The Distant Suns of Gene Wolfe

Daniel D Jones · 03 Jun 2007, 22:53 · from 2007-June.txt.gz

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From: ddjones at riddlemaster.org (Daniel D Jones)
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 18:53:32 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Distant Suns of Gene Wolfe
In-Reply-To: <472456.80742.qm at web32401.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
References: <472456.80742.qm at web32401.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <200706031853.32365.ddjones at riddlemaster.org>

On Sunday 03 June 2007 16:57, don doggett wrote:
> Sorry, I don't buy it. The guy got his stats from google, and I can tell
> you that our store, which I won't name, made 4 million dollars last year,
> two thirds of which were from book sales. 
> People read; we're probably more 
> literate as humans than at any other point in our history, but literacy
> doesn't equal critical thinking. It may make people feel good to think
> we're part of a dying breed as readers, the same way that celebrating
> banned books month makes people feel like they're fighting oppression (even
> though every book on that list is readily available everywhere in the US
> every day) but I personally don't believe it's that simple. Or maybe it's
> simply that the written word is so prevalent that it's not precious
> anymore. Which is not necessarily a bad thing.

According to the US Census Bureau, US book stores have about $16.5 billion in 
sales annually.  Not all of that is books, however.  Barnes and Noble, for 
instance, reports their sales at about $4.5 billion, about $2 billion of 
which is DVDs, CDs, coffee shop sales, etc.  Borders also has substantial 
non-book sales in their stores.  College bookstores are included in those 
figures, and they frequently sell as much or more in apparel as they do in 
books.  I'd say that estimating $10 billion annual sales in books is a 
generous estimate.  Books sales also include magazines, college textbooks, 
etc.  The US population is around 250 million.  That's, on average, $40 per 
person.  I spend that much or more per month on average.  That's my share and 
12  or 14 other people's share.    I'd guess that most people here spend 
significantly over the average as well.  (And for those that don't, it's 
likely more a matter of budget than desire.)  There are around 16 million 
students enrolled in US colleges and universities.  If they average $100 a 
year on text books (which certainly seems like a low figure to me), that's 
over one and a half billion of the pie there.  Take into account the sale of 
non-fiction book, including various manuals which are, like textbooks, 
substantially more expensive than novels.  And, of course, figure in how much 
of the total a small group of books  (Harry Potter, anyone?) account for and 
you're left with a small fraction of the population who spends money on 
fiction.

Sure, $4 million is a lot of money if it's sitting in your bank account.  It's 
not, however, necessarily indicative of a widespread and thriving book 
market.

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