From Publishers Weekly “A Bookselling Tail” from 2006 noting 2004 Bookscan data

• 80% of books sell fewer than 99 copies
• 96% of books sell fewer than 1,000 copies
• Average American book sells 500 copies

According to Editorial Ass in 2008

• Sell 7,000: “you’re a star.”
• Sell 4,000: “strong seller.”

From Association of American Publishers on publishers.org

• 2009 eBook annual sales up 177% overtaking audio books
• 2009 overall book sales down 1.8%

From Bowker

• 288,355 new traditional books in 2009
• 764,448 new non-traditional books in 2009, up 181%
• 45,181 new traditional fiction books in 2009, down from 53,058 in 2008

From New York Times citing Bowker 2009 data

• Hardcover: 35% of total sales
• Trade paperback: 35% of total sales
• Mass market paperback: 31% of total sales
• eBook: 2% of total sales
• All e-commerce sites at 20% total book sales

Nearly 300,000 new books each year is tough competition. 700,000 new books in a year is a great deal of noise. In “What’s Louder than Noise?” Kristine Kathryn Rusch claims that the great American novel is now an impossibility making the point that it is now harder than ever for even established authors to get noticed. Instead of searching for the new book that will sell millions of copies, publisher should promote a thousand authors that each sell a thousand. Writing fiction isn’t a good career choice. The majority of authors never make any money.

The fiction author must set good goals: writing for family and friends, sharing with their community, selling a 100 copies, marketing to a specific niche, or simply getting a story out there. Write for love. Write for the skill. Write for the pursuit of knowledge. Write for your mom.

The love that goes into the telling makes a story worth reading.

Why do I write? I write for Torre.

[Update: The Digital Reader post claims Amazon Kindle book sales pass hardcover and the numbers imply 2009 sold Kindle books at 50% of hardcover sales. According to this TBIResearch post, Amazon controls 90% ebook market. Given Amazon sales are less than 20% of market, this claim makes sense since.]