[deleted]
Most books don't sell only a dozen copies
21–30 of 143 posts
Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies
#22>>>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…
Before you try to try to interpret these numbers, you should be aware:
- the numbers are a for a 12 month period of sales, not for books published in a particular 12 month period (see below for why this matters)
- some of those books were published near the start of the 12 month period, so the count represents their first 52 weeks of sales
- some of the books were published in the last week or the 12 month period, so the count represents their first couple of weeks of sales
- some of the books were published almost a year before the start of the period, in which case the count represents the number of sales within the last couple of weeks of their first year of sales (sales >12 months after publishing don't count as 'frontlist' so aren't included in these numbers)
tl;dr the % figures towards the bottom of the list are probably too pessimistic
Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies
#23>>>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…
With such a large portion less than 1000, it would be nice to see it broken down more. Was it more 20, or 900?
Well the distribution would almost have to be skewed to the lower side given then general trend(but obv this isn't a very scientific method)
Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Because this is clearly a slice, and most likely provided by one of the parties to the suit, I decided to limit my data to the frontlist sales for the top 10 publishers by unit volume in the U.S. Trade market. My ISBN list is a little smaller than the one quoted in the DOJ, but the principals will be the same. > The data below includes frontlist titles from Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Grou…
When you limit your data to those published by (fairly) large publishers, you've already skewed the data irreparably. Most of them won't even look at a book unless an agent brings it to them, and most agents won't represent most would-be authors. On the other hand, some technical books don't require agents, and O'Reilly has to be a very large publisher in terms of books sold. Some other categories don't, either -- I…
> On the other hand, some technical books don't require agents, and O'Reilly has to be a very large publisher in terms of books sold.
I think you are drastically over-estimating the share of developers that read software development related books.
Out of the 150+ software engineers I worked with on a daily basis throughout my career so far, I can guarantee you not even 5% have ever read programming books (and I work at a FAANG, not your average mom and pop shop).
It's a niche market.
Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies
#25No post body was provided.
Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies
#26Because people have friends?
And because public libraries sometimes buy uninteresting books to fill their quotas.
Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you limit your data to those published by (fairly) large publishers, you've already skewed the data irreparably. Most of them won't even look at a book unless an agent brings it to them, and most agents won't represent most would-be authors. On the other hand, some technical books don't require agents, and O'Reilly has to be a very large publisher in terms of books sold. Some other categories don't, either -- I…
> On the other hand, some technical books don't require agents, and O'Reilly has to be a very large publisher in terms of books sold. I think you are drastically over-estimating the share of developers that read software development related books. Out of the 150+ software engineers I worked with on a daily basis throughout my career so far, I can guarantee you not even 5% have ever read programming books (and I work…
Also, the distribution is skewed. Between my wife and my own collection, we have owned at least 120 O'Reilly books.
Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies
#28>>>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…
With such a large portion less than 1000, it would be nice to see it broken down more. Was it more 20, or 900?
Can you just plot the histogram and guesstimate based on the distribution?
Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies
#29I would expect that most people who try to write a book and sell it will sell exactly zero copies. They will successfully give a few copies to their friends, and Mom, and that's about it.
Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies
#30>>>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…
Do we have similar statistics for the App Store?