Publishers Weekly recently published their breakdown of industry sales for 2014:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...s-of-2014.html
Quote:
Adult Fiction
Action/Adventure 2,619 2,239 -15%
Classics 7,817 7,578 -3%
Fantasy. 8,615 7,526 -13%
Graphic Novels 7,659 8,669 13%
Mystery/Detective 14,884 14,304 -4%
Occult/
Psychological/Horror 4,474 3,329 -26%
Religion 4,925 4,174 -15%
Romance 34,585 30,885 -11%
Science Fiction 4,448 4,142 -7%)
Suspense/Thrillers. 22,161. 20,111 -9%
Western 2,088 2,232 7%
General Fiction 36,314 33,524 -8%
Total Adult Fiction 150,590 138,712 -8%
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According to those numbers, SF&F have faced big declines in 2013 and 2014, leading to reports like this:
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2015/01/p...lling-sff.html
Quote:
...science fiction was also down 21% in 2013, which means that science fiction unit sales have declined 1,488,000 in just two years. It's down more than one-quarter in two years and is now only half the size of the Graphic Novel market...
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...and, in reaction, this:
http://madgeniusclub.com/2015/01/27/...ky-is-falling/
Quote:
It seems that those numbers come from Bookscan. You know, our friendly neighborhood sales reporter that doesn’t count every sale from every outlet but uses handwavium to figure out what title has sold how many units. Bookscan that doesn’t track every title, as in most indie titles aren’t included. Bookscan that is iffy at best when it comes to reporting e-book sales. But, if we are to take PW seriously, we are to worry about the decline in demand for science fiction.
Sorry, but no. If PW and those looking at the figures and wringing their hands would know if they simply took a little time to think about it, all these figures show is that people are tired of what is coming out of most traditional publishing houses when it comes to SF.
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In recent days the methodology of the various "official" sources of sales data has come under question because it relies on ISBN numbers and extrapolating from self-reported data from trsditional publishers, and only a handful of larger traditional publishers (in Bookscan's case) at that.
Still, the numbers are out there, are being debated, fingers are being pointed (at women, at politics, whatever) all the while, nobody is asking readers if they are reading less SF&F in favor of other genres or if they are merely expanding the sources from which they buy beyond traditional publishing houses.
We do know for a fact that SF (and romance) readers have been early and heavy adopters of ebooks and that the top sellers in the SF&F categories at Amazon are only sparsely populated with frontlist tradpub SF. Maybe the genre's "center of gravity" is shifting away from corporate publishing imprints, to sources that don't use ISBNs or pay to submit sales data to BOOKSCAN or are simply too small to be noticed by the "official" trackers.
Me, I'm inclined towards the latter: aside from the BAEN webscriptions, all my SF&Fantasy buys for the past 5 years (since the conspiracy, in fact) have been indie and micro-press.
On the other hand...?
Anybody have similar or contrasting stories?
Could the increase in availability of SF&F (and similar genre) content in TV and Movies be undercutting SF sales?
Other thoughts?
Maybe people aren't as interested in the genre's approach and ideas as much as earlier times?
Maybe SF *is* dying?