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Conference noted::sf

Title:Arcana Caelestia
Notice:Directory listings are in topic 2
Moderator:NETRIX::thomas
Created:Thu Dec 08 1983
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1300
Total number of notes:18728

459.0. "1986 SF Books Year In Review." by EDEN::KLAES (Lasers in the jungle.) Wed Mar 18 1987 12:16

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers,rec.arts.books
Path: decwrl!pyramid!oliveb!sun!plaid!chuq
Subject: 1986:  the year in review
Posted: 16 Mar 87 03:46:03 GMT
Organization: 
Xref: decwrl rec.arts.sf-lovers:2182 rec.arts.books:376
  
    PUBLISHERS WEEKLY just came out with its 1986 Year In Review, and
I thought I'd summarize the point that might be interesting to you
folks out there. 
 
    In 1986, a total of 42,793 different titles were published, down
from 50,070 in 1985.  Fiction accounted for 4,877 titles, down from
5,106.  Fiction was not broken down by category, unfortunately. 
 
    Hardcover prices for volumes under $81 (to keep very high priced
books from skewing) were basically stable.  Overall, prices went from
$26.57 in 1985 to $26.61.  In fiction, pricing went from $15.24 to
$15.82. Mass Market paperback pricing went from $3.63 to $3.87, with
fiction going from $3.24 to $3.49.  Trade paperbacks went up
significantly:  from $13.98 to $14.65, but fiction trade paperbacks
took a nosedive, from $13.66 to $8.50. 
 
    Total # of volumes (new, reprint, etc..) was also flat to slightly
down. For hardback, it went from 30,104 to 25,561, and in fiction from
1,799 volumes in 1985 to 1,766 volumes in 1986.  mass market volume
went from 3,807 to 3,632, with fiction dropping from 2,524 to 2,365. 
Trade paperback went volumes plummetted from 15,075 in 1985 to 12,513
in 1986, while fiction volumes dropped from 726 to 700. 
 
    What's this all mean?  In general, there are slightly fewer titles
being published, in good part because of the continuing trend towards
a few megapublishers, but also because it is simply impossible to
publish 43,000 different titles in a given year and have any chance of
most of them suceeding.  Publishing continues to be an insane
business, where you spend 18 months getting a product to market, and
then ignore it because you're so busy with the other 37 products
you're working on you have no time for it.  Sigh. 
 
    Pricing is stable, except in the trade paperback world, which
(except for fiction) tends to be a little less price competitive.
Publishing is in a consolidation phase, and will probably continue
this way until the current takeover rage slows down. 
 
    Just to make sure everyone understands the terminology, a
hardcover is the cloth bound books, a mass market is the standard
sized book you buy at the supermarket or in the bookstore racks. 
Trade Paperbacks are everything paper or cardstock bound that is
larger than the normal paperback -- most computer books, for instance,
fall in this category. 
 
    The only really fascinating figures are the fiction trade
paperback area. There seems to be a continuing resistance from the
consumer towards buying the larger (and pricier) trade paperbacks for
fiction.  Number of titles is down significantly, but more
importantly, average cost is down by over 1/3. This means that
publishers have still not convinced people that buying the more
expensive books is worth it -- as an experiment to get people
unwilling to pay hardback prices to buy a better product, this looks
to have failed miserably.  I don't really think the publishers have
found way to differentiate a trade paperback fiction book from a mass
market paperback in a way to justify the price difference. 
Personally, with very few exceptions, I doubt they will be able to,
either. 
 
    How did Science Fiction and Fantasy do this year?  Let's take a
look at the 1986 bestsellers. 
 
    In hardcover, the only book to make the 1986 top 15 for Publishers
Weekly was IT, by Stephen King.  It sold 1,206,266 copies in 1986. Not
a good year for category blockbusters in hardcover. FOUNDATION AND
EARTH by Asimov placed 18th with 170,000 copies, MORDANT'S NEED:  THE
MIRROR OF HER DREAMS by Donaldson was 23 (140,000), THE SONGS OF
DISTANT EARTH was 25th (135,000), and FORTUNE OF FEAR #5 by Hubbard
placed 30 with 111,638.  Other titles with sales greater than 100,000
included: MAGIC KINGDOM FOR SALE: SOLD! by Terry Brooks, and three of
the other four Hubbard books:  #2, #3, and #4. 
 
    Parenthetically, Ernest Hemmingway's book, GARDEN OF EDEN, was
sandwiched between Donaldson's and Clarke's books at 137,000 copies.
For some reason, this bothers me, but I don't know why... 
 
    In the trade paperback world, there were three books that sold
more than 200,000 copies.  They were the three DRAGONLANCE volumes
from TSR:  WAR OF THE TWINS (391,000), TIME OF THE TWINS (364,000) and
TEST OF THE TWINS (354,000), all by Weis and Hickman. TSR also scored
with GRAYHAWK ADVENTURES #2, ARTIFACT OF EVIL by Gary Gygax (150,000).
WRITERS OF THE FUTURE VOLUME II (Bridge) sold 82,000, MISTS OF AVALON
by Bradley sold 80,000, and WISHSONG OF SHANNARA by Brooks sold
55,000. 
 
    In the Mass Market section, there was Stephen King (THINNER,
3,136,000; SKELETON CREW, 2,834,000; TALISMAN (with peter Straub),
2,690,000; and THE BACHMAN BOOKS, 2,000,000 [which ALSO sold 50,000 in
trade paperback]) and there was the rest of the category:  Jean Auel
re-issued CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR and sold 4,945,000 and also sold
2,970,000 of THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS. The only two other category books to
top 1,000,000 sales were CONTACT by Carl (yes, I really did write it)
Sagan at 1,298,000 copies, and STRANGERS, by Dean Koontz at 1,100,000.
 
    What's all this say?  If you want a block buster hit, change your
name.  Or write horror.  Or both.  It also points out that there is a
growing market for what is being called Mass Market hardcovers --
people are breaking down their resistance to paying the higher price
for the hardcover books. 
 
chuq 
 
Chuq Von Rospach	chuq@sun.COM		[I don't read flames]
 
 There is no statute of limitations on stupidity.

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