FAST STATS

18,000
Based on preliminary figures from U.S. publishers, Bowker is projecting that U.S. title output in 2005 decreased by more than 18,000 to 172,000 new titles and editions. This is the first decline in U.S. title output since 1999, and only the 10th downturn recorded in the last 50 years.
According to Bowker projections, however, 2004 numbers were a tough act to follow—it had the highest total of new titles and editions ever, and reflected an increase of 19,000 new books over 2003.
Bowker, May 2006

No. 1
Great Britain, long the world’s per capita leader in the publication of new books in any language, now replaces the United States as the publisher of most new books in English—206,000 new books were published in the U.K. in 2005, representing an increase of some 45,000 (28 percent) over 2004.
Bowker, May 2006

$1
Amount Starbucks will donate for each copy sold of Mitch Albom’s second novel, “For One More Day,” to Jumpstart, a nonprofit education group concerned with literacy for at-risk preschoolers. The book—scheduled for a September release—will be sold at Starbucks across the country from October through November and is part of the company’s strategy to offer more entertainment options at its stores.

7/7/07
The date many industry insiders believe Scholastic will release the last “Harry Potter” novel. The reoccuring sevens in the date are appropriate because the book will be the seventh in the boy wizard series.

16%
The percentage of publishers who see “competition from print-on-demand publishers (like subsidy, self-publishers)” as a top business challenge in the next 12 months, varying only by a few percentage points by type of publisher.
Source: TrendWatch Graphic Arts’ “Digital Printing 2006,” July 2006

40%
Percentage of book publishers—four out of 10—who said they have worked with an overseas print provider in the past 12 months.
Source: TrendWatch Graphic Arts’ “Setting Sale: Challenges and Opportunities in Offshore Printing,” July 2006