Fast Stats: Book Industry Statistics You Can Use

$84 Million

The amount earned by author James Patterson this year through April, making him No. 1 on Forbes magazine's annual list of the highest-paid authors. Patterson significantly outsold the No. 2 author on the list, Danielle Steel, who brought in $35 million. Horror-writer Stephen King ranked at No. 3, earning $28 million.

Source: The Guardian

2 Million+

The number of New Zealanders aged 10 and older who read a book during the past seven days (at the time of Nielsen's latest Consumer and Media Insights (CMI) study from Q1 2011), according to a Booksellers Conference presentation by Nielson Managing Director Ka Meechan. That's an estimated 50 percent of New Zealand's age-10-and-over population. The study showed that 4.1 million New Zealanders out of a population of some 4.4 million visited a public library during the past three-months.

As far as digital consumption, Meechan reported that 85,000 New Zealanders have an iPad or e-reader, and 192,000 intend to buy one within a year. One-hundred-thirty thousand have downloaded book apps to their mobile devices.

157

The number of New York Times Best Sellers released by Penguin Group USA in the first half of 2011, making Penguin the industry leader in most hardcover fiction best sellers. The best-selling titles included "Buried Prey," "Against All Enemies" and "Chasing Fire."

Internationally, Penguin's DK Publishing saw a 34% increase in children's book sales in the UK in the first half of 2011. DK's adult book sales grew 5%. Overall, Penguin showed a 13% underlying profit growth in the first half of 2011, and Penguin US more than doubled its e-book sales.

Source: http://us.penguingroup.com