Preliminary statistics from R.R. Bowker's Books in Print database reveal that total book production in 2001 will likely top 135,000 titles, a record high and a 10% increase over 2000.
With 15,867 titles released in 2001, adult fiction was the largest publishing category in 2001, supplanting sociology/economics, where production fell to 12,812 from 14,908 last year. The juvenile category was the third largest segment with 8,272 titles published, although Bowker senior director of publisher relations and content development Andrew Grabois said that by the time the final figures are tabulated the number should top 9,000. Publishers released 7,577 titles in the science segment last year, down from 8,464, while technology titles toppled to 7,543 from 8,582.
Grabois noted that with the Association of American Publishers reporting flat sales in 2001 despite the surge in output, an analysis about what kinds of books are released could be in order. "There may not be too many books being published, just too many books in the wrong categories," Grabois said. He observed that on a per capita basis, the data suggest that the U.S. is far from book-saturated. According to Bowker, one book per year is produced in America for every 2,336 people, compared to one book released for every 545 people in the U.K. Other countries ahead of the U.S. on a per capita basis are Canada (577), New Zealand (779) and Australia (2,041).
