Book Sales Data

Well, the thing is, though it's been discussed before, there really isn't an answer for you -- or not a good one.

There is no single source for sales figures, unfortunately. Not in publishing. If the books are your own, your royalty statements should, in theory and eventually, tell you how many copies sold.

For titles not your own ... Let's just say that unless you're Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling, whose sales figures are astronomical and, so, newsworthy and infinitely reportable, chances are good you won't find accurate figures anywhere.

Print runs are often reported in places like PW, but those are the numbers printed, not the actual sales figures. And I've never been convinced that even publishers have truly accurate sales figures at any point in a book's life.

Depressing, but there it is.

Nielson Bookscan is about the most accurate data base you'll find. It captures anywhere from 75-90% of book purchases. 100% is pretty much impossible, due to special sales. direct website purchase points, etc. They track all the bookstores--chain and indie--plus amazon, costco, target, etc.

It's a subscription only service. However, you can get access on a month to month basis through Book Standard for just $9.95
http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/subscriptions.jsp

Well worth it if you're doing market research. They have searchable data bases that analyze sales according to category, author, title, etc. Also, there's retail analysis and Kirkus Review archives.

If you subscribe to Publisher's Weekly they publish an annual Bestseller issue in which they give sales figures for the top books in each of the big categories. So data on those 500 or so titles is available year by year.

To get a complete picture of sales, though, you'd have to total up the figures for each year the book was sold.

The problem with those figures is that books are returnable, and publishers only know what's been sold to retailers. A big book could have tens of thousands of copies in the distribution pipeline, all of which could in principle be returned at any time.

So when a publisher says, on March 1, 2007, that the 2006 sales for Your Best Book were 252,400 copies, they mean they shipped that net figure, counting all the 2006 shipments less the returns processed through Feb 28. But they could still get 25,000 copies back if the book doesn't continue to sell, because those books are sitting in warehouses and stores, unsold.

Neilsen Bookscan is a better way to know what sales figures are, because they tabulate bar code scan data for actual sales at all the big chains and some independents. Bookscan figures are sales to the public, so returns don't figure into their numbers, but since they don't tract all sales, they too are a guess.

And then you have sales in other countries, plus audio download, book on tape, book club editions, and other special printings.

All in all, it's hard to get sales figures for all but the biggest books.