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| Size of the Science Fiction market? | |
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by ericth
» Thu Jan 24, 2013 6:43 pm
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ericth
Posts: 223
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I came across this link, which tracks paper book sales and either Sci Fi sells a ton more e-books than I had realized or the market segment is far smaller than I thought:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-t ... -2012.html The most relevant line is ART ranked at #7 7. A Rising Thunder by David Weber. Baen Books. 25,348 |
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by KNick
» Thu Jan 24, 2013 7:01 pm
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KNick
Posts: 2142
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One thing I noticed about the top ten scifi books sold last year that you didn't mention is that four of them are in the neighborhood of twenty years old (Dune, both Hitchhiker books and Ender's Game). That means that people are rediscovering some of the older writers and universes. If they are continueing to sell after that long, what does that say for the scifi market? In fact< if I recall correctly two of the three authors involved are dead (Herbert and Addams).
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Try to take a fisherman's fish and you will be tomorrows bait!!! |
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by kzt
» Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:01 pm
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kzt
Posts: 11360
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IIRC, it's the same for music. I think they strip out the Beetles, Elvis, Sinatra, and similar older music in the usual reports you see.
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by saber964
» Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:12 pm
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saber964
Posts: 2423
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IIRC the above artist still sell over a million ablums per year each and the beatles have not put out a new ablum in 40 years. Also Agitha Christie sells between 1-1.5 million books per year and shes been dead for almost thirty years |
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by SWM
» Thu Jan 24, 2013 9:46 pm
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SWM
Posts: 5928
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I'm afraid the Science Fiction market is not as large as you thought. The proportion of science fiction sales in print versus electronic format are not significantly different from other genres. Those numbers do not surprise me in the least. What really bothers me is that four of the top 10 sf book sales are media titles (Star Wars and HALO). It doesn't surprise me, but it bothers me. At that, it's better than some years, actually. Media science fiction books have dominated shelf space for far too long. --------------------------------------------
Librarian: The Original Search Engine |
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by phillies
» Sat Jan 26, 2013 8:49 pm
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phillies
Posts: 2077
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Media books bring fans into the market. Media books are therefore good. I am old enough to remember when SF conventions were overwhelmingly male events. Star Trek and a few other media events changed that.
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by Spacekiwi
» Sun Jan 27, 2013 1:54 am
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Spacekiwi
Posts: 2634
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Thats interesting to see how many sci fi books were sold in 2012. However, I wonder if that is worldwide, or just US sales? And I wonder what caused the 20% drop in sci fi sales in 2012? And where are the numbers for E-books?
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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ its not paranoia if its justified...  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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by alphapatch
» Sun Jan 27, 2013 4:55 pm
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alphapatch
Posts: 50
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http://www.booksandsuch.biz/blog/state-of-publishing/ found this. Maybe it will help. |
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by rdt
» Sun Jan 27, 2013 5:43 pm
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rdt
Posts: 945
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And none of this takes into account the actual number of people who have read a particular science fiction book---I suspect that while the Public Libraries around the country account for a realtively small percent of total sales, they also account for an even larger number of "reads."
I was stunned to note that the Los Angeles Public Library has 26 copies of John Ringo's latest (which was a real stinker) and the same number for Weber's last Safehold book. But they also have about 80 copies of JD Robb's (Nora Roberts') latest but one odd detective/futuristic cop series. Something to chew on (and regurgitate, as well). |
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by SWM
» Sun Jan 27, 2013 9:28 pm
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SWM
Posts: 5928
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There is some truth to the idea that media books bring fans into the market, including female fans. But it is also pushing other science fiction off the shelves. Look at the science fiction shelves in any bookstore. More than half of the shelf space is held by media books--hundreds of titles for Star Wars, Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons, and various computer games. For the last year or two most of the remaining shelf space is dedicated to the vampire/werewolf/zombie books that are the latest fad. Those new fans coming into the market are not even seeing the full scope of science fiction because media books and the latest fad have pushed most of it off the bookshelves. Some of the media science fiction is reasonably good. But the great majority of it is formulaic pap written by large stables of cheap authors. When the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons franchises are putting out two to four books a month, you really can't expect quality. I don't have a problem with the concept of media science fiction. I'm old enough to remember when the original Star Trek first aired. I actually read Star Wars (the original) nearly a year before the movie came out (Lucas published a preliminary version to help fund the movie production). I am a fan of Star Trek, Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, Dr. Who, and various other things that have become big franchises. What bothers me are franchises trying to milk every last cent by putting out worthless drek in an attempt to dominate simply by filling up the shelf space. It is killing traditional science fiction. I want those new fans to know what science fiction really encompasses. Fortunately, traditional science fiction does have some victories. I'm glad that David Weber has produced so many. --------------------------------------------
Librarian: The Original Search Engine |
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