Several people have jokingly said to me, “Now that you’re a published novelist-don’t forget those that knew you when.”
Believe me, when you look at the statistics regarding first time novelists and how successful they might be, there is now way one would get a swelled head.
- According to Wikepedia, there are 304,912 books published every year. I don’t believe this counts self-published books.
- Based on 2007 statistics-43,000 fiction books are published each year and that does not include self-published novels.
- Bubble.com states that most authors sell less than 1,000 copies, with many selling much less.
- The NY Times reported a new fiction book is published in the US every 30 minutes.
- R.R. Bowker, a company who compiles a database on books published, reports 1 in 8 authors sell 5,000 copies .
- Harper Collins reports that 93% of authors sell fewer than 1,000 copies.
As you can tell the statistics are all over the place and none of them are encouraging for first time authors or authors period. So how can one be over confident. Few will become household names in the literary world.
By the same token, I reached my long time goal of being a published author. That has given me great satisfaction. I feel complemented that one of the directors at my publisher’s compared my novel to something that Nicholas Sparks or Nora Roberts would write. So, I’m in a happy place.
I have started a second book, non-fiction. It is on Alternative Healing-Tong Ren
Ron Penczak 