The Bookseller.com

4th July 2009

UK book output falls slightly

02.06.08 Jo Young

The number of new books published in the UK in 2007 fell slightly compared to 2006, though the number of publishers entering the market continued to rise, according to the latest figures from Nielsen Book. In figures released today (2nd June), Nielsen Book said that there were 115,420 books published during 2007, a slight reduction on the 115,522 publications recorded in 2006, but still up on the 2005 figure of 110,925 books.

Meanwhile the number of new publishers – which Nielsen Book recognises as those registering for their first ISBN prefix – continues to rise year-on-year. In 2006, there were 2,801 publishers registered in the UK, up slightly from 2,739 in 2005. This figure increased again to 3,158 publishers actively in business by the end of 2007.

Nielsen's figures follow a largely similar trend to those released last month in the US by Bowker. Based on preliminary numbers, Bowker said that it expected the number of new US books published to increase to increase only slightly to 276,649 titles and editions in 2007, up from the 274,416 published in 2006. But it also reported a "staggering rise" in the publication of print-on-demand (p.o.d.) titles. Nielsen does not break-out p.o.d. titles.

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