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I'm back from hols to discover a MADNESS and HYSTERIA over book releases this autumn. 'Run for the hills: 600 books out on 3rd Sept!!!' Super Thursday [1st Oct] is going to kill us all!' I feel responsible as the numbers come from me (via the fine folks at Nielsen BookData).
I've tried - boy, have I tried! - to explain the nuances of this to the, ah, civilian media, but that nuance seems to be lost in the more frightening, compelling top line: 'Too many books! Publishers have gone mad!!' (No shade, I know how news works).
So here's some nuance (if you don't like numbers or data, mute me now because I'm coming in hot). Atm, there are 579 HARDBACK titles out on 3rd Sept, a 24% rise on the number of HBs published on the 1st Thursday of Sept 2019. (ATM because pub dates are a movable feast).
And we're talking physical format and hardbacks only as that is the measure we use for the big autumn/run-in to Xmas titles. Obviously, tons more books out in other formats.
HOWEVER, of those HBs published this year on 3/9, about 40-45% are general trade titles: the ones that will be jockeying for High St shop space. The majority are academic/professional (I say 'about' as some have trade/academic crossover). So, we're talking 260-ish hardbacks.
The vast majority of those 600-odd 3rd Sept HBs, then, are titles which will probably only ever be in university libraries or read on a higher ed or STM giant's digital platform. Taylor & Francis alone is publishing 110 HBs on 3rd Sept.
Going out on a limb here, but I don't think W H Smith will be, say, piling Katherine E Southwood's Job's Body and the Dramatised Comedy of Moralising (T&F, £130) high on tables next to Ant & Dec's Once Upon a Tyne when they are both released on 3rd Sept.
But, dear god, it would be great if they did.
Super Thurs (1st Oct) has 790 HBs. But this Super Thurs is greatly inflated as it happens to fall on the
first of the month, often the default date for academic publishers' releases. Perusing those Super Thursday HBs, a very liberal estimate would maybe 315 are non-academic.
first of the month, often the default date for academic publishers' releases. Perusing those Super Thursday HBs, a very liberal estimate would maybe 315 are non-academic.
Last Super Thursday had 426 HBs, but that was down on 2018's 544 (it declined for a host of reasons, mostly as there were a number of mini-Super Thursdays in '19). But strip out the non-trade titles and there is around a 22% jump in trade titles from Super Thurs '18 to '20.
Fun fact: book production is actually DOWN this autumn. There are currently 10,502 HBs slated to be published this Sep to Dec. Sep to Dec '19 it was 13,119. Most of this is a decline in academic releases into what is going to be a very uncertain back to uni/schools time
Our friends at Taylor & Francis, for example, (I use them as their humanities list means they still publish tons in physical format) has 3,990 HBs due to be published this autumn, 15% down on '19.
Yes, trade titles are up, but not as much as you'd think. Again, difficult to say exactly what a trade book is, but perusing those thousands of HBs line by line (it's taken HOURS) and the number of trade HBs is up by about 15% year on year across the autumn. Maybe a tad less.
Still, that's a huge rise when bookshops are normally overflowing. Which means tough decisions for booksellers about promotions and stock levels. But not as dire a situation as the very overstuffed Super Thursday and mini-Super Thursdays might first lead you to believe.
So, yeah, it's complicated. But no reason to panic.
Maybe it's up to us book buyers to make sure we snap up that extra 15% or so of trade titles as soon as they come in. You know, to keep things ticking over and free up that shelf space...
Maybe it's up to us book buyers to make sure we snap up that extra 15% or so of trade titles as soon as they come in. You know, to keep things ticking over and free up that shelf space...
