PUBLISHING Numbers look pretty good for country's book keepers

Sales of best sellers have grown more than 1,000 percent in the last quarter century.
By J. PEDER ZANE
RALEIGH NEWS & amp; OBSERVER
Bean counters, numbers crunchers, the green eyeshade brigade -- these devotees of the almighty dollar have seized control of the publishing industry during the last quarter-century, making the art of the bottom line the literary world's guiding aesthetic.
Funny thing is, their reign has been marked by the kind of explosive growth in America's book culture that their tweedy forebears only could have imagined after their third martini at the Four Seasons. Go figure.
This surprising news is detailed in a new report, "Best and Worst of Times: The Changing Business of Trade Books, 1975-2002," which journalist Gayle Feldman prepared as a fellow at Columbia University's National Arts Journalism Program. Among her findings:
UThe number of new books published annually in the United States increased about 300 percent between 1975 and 2000, from 39,000 to 122,000.
USales of best-selling books during the last quarter-century have grown more than 1,000 percent: The leading title in 1975, "Ragtime" by E.L. Doctorow, sold 230,000 copies; in 2000, "The Brethren" by John Grisham topped out at 2.8 million copies.
UName-brand writers such as Grisham, Danielle Steel and Stephen King have been the greatest beneficiaries of these increased sales, but literary authors such as Jonathan Franzen ("The Corrections" sold 720,000 copies in 2001) are sharing in this bonanza.
UWorks of fiction that earn some of literature's highest honors, the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize or selection as a New York Times "editor choice," were far more likely to appear on Publishers Weekly's best-seller lists during 2000 than they were in 1975.
Publishing boom
The publishing boom Feldman reports is a welcome rejoinder to the doom-and-gloom mentality that informs so much discussion of American culture: More people are buying better books than ever before - they're also purchasing more books of questionable merit, but hey.
The driving dynamic behind this surge is the rise of a better educated, more literate public that seeks to balance its swelling consumption of trash culture with bigger doses of high art (think of books as Metamucil for the soul). Ironically, it is the commercial forces that so many bibliophiles bemoan that have enabled publishers to exploit this literary desire.
Like it or not, we live in a mass culture; books are one of many options people have to fill their leisure time. To thrive in this environment, books must compete on a level playing field against other highly promoted activities such as television, movies, sporting events, etc.
Consolidation
Thus, the consolidation of publishing -- five major houses published 84 percent of the best sellers in 2000 -- was necessary for books to have the financial muscle to gain attention in a crowded and expensive marketplace. Similarly, for all their drawbacks, the rise of chain stores such as Barnes & amp; Noble and Internet retailers such as Amazon.com have afforded books a large-scale presence far beyond the capacities of the independent, and indispensable, local bookshops. Size matters in modern America.
Where books once rose or fell on their own steam, aided perhaps by a small ad in The New York Times, they are now propelled by sophisticated multimedia advertising programs concocted by the marketing whizzes who calls the shots at the major houses. Writers are coiffed and sheened, their pearly whites scrubbed to blinding perfection so they can dazzle Matt and Katie. This year, for example, aggressive publishers generated huge sales for an array of first novels, including "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold and "The Dive From Clausen's Pier" by Ann Packer. Cynics might charge that publishers have become as adept at manipulation as their brethren in the detergent business. But, as always, the consumer is the final power broker: Folks are no more likely to purchase books they don't enjoy than they are to purchase soap that doesn't get their whites white.
However, Feldman also reports that most writers aren't on easy street.
Lack of promotions
Her most astounding finding may be that the vast majority receive almost no promotion. Even the biggest publishers engage in massive triage, anointing a handful of titles for mega-support and ignoring the rest.
Earlier this year two authors told me that their New York publishers not only failed to promote their books but discouraged them from arranging their own publicity. As a book editor I am constantly amazed at how little effort publicists expend to bring even works of strong local interest to my attention.
Feldman also notes that the major houses are no longer interested in publishing "books with a limited potential readership (5,000 copies and under)." Their authors are increasingly turning to university and other small presses with little marketing clout. Renowned Farrar, Straus & amp; Giroux editor Elizabeth Sifton told her, "By the 1990s it was clear that editors were valued for the deals they could do, not for work well done or talent nurtured." That is not happy news, but it is mitigated by two factors. First, despite their concentrated marketing strategies, publishers continue to print boatloads of books. Second, there is no evidence that small books are experiencing declining sales. Authors destined to sell only 5,000 to 15,000 copies may be better served by university and boutique presses, which lack promotional power but will answer their calls.
Readers can take heart from Feldman's report. Good books have a firm footing in America's mass entertainment culture -- though a network television show that draws the same size audience as a mega-selling book is taken off the air quicker than you can say. ... Aggressive marketing has made it far easier to learn about the books "everyone is talking about it." But many good books are off the radar. Nowadays, savvy readers must think like good detectives, who always consider the usual suspects but never fail to develop less obvious clues that can lead them to their desired quarry.