CACTUSWENDY
04-27-2008, 12:57 AM
While doing a search for some crime stuff I ran across this site. Thought the information was interesting for those that write this genre. Might say food for thought.
The site's addy is:
http://www.beneaththecover.com/2007/07/30/mystery-detective/
Insight:
According to Simba Information’s annual report, Business of Consumer Book Publishing, the Mystery & Detective category generated an estimated $422 million dollars in 2006, an increase of more than 4% over 2005, and 17% over 2002. Consumer dollars spent on Mystery & Detective books accounted for 6.7% of all consumer dollars spent on books last year. The top five revenue-generating publishers rang up $371 million in sales, or 88% of all dollars spent in the category. The top houses were Random House, Penguin Group, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and St. Martin’s Press. Random House and Penguin Group alone accounted for more than 52% of the total.
The Simba estimates are all we have. There are no market studies of mystery or crime fiction. Publishers Weekly hasn’t done a category closeup on mystery books since 1999. What we do have, though, are Library Journal’s annual book buying surveys. Libraries, you see, are a huge market for genre fiction. According to LJ’s 2007 survey (http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6413434.html?q=2007+book+buying+survey), the nation’s 10,000 public libraries spend about half of their entire book budgets on adult fiction, up from about a third just two years ago. And the lion’s share of dollars spent on adult fiction goes toward buying genre fiction, of which mysteries are the most popular (highest rates of borrowing). For years, one of the dirty little secrets in the public library world was that even though adult fiction typically accounted for more than half of all borrowed books, librarians did not buy to meet that demand.
Faced with competition from the Internet and other diversions in recent years, libraries have begun to think of their patrons more like customers, and that means giving the people what they want. In a mature market like book publishing, it is a zero sum game: The more books that are borrowed from public libraries (or bought used), the fewer that are purchased new. Not a good long term trend for publishers
According to Bowker’s Books In Print database, 5,580 new Mystery & Detective titles and editions were published in the U.S. in 2006, a 9% increase over 2005 and a 33% increase over 2002. The peak year for the category was 2004, when 5,715 new titles and editions were published. Below is a graph charting the trend of new Mystery & Detective books published between 2002 and 2006:
Of the 5,580 new Mystery & Detective titles published in 2006:
22% were mass market editions
23% were hardcovers
44% were trade paper editions
13% were published for children and young adults
37% were reviewed in at last one source monitored by Bowker
7% appeared on at least one bestseller list monitored by Bowker Janet Evanovich currently rules the Mystery & Detective roost. Her latest Stephanie Plum novel, Lean Mean Thirteen (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780312349493&itm=1), is flying high on all the major bestseller lists. Twelve Sharp (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780312349530&itm=11), her previous title in the series, is out now in mass market paperback and is also doing very well. Evanovich is a Jersey Girl who started out writing steamy romances under the pen name Steffie Hall. The romances were modestly successful, but Evanovich hit pay dirt when she created Stephanie Plum, an unemployed lingerie buyer from Trenton who takes up bounty hunting to pay the bills.
Joining Evanovich on the short list is James Lee Burke’s The Tin Roof Blowdown (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781416548485&itm=1); Martin Cruz Smith’s Stalin’s Ghost (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780743276726&itm=1); Ruth Rendell’s The Water’s Lovely (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780307381361&itm=1); Michael Connelly’s The Overlook (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780316018951&itm=1); J. A. Jance’s Justice Denied (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780060540920&itm=1); and John Sanford’s Invisible Prey (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780399154218&itm=1).
The site's addy is:
http://www.beneaththecover.com/2007/07/30/mystery-detective/
Insight:
According to Simba Information’s annual report, Business of Consumer Book Publishing, the Mystery & Detective category generated an estimated $422 million dollars in 2006, an increase of more than 4% over 2005, and 17% over 2002. Consumer dollars spent on Mystery & Detective books accounted for 6.7% of all consumer dollars spent on books last year. The top five revenue-generating publishers rang up $371 million in sales, or 88% of all dollars spent in the category. The top houses were Random House, Penguin Group, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and St. Martin’s Press. Random House and Penguin Group alone accounted for more than 52% of the total.
The Simba estimates are all we have. There are no market studies of mystery or crime fiction. Publishers Weekly hasn’t done a category closeup on mystery books since 1999. What we do have, though, are Library Journal’s annual book buying surveys. Libraries, you see, are a huge market for genre fiction. According to LJ’s 2007 survey (http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6413434.html?q=2007+book+buying+survey), the nation’s 10,000 public libraries spend about half of their entire book budgets on adult fiction, up from about a third just two years ago. And the lion’s share of dollars spent on adult fiction goes toward buying genre fiction, of which mysteries are the most popular (highest rates of borrowing). For years, one of the dirty little secrets in the public library world was that even though adult fiction typically accounted for more than half of all borrowed books, librarians did not buy to meet that demand.
Faced with competition from the Internet and other diversions in recent years, libraries have begun to think of their patrons more like customers, and that means giving the people what they want. In a mature market like book publishing, it is a zero sum game: The more books that are borrowed from public libraries (or bought used), the fewer that are purchased new. Not a good long term trend for publishers
According to Bowker’s Books In Print database, 5,580 new Mystery & Detective titles and editions were published in the U.S. in 2006, a 9% increase over 2005 and a 33% increase over 2002. The peak year for the category was 2004, when 5,715 new titles and editions were published. Below is a graph charting the trend of new Mystery & Detective books published between 2002 and 2006:
Of the 5,580 new Mystery & Detective titles published in 2006:
22% were mass market editions
23% were hardcovers
44% were trade paper editions
13% were published for children and young adults
37% were reviewed in at last one source monitored by Bowker
7% appeared on at least one bestseller list monitored by Bowker Janet Evanovich currently rules the Mystery & Detective roost. Her latest Stephanie Plum novel, Lean Mean Thirteen (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780312349493&itm=1), is flying high on all the major bestseller lists. Twelve Sharp (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780312349530&itm=11), her previous title in the series, is out now in mass market paperback and is also doing very well. Evanovich is a Jersey Girl who started out writing steamy romances under the pen name Steffie Hall. The romances were modestly successful, but Evanovich hit pay dirt when she created Stephanie Plum, an unemployed lingerie buyer from Trenton who takes up bounty hunting to pay the bills.
Joining Evanovich on the short list is James Lee Burke’s The Tin Roof Blowdown (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781416548485&itm=1); Martin Cruz Smith’s Stalin’s Ghost (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780743276726&itm=1); Ruth Rendell’s The Water’s Lovely (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780307381361&itm=1); Michael Connelly’s The Overlook (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780316018951&itm=1); J. A. Jance’s Justice Denied (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780060540920&itm=1); and John Sanford’s Invisible Prey (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780399154218&itm=1).