Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2004 13:21:16 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Sales figures, was: Re: Re: Future Washington Anthology
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

>wsl1 at erols.com 04/03/04 09:45AM
>----- Original Message -----
>>From: Michael Walsh <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
>>To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
>Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 3:29 PM
>Subject: [WSFA] Re: Future Washington Anthology
>> Speaking of such, I am amused to note that Jayson Blair's book (he, the
>> disgraced NY Times scribe who recieved a 7 figure advance for the =
book),
>> well the book in it's first week of publication has sold . . . 1386 =
copies
>> out the quarter million printrun.
>
>Only 1386 copies?? Is that a record?
>
>I wonder how many of those were bought by public libraries.
>

At the current rate of "sales" it will almost certainly be one of the =
highest profile flops in recent years.

The library buisness is difficult to gauge -  some may have bought =
directly from the publisher or through various wholesalers.  I do have =
access to the Ingram and Baker &Taylor databases.

Without going into deep detail of numbers . . .

Ingram bought 6600 copies and shows _currently_  1330 copies sold.  And no =
copies more copies order.

Baker & Taylor, OTOH, has 2500 additional copies on order.  Their online =
database shows different information.  No sales, but "demand" so far of =
1022 copies.  Demand is a record of each time the isbn of a book is keyed =
in, from "do you have?" to "let me get 2".  1022 is not a great number =
considering all of the publicity the book has received..  That said, B&T =
is the primary library jobber in the US.

Other factor is that the 1386 number is the week or so of SALES as =
recorded by Bookscan, which covers an estimated 70% of the RETAIL book =
outlets.

In comparison, Richard Clarke's book "Against All Enemies: Inside =
America's War on Terror" (picked because it is the other book that is =
getting lots of media play) . . .

Ingram has sold 35,570 copies, and with the exception of 20 copies in =
their Oregon warehouse, curreny sold out with 16,020 on order.

Baker & Taylor has none on hand ("Available for backorder") with 64,056 =
copies on re-order and a "demand" of 324,418.

And to give you an idea as to wacky the world of publishing is . . . =
Ingram also notes that they've returned 680 copies as "overstock".  Now =
you may very well say, is that not a wacky way to run a business, to =
return merchandise that's a bestseller.

Well . . .yes, it is.  But the way Ingram handles returns is that they do =
not compare orders on hand and returns - returns are a separate part of =
the warehouse.  Yes folks, they'll return books and order the exact same =
books at the same time.

So, why go to Atlantic City or Las Vegas to gamble ?  Become a publisher!

mjw