There was an article in Crain's New York last week that stated that, contrary to popular belief, 2009 book sales were not so bad. The article focuses on adult fiction, which helds steady while nonfiction dipped 7%, and doesn't address YA or kid's markets, which were I understand to be pretty strong. And the article is based on Nielsen BookScan numbers, which don't include Walmart etc. which have been making up a bigger piece of the pie.
"Book sales end the year with a surprise"
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20091229/FREE/912299989
Of course, the books that were published in 2009 were acquired several years ago. Anecdotally (I have no hard statistics -- if anyone has them, please share), it seems that in 2009 publishers were very stingy about buying new books and that agents were very stingy about taking on new clients.
I wonder if publishers and agents will soon start pumping up the acquisitions pipeline to make up for their recent caution. Or is this Crain's article an outlier?
"Book sales end the year with a surprise"
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20091229/FREE/912299989
Of course, the books that were published in 2009 were acquired several years ago. Anecdotally (I have no hard statistics -- if anyone has them, please share), it seems that in 2009 publishers were very stingy about buying new books and that agents were very stingy about taking on new clients.
I wonder if publishers and agents will soon start pumping up the acquisitions pipeline to make up for their recent caution. Or is this Crain's article an outlier?
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