Book sales: What that viral Substack post gets wrong.

Last week the article "No One Buys Books," by Ellie Griffin, went viral, topping Substack categories and being shared widely on social media. It's easy to understand why. Publishing is an opaque industry, and Griffin's piece-which collects quotes and statistics from the 2022 Justice Department suit against Penguin Random House, in which the government successfully blocked PRH's $2.2 billion purchase of Simon & Schuster-is filled with shocking claims. Over 90 percent of books sell fewer than 1,000 copies; 50 percent of books sell fewer than 12 copies. The article paints a nearly apocalyptic portrait of traditional publishing, in which nothing works, few make money, nobody reads, and the whole industry might go poof at any moment. This vision is appealing to many people, including writers who (fairly or unfairly) feel stymied by the industry, popularists who think reading itself is a snobby hobby, and tech types who mock "paywalled dead trees." The only problem is, the picture isn't true.