Bowker's annual tabulation of the number of new books published in the U.S. revealed the continuation of a disturbing trend: a significant increase in titles published, without any notable increase in book sales.
Over the last two years, book production has skyrocketed by more than 30%, hitting 195,000 in 2004, while sales have moved up less than 5%. The gain in production is being driven by small publishers and self-publishers, with the output of the larger houses increasing by less than 10% since 2003. Looking back further reveals even more disproportion between production and consumption. Production jumped 64% between '99 and '04, but sales increased by barely 10%.
In 2004, adult fiction titles jumped 43%, hitting 25,184. In nonfiction, religion, travel and home economics had the largest increases in title output.
Despite the failure of sales gains to match the number of new books produced annually, title output is likely to continue to rise—Bowker reports that 11,458 new publishers registered with the U.S. ISBN agency in 2004.
