- On their Dec 2021 blog cbeditions reported "As usual, getting the books into bookshops has been head-against-brick-wall. Roy Watkins’ Simple Annals was called ‘a masterpiece’ in the Literary Review and ‘an astonishing achievement’ in the TLS; on Leila Berg’s Flickerbook in the TLS, ‘Reading it is a joy; brutally honest depictions of childhood liberate the child within … This reissue is wholly welcome.’ Sales into bookshops: around 50 copies of each."
- In Becky Tuch's 2024 interview with Wayne Miller, Editor of Copper Nickel, it says that "They receive about 3,000 stories per year and publish about 12; receive about 15,000 poems and publish 50-60; receive about 700 essays and publish 4; receive about 100 translations and publish 6-8". Copper Nickel isn't an especially famous magazine (though it's 11th in a recent list of poetry magazines). The acceptance rate (1 in about 300 for poetry and stories) deters me from trying, and makes me wonder how they manage to find the best work.
- According to Nielsen, the top selling poetry book in the UK this year was "Wild Hope" by Donna Ashworth. She's an Instagram poet, selling a mere 33,472 copies. Homer was 14th, 15th, 18th and 20th. The Neilsen figures don't cover all sales. Depressing all the same.
Saturday, 28 December 2024
Depressing statistics
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My story collection "By All Means" (ISBN 978-0-9570984-9-7), published by Nine Arches Press, is on sale from 
My poetry pamphlet "Moving Parts" (ISBN 978-1-905939-59-6) is out now, on sale at the 
Sales of printed books are universally depressing, but then in contrast readership of e-books and blogs (certainly Substack) is thriving. The way forward is a blend of formats I think and in some ways that is good
ReplyDeleteWhen I tell my novel-writing friends about UK poetry book sales, they're surprised/amused, but then I tell them about TikTok poetry stats. I've moved from X to bluesky and started to move from blogger to substack (which I agree looks like the way things are going). I still like being in print though, and I'm too old to grow out of that.
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