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27 July 2007

This is why the world is fucked

In the US...

1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.

42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.

80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.

70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

57 percent of new books are not read to completion.

70 percent of books published do not earn back their advance.

70 percent of the books published do not make a profit.

53 percent read fiction, 43 percent read nonfiction. The favorite fiction category is mystery and suspense, at 19 percent.

55 percent of fiction is bought by women, 45 percent by men.

About 120,000 books are published each year in the U.S.

A successful fiction book sells 5,000 copies.

A successful nonfiction book sells 7,500 copies.

On average, a bookstore browser spends 8 seconds looking at a book's front cover and 15 seconds looking at the back cover.

Each day in the U.S., people spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.

From here.

4 comments:

genevieve said...

I have always wondered why radio is popular - I hate listening when I could be reading. It's faster for me, anyhow.
These figures are depressing, but they don't explain why there are over 600 book blogs on Metaxucafe, all the same. The readers are there...
I actually saw someone asking her preferred book sales assistant for help selecting (not just finding) a fiction title t'other day - she thanked him by name and all. In a suburban bookshop, next to a supermarket. (It is a good little shop, too.)

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Mike said...

Hi!
Check out www.zeitgeistmovie.com for thought food. It's worse than just poor literacy.
Peace!

Anonymous said...

You just cited why the world is f'd and then used facts that are specific to the US as your argument. This is why the world is f'd up. FWT.

I imagine you'll just delete this comment anyways.