Comments on: Romance Books Comprise 21% of the $6.31B Book Industry

By: Affirmative Action in book reviewing? : The Good, The Bad and The Unread

Affirmative Action in book reviewing? : The Good, The Bad and The Unread — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 01:34:11 +0000

[...] a while back. She remembered a company that had been talked about in the October RWR from RWA. And she posted them today. (oops they are at RWA as [...]

By: Sabrina Jeffries

Sabrina Jeffries — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:02:12 +0000

Thanks for the info, Jane; it’s very interesting!

I would guess that the paranormal market is lower than expected because its main readership still buys in bookstores. If you’ll notice when you shop in the wholesale market, paranormal tends to be less well-represented than historical and category. I talked to a wholesale buyer at RWA who said paranormal doesn’t do as well for them as historical does. If that’s true, then that would make a huge difference, since the wholesale market (Target, Walmart, groceries) is a much bigger chunk of the market than brick and mortar stores (which isn’t entirely reflected by Bookscan, since Bookscan doesn’t track Walmart numbers).

Actually, that would go for mystery and literary fiction as well, since their big sales come in hardcover, and wholesale markets don’t carry as many hardcovers.

Very interesting stuff.

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:51:29 +0000

Nope, those last set of numbers by subgenre is the number of books published rather than sold which is why I was so surprised.

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:34:31 +0000

Are those last numbers by subgenre the numbers published or the numbers sold? If they’re how many sold they would make sense because that would mean people are wanting more historicals and not wanting paranormals as much, so historicals sold more and paranormals less.

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:09:10 +0000

Avon is HarperCollins.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:08:00 +0000

If those SF/F numbers include sales figures for Harry Potter, then they might be more skewed than you think.

By: Leeann Burke

Leeann Burke — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:30:09 +0000

It’s nice to see that romance books are still selling so well. I was shocked to see how low paranormal is ranked. I was happy to see Historical Romances are going strong.

I know you mentioned being surprised Simon & Schuster isn’t listed but I thought Avon would be listed as well.

By: francois

francois — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:55:00 +0000

I can understand Mystery being more popular in libraries than bookshops – I can’t stand re-reading mystery books if I can still remember whodunnit or whatever. And mostly I only buy books if I am going to re-read them.

By: Jackie L.

Jackie L. — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 02:14:19 +0000

I think of Fforde as fantasy–alternate reality. But the argument has been made that he is too literate and articulate to belong to a genre. Hence, sticking him in litterachoo. But I think that there are a fair number of genre writers who excel. Without needing the “elevation” to literature.

By: Sela Carsen

Sela Carsen — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:03:50 +0000

Should Jasper Fforde be in mystery, then? He makes sense in fiction, to me. I think I was most surprised by the share that graphic novels have. It’s getting bigger every year! Interesting development.

By: Kalen Hughes

Kalen Hughes — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:47:23 +0000

Category books are a HUGE market (and mysterious to all of us who don’t read them). Not only do they come out in large numbers, on a monthly basis, but they're sold via subscription as well as in the stores (and those readers who don't subscribe, are trained to buy them early so as not to miss out).

By: Gwen

Gwen — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:16:38 +0000

How many imprints are Harlequin? That might account for why that number is so big. They’ve got MIRA, Silhouette, Nocturne, HQN, etc. I can’t think of them all off the top of my head.

By: sherry thomas

sherry thomas — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:14:55 +0000

Wow, Harlequin leads the pack. That kinda floored me. Not that it's in the lead, but that it's in the lead by such a large margin.

I was really surprised a few weeks ago, when reading the top 100 romances compiled by Bookscan, I noticed that a whole lotta everything jumped down 40-50 places. The reason, the next month’s category titles had hit the shelves. I had no idea categories had such strong sales.

Now I’m not surprised that Harlequin would lead the pack, and by such a large margin. They produce 120 titles a month. No other publisher comes even close to that publishing that many romances.

By: Rebecca Goings

Rebecca Goings — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:05:49 +0000

Holy crap, I need to hurry up and send in my Silhouette Desire submission! LOL

Wow, Harlequin leads the pack. That kinda floored me. Not that it’s in the lead, but that it’s in the lead by such a large margin.

~~Becka

By: Ann Bruce

Ann Bruce — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:04:21 +0000

I thought the percentage of paranormals would be bigger. It certainly seems that way when I hit the bookstores or library. Of course, it could mean (1) there’s better marketing for paranormals or (2) all the historicals and contemporaries were taken by readers before me.

By: Janine

Janine — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:46:57 +0000

I wonder if “Classic literary fiction” includes both classics and contemporary literary fiction, or just the former?

Also, I wonder where general fiction is included.

By: Jackie L.

Jackie L. — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:36:40 +0000

Yeah, Connie is in SF/F. Some of the paranormals are in SF/F, like Krinard. as well.

By: Patrice Michelle

Patrice Michelle — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:18:29 +0000

Interesting breakdown.

The Time Traveler’s wife was shelved in general fiction not SF/F when I went looking for it at Borders.

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:47:40 +0000

So was the Time Traveler’s Wife. Connie Willis, though, is shelved in SF/F, right?

By: Jackie L.

Jackie L. — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:45:42 +0000

I think a lot of the fantasy-romance stuff must be going into the SF/F totals. Because I can seldom find any hard SF for my husband, which alas, is all he reads. When I go to Amazon for suggestions for SF, I get Star Trek and Laurel K. Hamilton. (Ewwww.)

And at the high quality independent bookstore here in Denver, SF/F used to be 2 long shelves front and back for hardcover alone. Now 1/2 of one of those shelves holds the kind of stuff my hubby will read.

I think genre blurring is changing the numbers, not actual reader preference.

For instance, Jasper Fforde is shelved in literature. Where are the genre police when you need them?