Bibliographic information management solutions provider Bowker, US, has released its annual report on the US print book publishing for 2011, compiled from its Books In Print database. Based on preliminary figures from US publishers, Bowker is projecting that traditional print book output grew 6 percent in 2011, from 328,259 titles in 2010 to a projected 347,178 in 2011, driven almost exclusively by a strong self-publishing market. This is the most significant expansion in more than four years for the US’ traditional publishing sector, but removing self-publishing from the equation would show that the market is relatively flat from 2010.
Genres that contributed to the robust growth in the Traditional sector include Education, with a hefty 20 percent increase, Music and Philosophy & Psychology (both up 14 percent), Religion (up 12 percent), and Juveniles, Biography, and Business, which all increased by 11 percent. Publishing mainstay Fiction – the largest genre – turned around a multi-year decline with a notable 13 percent increase.
Conversely, “Unclassified” books, which comprise mostly Reprint/POD houses specialising in public domain works marketed almost exclusively on the web, ended a years-long streak of triple digit growth, declining 69 percent in 2011 from 2010. The Reprint/POD sector accounts for the largest ISBN output – more than 1.1 million in 2011 alone. As a result, it drove an overall decline in print book output of 63 percent. Audiobooks and e-books are excluded.
Overall, publishing output is dominated by a handful of large Reprint/POD houses, according to the Bowker report. In fact the top three - Bibliobazaar, General Books and VDM Verlag - accounted for over 72% of the total yearly output in 2011. The largest POD publisher was Bibliobazaar with 773,857 ISBNs.
The full statistics report is available online at http://www.bowker.com/assets/downloads/products/isbn_output_2002-2011.pdf
