It’s So Mysterious …
I have to admit: it’s my favorite genre. In fact, I’d rather be curled up with a good mystery — preferably an English country-house murder, a la Dorothy Sayers — than do just about anything else.
And at a time when publishers are constantly shrinking their lists and new books remain on bookshop shelves for a mere 15 days before being returned, it’s heartening for me to know that I belong to a tribe whose appetite for mysteries is as insatiable as my own. There’s a thriving market for mystery and detective novels, which hopefully means that they will always be around for people like me to read.
According to Bowker’s Books In Print database, 5,580 new mystery and detective titles and editions were published in the U.S. in 2006. That’s a nine percent increase over 2005 and a 33% increase over 2002. The peak year for the category was 2004, when 5,715 new titles and editions were published.
How does that divide out amongst the various sub-genres that exist within the categry? Of 2006’s 5,580 new mystery and detective titles published …
- … 22% were mass market editions
- … 23% were hardcovers
- … 44% were trade paper editions
- … 13% were published for children and young adults
- … 37% were reviewed in at least one source monitored by Bowker
- … 7% appeared on at least one bestseller list monitored by Bowker
We have to see that as good news, both as readers and as writers. And it’s certainly a bunch of statistics … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in Books, Publishing, Publishers, Fiction, Reading on October 27th, 2007