000 to $25,000 on average, which, hey, I'd take! Better than losing money, which is all I ever manage to do. Of course, if their novel only manages to sell 10 copies, that advance is all the money they'll ever see. That's gotta be a blow to the ego. 

I do have to wonder about the business model. I wonder about a lot of business models. Take, for example, movie studios. They seem to go out of their way to release films that repel potential moviegoers, yet they still keep pushing those films out. I've got lots of time to see movies, yet the only one I've paid to see in the last two or three years was Project Hail Mary. I actively search for a semi-acceptable film, but hardly ever find one.

The Big Five likes to tout that they are subsidizing "art" when they take on a novel that they're pretty certain isn't going to sell. Really? I've never known a corporation to be altruistic. But please, keep going with that, corporations.

Instead, I go back to the gambling aspect. I like gambling as much as the next gal, but I know when it's time to cut my losses. And art? Those complete loser novels are not art. 

It all trickles down to agents. The literary agent field has a problem---a big one. It's too homogeneous. I've mentioned before that all agents are looking for the same things---same themes, same author demographic. Trust me; I've looked. There's your 12 sales, people. Because readers, more than anything, want a good story. If I was useless at my job, I would quickly find myself unemployed. It's amazing, really, how the agent profession remains a profession. 

I do admit that I enjoyed seeing those sales numbers. We all like it when we're right. Of course, I'm not $10,000 - $25,000 right. Still, I did get a twenty-five dollar royalty check this month, so my non-politically correct novel doesn't need to sit atop a lonely table at B&N to "make money". (I say ironically, since I'll never recoup my publishing expenses.) 

My suggestion for The Big Five would be to throw darts at a board to find their next big releases and cut out the middle man (middle woman, in truth). Sure, agents would have to find a new line of work, but working in a factory might give them a whole new outlook. Of course, their coworkers would hate them for constantly spewing their POC, LGBTQ+ mantras. That stuff might fly in literary circles, but not in the real world.