Sunday, February 5, 2012

News From The World of Books (A rare Sunday Post)

Many folks (naysayers) have predicted that because of e-books all printed matter is dead or will be dead very, very soon. In fact, that is not true. 


Did you know that book sales are way up? And did you also know that Young adult readership is booming? Amazon does report that e-sales are up. But *ahem* they are a company that would favor electronic text. They are based on the internet. So it stands to reason, right? 


There was a decline because of the recession. But we are climbing out of the recession. Aren't we? 


Statistics for you:

In 2005, there were more published authors in the U.S. than ever before: 185,275 (compared, for example, with eighty-two in 1850).
 In 2007, there were more U.S. publishers than ever before: 74,240 (that’s compared with 397 in 1925). This figure has been rising every year since the data has been collected.
In 2008, there were more original book titles published in print than ever before: 289,729 different titles in the U.S. alone.
In 2008, the last year complete numbers are available, overall revenue from book sales in the U.S. was at $24.255 billion, down just a bit from $24.959 billion in 2007, the all-time high.  
Library membership in the U.S. is at an all-time high: 208,904,000 Americans held library cards in 2009. (That’s 68 percent of the population, the greatest number since the American Library Association began keeping track in 1990.)
Library circulation is at an all-time high: 2.28 billion library materials were circulated in 2008 (that’s 7.7 circulations per capita) compared to 1.69 billion in 1999 (6.5 circulations per capita).

So all printed matter is dead or dying right? I think not. *smiling*


Have a wonderful day.

28 comments:

  1. Print isn't dead. EBooks have taken a chunk of the sales, but overall, it has increased the number of readers. A win for everyone!

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  2. Exactly, Alex! I don't buy into the prickly argument that all print is dead. It will never be dead. There will always be folks like me, who prefer to curl up with a book and smell the pages as they read. So you're right. It's a win win. :-)

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  3. I don't think so either! I do get some eBooks. I will get them when they are free, or cheap, and I know they are not books I want to have forever. If it's a favorite author or just a favorite book, it's a hardcover on the shelf, for sure. I do have quite a few books for our homeschool on our iPad, but the girls have been reading paper copies. I have not been able to bring myself to hand them the iPad and let them read their school books. It just seems wrong somehow. :-) It does make school more portable, which is why I have them that way.

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  4. I don't think print is dead either. I guess it depends on if the ebook chunk keeps growing and what will happen with the next generation as their parents have grown up with ebooks. We're safe. For now.

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  5. I don't think eBooks can ever replace the tactile quality of books you've owned for years and the memories you have associated with them.

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  6. I agree with you, amigo! Can you see us handing those grandbabies a Kindle? I think not. Little ones need real picture books to read and slobber on, you know?

    Hope the weekend is going well!
    Hugs,
    Karen

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  7. Wow. Cool statistics. I like hearing the actual numbers of things. It's kind of comforting :) As long as people keep reading and need us to keep writing, I guess it's all good :)

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  8. This is good news. The more people reading the better! I own a Kindle but still read print books, still go to the library to check them out, occasionally buy one or two or five.

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  9. Interesting statistics!

    It's good to know, in numbers, that readership is actually increasing. :)

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  10. What fun numbers--thanks for sharing!

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  11. An excellent post! I enjoyed seeing the actual numbers. Thank you!

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  12. Thanks for giving us hope :-) I know my grandkids are going to have different, more technological experiences as they grow, but I want them to find joy in the beauty of books, too!

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  13. Good to know. Thanks for the stats. Although I don't think writers need to be afraid of the e-market. I think it will just become better and more user friendly with time. Although I don't see e-books ever fully taking the place of print books.

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  14. Interesting article. I read both and with my kindle I can read when I'm on the subway and bus.

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  15. I don't think print is dead either. At least, I hope it's not. I prefer a good old fashioned book any day, eBooks just don't do it for me.

    Just stopping in to wish you a wonderful Week!

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  16. well, hooray for all of us, then! More book sales means more readers for everyone. Great post~ :o) <3

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  17. This is very great news and quite contrary to all the doomsday posts that books are a dying art. Thanks for the info. Robyn.

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  18. I love hearing/seeing that more and more people are reading more and more in whatever form they desire.
    I'm tweeting your post!
    Mary

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  19. I knew there was a boom in books, authors, and publishers, but I didn't see numbers until now. It's quite uplifting. I like seeing this growth in both readership and writers.

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  20. I'm glad print isn't dead, but I did something in the last week I never dreamed I would do. I lamented the fact Hubby bought a hard copy of a book and not the ebook. Last night, as he laughed at my sticky arrows and flags hanging out of the book, I said, "This is why an ebook would have been better!" I do love the highlight and note option in my Kindle. For this book, I could have summed everything up in the notes and highlights — easier and cleaner. Of course, I don't do this with fiction.

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  21. Print is seriously not dead. I just cannot imagine print going dead.

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  22. Somedays I think I'm single-handedly making print book sales soar - I need to make fewer trips to Barnes & Noble!

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  23. What an uplifting post, Robyn! I don't think print books will ever be dead. I do love reading on my Kindle, love to adjust the text to make it bigger and easier on my eyes, but I read print books, too. And we still subscribe to the newspaper. My hubby couldn't live without his paper!

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  24. Great article. I'm just on my way around the blogs of my fellow Campaigners when I got stuck here. So much to read...

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  25. Hi, a fellow Campaigner here. You commented on my blog and said I have a BIC and I was wondering what that is. Thanks for enlightening me.

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  26. Print or screen, I'm just happy to see people reading :)

    Hope things are going well for you, Robyn!

    Angela

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