TOP 30 BOOK MANUFACTURERS — CLIMBING THE STACKS

Tobin: We need to look at the full story: The article reported that new titles dropped by 18,000 in 2005, but it also reported that in 2004 the number of new titles increased by 19,000. 2004 was the biggest new-title output in history, and 2005 was the second biggest. A big part of the 2004 increase, we believe, was including a lot of the self-publishers and small niche publishers that are starting to be tracked. But the one trend that is important to be mindful of is publishers being more cautious about what titles they print in the first place and what titles they reprint. They feel they can take fewer chances with marginal titles, which is understandable.