Math for writers (Lesson 5)
I suppose thinking about the number of books published in 2013 — 1.4 million, according to Bowker — is like thinking about how many babies were born. The exploding population of the planet does not change the individual importance of your own pregnancy, the birth of your own child.
Still, the numbers are interesting. Of the 1.4 million new books, only 304,000 were published by “traditional” publishers — the rest were produced by non-traditional publishers, including Lulu and CreateSpace.
The largest category was fiction, with more than 50,000 titles — but, of these, only some 8,000 were classified as “literature”.
8,000 out of 1.4 million. Suddenly the eye of the needle is smaller if writing literature is your goal. And if proportionally only about 20% of these books are published by traditional publishers, that would mean 1,600 were literature published in the way we dreamed about way back when…
1,600 out of 1.4 million makes the glass very nearly empty. But, flip it the other way… and the indie publishing movement fills it to the brim.
Still, the numbers are interesting. Of the 1.4 million new books, only 304,000 were published by “traditional” publishers — the rest were produced by non-traditional publishers, including Lulu and CreateSpace.
The largest category was fiction, with more than 50,000 titles — but, of these, only some 8,000 were classified as “literature”.
8,000 out of 1.4 million. Suddenly the eye of the needle is smaller if writing literature is your goal. And if proportionally only about 20% of these books are published by traditional publishers, that would mean 1,600 were literature published in the way we dreamed about way back when…
1,600 out of 1.4 million makes the glass very nearly empty. But, flip it the other way… and the indie publishing movement fills it to the brim.
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