P R I M E
NUMBERS
Bound for Success
T he book’s obituary has been written time and again, its imminent demise
blamed on television, falling publishing profits, and now, the Internet.
But don’t write books off just yet. More are being published than ever
before, and sales continue to trump those of other media. Despite the dire
predictions, the world still loves a good page-turner. | By Andrew Grabois
MARKET WATCH, PUBLISHERS FEDERATION OF SPAIN; ITALY: EU PUBLISHING MARKET WATCH, ASSOCIATION OF ITALIAN PUBLISHERS; BOTTOM: UNITED STATES: BOOK INDUSTRY STUDY GROUP, RIAA, MPAA; BRITAIN: NIELSEN EDI, PUBLISHERS
PUBLISHING MARKET WATCH, GERMAN PUBLISHERS & BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION; JAPAN: SHUPPAN NYUSUSHA, JAPAN EXTERNAL TRADE ORGANIZATION; FRANCE: EU PUBLISHING MARKET WATCH, LIVRES HEBDO; SPAIN: EU PUBLISHING
SOURCES: TOP: CHINA: UNESCO, CHINA NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS, GENERAL ADMINISTRATION FOR PRESS AND PUBLISHING; UNITED STATES: BOWKER’S BOOKS IN PRINT DATABASE; BRITAIN: NIELSEN BOOK DATA; GERMANY: EU
Printer’s The United 200,000
States no
Progress ina
longer holds Ch
the title of world’s top pub- Books Published at
es
lisher. The top spot goes to St tain
150,000 ed Bri
China, where textbooks Unit
account for nearly 1 in 5 books
published and almost half of
all purchases at the country’s
100,000
72,000 bookshops. But the
British have the most to say,
Germany
with more books published per Spain
Japan
capita than any other nation.
ASSOCIATION, BRITISH ASSOCIATION OF RECORD DEALERS; JAPAN: JAPAN EXTERNAL TRADE ORGANIZATION, RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF JAPAN
50,000 Italy
France
1995 2000 2003 2004
$30
Profit or Perish Book publishers will
be the first to tell you
$25 Revenues by Industry that they are the entertainment industry’s poor rela-
(In billions of U.S. dollars, 2004)
tions. The numbers tell a different story.
$20 Book sales surpass movie box office
and music sales in all three of the
UNITED STATES world’s largest entertainment markets.
$15
$10
BRITAIN
JAPAN
$5
$0
Books Music Movies Books Music Movies Books Music Movies
Andrew Grabois, formerly the director of publisher relations at R.R. Bowker, is a publishing consultant.
26 Foreign Policy
Copy That Piracy is often a good indication of healthy demand. The fact that U.S. publishers lost more than
$600 million to piracy in 2005 signifies the printed word’s staying power. Bestselling authors have
to worry about both copycats and copy machines in countries such as Pakistan and China, where for every legitimate
Da Vinci Code, four fakes will be sold at a fraction of the jacket price.
U.S. Publishers’ Losses to Piracy
(In millions of U.S. dollars, 2005)
0–9 10–19 20–29 30–39 40–49 50+
A Copycat Favorite
CHINA: RUSSIA: BELARUS:
Harry Potter and Leopard- Tanya Grotter and the Porri Gatter and the
Walk-up-to-Dragon Magic Double Bass Stone Philosopher
Harry becomes a hobbit at Harry becomes Tanya, a girl Porri has no magical powers,
Hogwarts, where it sprinkles with a mole on her nose. but he rides a motorcycle and
sweet-and-sour rain. carries a grenade launcher.
The Next Chapter More books are being written and sold than ever before, but are they being read?
Television has lured readers away for decades, and browsing the Internet now occu-
pies more leisure hours than reading a favorite book in most countries. As a result, more publishers are offering
SOURCES: TOP: INTERNATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ALLIANCE; BOTTOM: GFK NOP
digital downloads of books in a bid to reach new readers and control copyrights.
Hours Spent per Week: Hours Spent per Week: Hours Spent per Week:
15.7 Watching Television 20.9 Watching Television 17.3 Watching Television
10.8 Surfing the Net 10.3 Surfing the Net 8.8 Surfing the Net
8.0 Reading CHINA 7.5 Reading EGYPT 6.9 Reading FRANCE
Hours Spent per Week: Hours Spent per Week: Hours Spent per Week:
17.9 Watching Television 22.4 Watching Television 19.0 Watching Television
6.9 Surfing the Net 11.7 Surfing the Net 8.8 Surfing the Net
UNITED
4.1 Reading JAPAN 9.4 Reading THAILAND 5.7 Reading STATES
M ay | June 2006 27
