CCBC-Net Archives
Re: next round of research and numbers
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From: bookmarch_at_aol.com
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 11:34:35 -0500 (EST)
As the passionate discussions prompted by the CCBC diversity in publishing numbers come to an end, I went back to KT's original post with the link to the current numbers. Looking at those stats, the PW sales numbers Norma Jean sent, and comments along the way, I suggest the following for the next time CCBC posts numbers:
1) breakdown by genre. That is, of the 3200 books they received, how many were for which age group (as defined by publisher); fiction versus (non-Dewey) nonfiction; series versus individual author; popular culture tie-in (as linked to current film, TV, etc even if focus of the book is some educational goal) v stand-alone.
2) cross-correlate diversity numbers to genre. That is, are we seeing non-dominant authors cluster in -- or absent from -- certain kinds of books?
3) cross-correlate genre to retail sales and -- if broadly available from wholesalers -- institutional sales.
4) add the category of gender what % of books are by men, women, in which categories?
Several commentators have pointed to a gap between population diversity and publishing. The point of further refinement is to examine more closely where are the gaps? In which subjects? In as much as we can tell, how do current trends in what is published match up with what people vote to buy by spending money?
There is an obvious need to bring family income into the picture. That is, America is becoming more diverse, yes. Are American book buyers? This cuts two ways -- how much disposable income do various kinds of Americans have available to use on buying books? And, how do Americans of various backgrounds and economic strata view their $ devoted to children's entertainment/education -- that is, books, vs. apps, games, movies, sports events, theme parks? B/c for example a family that has little extra money but spends that on, say, digital gaming, is most probably not buying based on either cultural authenticity or self-representation but on links to existing popular culture interests.
We may say that popular culture has great limitations, its does. But that gets to a crucial point: I suspect that part of what the CCBC and PW numbers show is the simple fact that overwhelmingly book publishers need to focus on retail sales to make their margins, while the concerns of the CCBC-net community are often those of the institutional market: not, what will an individual buy but, rather, what do we as educators believe should be available -- often for free to the reader -- in school and public libraries? Of course publishers do care about the institutional market broadly, and the reviews and awards that come from ALA and other organizations oriented towards institutions. But the back-list, slow, review-driven sales to libraries can only make up so much of a publisher's list. In turn, of course there is a retail market for books by/about under-represented groups -- and it would be very useful to find an analysis of its buying patterns. Might a marketing person who worked at, say, Jump at the Sun, or Amistad, or Lee and Low be able to share any non-confidential information about, say, what drives sales -- author, illustrator, subject, genre; what are reasonable ranges of expected front-list (first season); 2-year, backlist sales?
And, finally, as I have brought up many times, how does the extreme gender gap in the community of K-12 authors, editors, publishers, reviewers, librarians, teachers figure into who writes books? Which books are published?
In other words, next time, can we begin from more refined numbers so that we can ask targeted questions, and map out the distinct areas of concern that are retail and institutional; mass market and trade; fiction and nonfiction.
Marc Aronson
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 11:34:35 -0500 (EST)
As the passionate discussions prompted by the CCBC diversity in publishing numbers come to an end, I went back to KT's original post with the link to the current numbers. Looking at those stats, the PW sales numbers Norma Jean sent, and comments along the way, I suggest the following for the next time CCBC posts numbers:
1) breakdown by genre. That is, of the 3200 books they received, how many were for which age group (as defined by publisher); fiction versus (non-Dewey) nonfiction; series versus individual author; popular culture tie-in (as linked to current film, TV, etc even if focus of the book is some educational goal) v stand-alone.
2) cross-correlate diversity numbers to genre. That is, are we seeing non-dominant authors cluster in -- or absent from -- certain kinds of books?
3) cross-correlate genre to retail sales and -- if broadly available from wholesalers -- institutional sales.
4) add the category of gender what % of books are by men, women, in which categories?
Several commentators have pointed to a gap between population diversity and publishing. The point of further refinement is to examine more closely where are the gaps? In which subjects? In as much as we can tell, how do current trends in what is published match up with what people vote to buy by spending money?
There is an obvious need to bring family income into the picture. That is, America is becoming more diverse, yes. Are American book buyers? This cuts two ways -- how much disposable income do various kinds of Americans have available to use on buying books? And, how do Americans of various backgrounds and economic strata view their $ devoted to children's entertainment/education -- that is, books, vs. apps, games, movies, sports events, theme parks? B/c for example a family that has little extra money but spends that on, say, digital gaming, is most probably not buying based on either cultural authenticity or self-representation but on links to existing popular culture interests.
We may say that popular culture has great limitations, its does. But that gets to a crucial point: I suspect that part of what the CCBC and PW numbers show is the simple fact that overwhelmingly book publishers need to focus on retail sales to make their margins, while the concerns of the CCBC-net community are often those of the institutional market: not, what will an individual buy but, rather, what do we as educators believe should be available -- often for free to the reader -- in school and public libraries? Of course publishers do care about the institutional market broadly, and the reviews and awards that come from ALA and other organizations oriented towards institutions. But the back-list, slow, review-driven sales to libraries can only make up so much of a publisher's list. In turn, of course there is a retail market for books by/about under-represented groups -- and it would be very useful to find an analysis of its buying patterns. Might a marketing person who worked at, say, Jump at the Sun, or Amistad, or Lee and Low be able to share any non-confidential information about, say, what drives sales -- author, illustrator, subject, genre; what are reasonable ranges of expected front-list (first season); 2-year, backlist sales?
And, finally, as I have brought up many times, how does the extreme gender gap in the community of K-12 authors, editors, publishers, reviewers, librarians, teachers figure into who writes books? Which books are published?
In other words, next time, can we begin from more refined numbers so that we can ask targeted questions, and map out the distinct areas of concern that are retail and institutional; mass market and trade; fiction and nonfiction.
Marc Aronson
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Received on Fri 28 Feb 2014 10:35:03 AM CST
