Of Staggering Statistics January 6, 2008
Posted by Jen in : Bits and Pieces , trackbackAccording to The Week, ‘of the 86,000 new books published last year, as many as 58,000 sold just 18 copies on average.’
That can’t be right, can it?
Sigh. Maybe I’ll take up juggling instead. Or sausage-growing. Creative sheep shearing, perhaps?
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That’s depressing…
Why do we bother when there’s stats like that?
If you think that’s bad don’t read the article in the Times (or was in the Telegraph) about how little writers earn and how few writers can afford to give up their day jobs. Just as well I’m not doing this for fame and fortune!
‘Books’ includes obscure academic tomes called e.g. The Role Of The Nematode In Equine Condritis or Islamic Imagery In Fifteenth Century Basque Poems, some of which don’t sell at all. I’m sure the figures for novels alone are different. Oh yes. I bet of the 30,000 new novels published last year, as many as 29,000 sold just 38 copies on average. There, that’s better, isn’t it?
Scary! Throw the bl**dy thing in the bin….
Write for the enjoyment of yourself and friends. Any financial reward will just be an unexpected bonus.
All statistics can really tell you is is the probability of success assuming all wannabe writers are equally talented. There are still plenty of reasons to keep trying. After all, our work must be better than some of the trash that gets published? Right?
Don’t give up writing!!
(but please take up creative sheep shearing and takes lots of photo’s!!)
C x
Shall we just throw in the pencil now?? ….. Naaah!
Mind you sausage growing does sound like an interesting career choice:-)
A Writer - because we love it?
Cally - oh, it really is torture, isn’t it? Oh well, so long as there’s enough money for wine and books…
Zinnia - are you suggesting that my novel based on Equine Condritis might not be a hit then? Oh well, back to the drawing board.
Hannah - tempting, isn’t it? So, so tempting.
Captain Black - our writing will re-write statistics history! To be honest, I don’t think I would want to write purely for pleasure. Show me the money!
Carol - maybe I could write a limerick about creatively sheared sheep to add to our ‘portfolio’?
Lane - Sausage-growing could be rather fun. Let’s keep our pencils sharpened for the time being though. useful to poke people with, if nothing else I s’pose?
Ughhh, those stats are horrible. But I’m going to keep plugging at it anyway, cos it’s the only job that I’ve ever loved. (Even though it drives me barmy when I’m actually doing it!)
Yay! I sold more than that
x
Obviously this won’t apply to you as we’ll all have to buy a copy so you should sell 19 or maybe even 20 at least
Don’t read statistics except for your percentage bar or you’ll loose the will to write , to live and everything else
oh i fear it’s right, all right! (although it’s all wrong, obviously)
Statistics are for wimps! Ignore them!
I am interested to see we are reading the same thing at the moment. Well.. almost. I currently have “A Spot of Bother” lurking on my bedside table too. It’s next in the pile. Nigel Slater is also lurking there now as well.
Yvonne - I heard a great quote last week that summed it up wonderfully: I hate writing but love having written. (Dorothy Parker I think?)
Caroline - That just means the rest of us will sell less
Breezy - so long as I don;t lose the will to slurp vino, things’ll be ok. I might make you all buy 20 copies each - that’ll teach you!
Rivergirlie - Possibly right but decidedly crapsome.
Nez - Statistics make most stuff sound dire somehow. I’ve had ‘Spot of Bother’ on my shelf for ages. Nigel Slater’s ‘Toast’ too. Aw, we can read ‘em togevver
18 copies?
I’d rather not have known that…
Wow a whole 18 people at least get to fully read your story!
Why wouldn’t that be great?
A chance to change their lives
A chance to enhance their lives
A chance to express your needs
Sounds like a good deal to me
Sure, you can pout and add “only” to 18
But how many would read your story without the book?
Plus you actually have more than 18 blog chums
So that’s a good base already!
Leigh - sorry about that. Well, a bit, anyway.
Bobo - I have more than 18 blog chums. Yes! And, even better, they’re really all rather nice. Clever and most gorgeous too, every single bloomin one of ‘em. Crumbs, I appear to have come over all Dick Van Dyke.
Thank heavens I have a large family who would be so amazed and relieved if I did ever get published that they would all feel obliged to buy a copy!
No it doesn’t. It means that the internet and blogging have magic powers!!!!!!!!! Doesn’t it????
Now I am so so so worried
x
Debs - I can imagine the book signing n De Gruchys already! Oh, please don’t say they’ve abandoned their book dept?
Nice Caroline - Don’t be worried. Internet & blogging are most magical. Besides, we don’t write about cow bums, do we?
That statistic is very misleading as it stands, and they’re pushing you to use their digest service rather than buy books. Even assuming 58,000 books - which seems a hell of a lot imho - Harry Potter sold 2,000,000 copies collectively in the UK last year which even on its own would bump the average up to 38 copies per book, so clearly something is screwy there. I’d hazard a guess and say these stats are pulled from a vanity publisher like Lulu which is entirely digital and prints only on demand. Panic not!
Who was it that said “there are lies, damn lies and statistics?”
Bollocks, I say. Keep on writing Spiralskies.
HW - ooh, I love it when you come over all mathematical. You’re quite right of course. I think. I can’t actually count but would prefer to believe you than sad statistics.
Ms Hullaballoo - bollocks indeed. Couldn’t have put it better myself. Yes.