Why most books sell less than 200 copies

Ah…the reason so few books sell more than 200 copies “might” be partly due to the quality of the writing, but the greatest challenge looms in the marketplace. The problem boils down to sheer numbers. Excuse me if my math contains rough estimates.

The top five traditional publishers (Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, Simon & Shuster, Hachette and McMillan) collectively turn out about 100,000 titles a year. Amazon posts about 1.4 million self published books annually. There are roughly 50 million Amazon titles floating around for sale at any given time.

The typical American reads about four or five books a year. If you include avid readers, the number increases to 12 to 14 books per year according to Gallup News.

About 21% of U.S. adults, or roughly 43-45 million people are functionally illiterate, according to National University, nu.edu. An estimated 130 million adults are unable to read a simple story to their children. Consider this: 59 million U.S. adults read below Level 1 on the PIAAC (Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies) scale. This level indicates very poor literacy skills, where individuals can, at best, read short texts to locate a single piece of information, or in many cases, are functionally illiterate.  (Perhaps that’s why emojis have become so popular). 

To read the full article on authorlink.com, click here