How well is a particular textbook selling?
November 17, 2019 5:25 PM Subscribe
How can I find out how many copies of a specific textbook have been sold? What is its adoption rate? Or what rank, or share of the market, does a particular book occupy?
I'm looking to compare sales of a number of different science textbooks, specifically in the higher education (i.e. college & university) market, at either the US/North American or global level (not at the state level or within individual schools).
Presumably individual publishers keep their own detailed sales figures fairly secret. But are there any publicly accessible numbers? Are there any associations or services that track and report this information? I'd be willing to pay a small amount to access this kind of info, but I'm just me, not a corporation that can afford to fork over thousands of dollars.
Just to be clear, I'm not looking for larger market trends (ex. ebook sales vs. printed books) or overall annual sales for publishers, but rather the ability to look up sales data for specific titles.
My weak google-fu has failed me so far...
I'm looking to compare sales of a number of different science textbooks, specifically in the higher education (i.e. college & university) market, at either the US/North American or global level (not at the state level or within individual schools).
Presumably individual publishers keep their own detailed sales figures fairly secret. But are there any publicly accessible numbers? Are there any associations or services that track and report this information? I'd be willing to pay a small amount to access this kind of info, but I'm just me, not a corporation that can afford to fork over thousands of dollars.
Just to be clear, I'm not looking for larger market trends (ex. ebook sales vs. printed books) or overall annual sales for publishers, but rather the ability to look up sales data for specific titles.
My weak google-fu has failed me so far...
Best answer: The Open Syllabus Project lets you search by title.
posted by unknowncommand at 6:34 PM on November 17, 2019
posted by unknowncommand at 6:34 PM on November 17, 2019
You are seeking proprietary information. You may be surprised how difficult it will be to find any of this out. It’s an insanely profitable business that has reasons to hide.
posted by spitbull at 6:36 PM on November 17, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by spitbull at 6:36 PM on November 17, 2019 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Unfortunately, this information isn't something you'll be able to find out. My job is in the academic publishing industry and my team regularly works with sales and usage data - but we can only get the sales and usage from our platform. If there were any way to get the total sales data, we'd be all over it, because it would make our lives a lot easier.
It all gets further complicated by different editions, ebook sales, inclusion in subscription products (where the institution gets access to titles without having to purchase them, and they can be used in classes without "sales"), etc.
I would second unknowncommand's suggestion of using the Open Syllabus Project to look at how often the books are assigned as a marker of popularity. Amazon also ranks sales on their platform, but that works much, much better with trade than anything related to the academic market, and is pretty garbage for textbooks.
posted by odd ghost at 3:37 AM on November 18, 2019 [3 favorites]
It all gets further complicated by different editions, ebook sales, inclusion in subscription products (where the institution gets access to titles without having to purchase them, and they can be used in classes without "sales"), etc.
I would second unknowncommand's suggestion of using the Open Syllabus Project to look at how often the books are assigned as a marker of popularity. Amazon also ranks sales on their platform, but that works much, much better with trade than anything related to the academic market, and is pretty garbage for textbooks.
posted by odd ghost at 3:37 AM on November 18, 2019 [3 favorites]
If you a have a contact in the book trade, they may be able to look at stocking levels at warehouses of their distributor(s). Those data points over time will give you a sense of how that distributor is responding to demand they are positioned to satisfy. Incomplete, but not nothing.
posted by Glomar response at 4:17 AM on November 18, 2019
posted by Glomar response at 4:17 AM on November 18, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
It's what our university does to get stats on how popular books written by our researchers are, when citation numbers are not likely to tell the full story.
posted by lollusc at 6:22 PM on November 17, 2019 [2 favorites]