“People who buy books only buy an average of seven books a year, and a lot of those are for Christmas,” said Mr Roberts.
via BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Publishers set for Christmas rush.
I think what Mr Roberts actually means is that when you take into account readers who buy books by celebrity authors etc., the average yearly book buying figure is seven books a year (which probably means they buy one book each every three or four years!) However, the readers who really love books and help keep the industry afloat year in and year out buy far more than that on average (I’m a fairly slow reader by some people standards, but I still buy about sixty or seventy books a year.)
Yet again one has to ask oneself, Has the industry got the right set of priorities? Are these readers — those who buy one or two books, if that, at Christmas — a good long-term investment? Would they not be better pushing hitherto undiscovered authors (real authors who can actually write the books themselves!), building careers and long-term investments that will pay financially and culturally?
Good books are not, by and large, fashion trends. They endure. By all means, publish interesting celebrity biographies/autobiographies, but remember… we faithful readers are not only for Christmas. When your David Beckhams and the likes of Katie Price are long gone, we’ll still be here demanding quality fiction. Don’t overcommit to disposable products. Encourage innovation and freshness — literature, God dammit!
Trust me. It’ll be worth it, truly it will.
Gary William Murning Online 
I didn’t think it was possible to use “David Beckham” and “quality fiction” in the same sentence. You are a wordsmith, indeed! 🙂
I agree with you that we readers of “literature” are becoming scarcer every year — we need to band together and demand things that are well written!
It was purely accidental, I assure you!
You know, there was a time when publishers weren’t afraid to “build” a writer’s career. They saw talent and encouraged it, marketed it. That still happens today, of course, but not the way it once did. Editors used to be the driving force, now it’s the men with the calculators. Understandable, of course, but that still doesn’t mean we have to like it!
Let’s link arms and sing “We Shall Not Be Moved”! 🙂
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I’m an enthusiastic reader, who seldom selects from the best seller list since I find them disappointing–but I do demand to be entertained. Sometimes that comes in the form of literary works, but all too often not… I do a great deal of experimental reading–always seeking those voices that will draw me into a realm of vivid fantasy. What do I really want in a book? I want it all, good writing, exciting plot, authentic characters, a premise that makes me think… but I’ll settle for a good laugh or breathtaking suspense because there’s much more of that on offer.
Whether literary or genre, or somewhere in between, it’s all good to me, Evanne — as long as it does what it does well. That’s the important thing. So many bestsellers simply shouldn’t be. That’s what really gets up my nose 🙂
There appears to be great, and sadly not always deserved, momentum behind an author’s name once they’ve achieved that magic best seller class. That’s my only explanation for the sales ranking.
Sadly, I think it’s also true that some readers like to stick with what they know. A shame, really, because beyond the bestseller lists there is a far more exciting literary world.
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