What Were We Buying? Non-Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction Sales Patterns in Australia in the 2000s (2012)

IntroductionOver the last decade interest in the use of quantitative methodologies has grown, particularly amongst book history scholars, with the Resourceful Reading symposium at the University Sydney in 2008, convened by Katherine Bode and Robert Dixon, providing a significant milestone for codifying the interests in and concerns about the 'new empiricism'. Interest has also been spurred by investment in digital archives such as AustLit and the development of software programs and archives by individual scholars, which has enabled investigation of the interests of 'everyday readers' and the reassessment of Australian publishing histories.The early 2000s also saw the introduction of a new source of commercial quantitative data. Nielsen BookScan (NB) collected book sales data from a range of book sales outlets and then weighted the findings to produce national sales figures. Its introduction was controversial for literary scholars and Australian authors, however it also provided a new source of information about Australian book buying. Within this context, two streams of discussion took place which are of interest to this essay. First, some scholars and authors expressed concern about the reduced opportunities for publishing literary fiction and non-fiction in the market-driven environment, and second, there was speculation about whether Australian book readers were turning in large numbers from fiction to non-fiction genres. Many of the bases for these latter claims were anecdotal and difficult to substantiate, and this essay treats them merely as a starting point for its investigation of narrative non-fiction sales trends.This essay addresses both streams of commentary by examining NB non-fiction sales data from 2003-2008, and more specifically, narrative non-fiction patterns. The essay consists of four parts. First, some background about scholarly interest in the use of quantitative methodologies is provided and Nielsen BookScan is introduced as the empirical source of data for this study. The second part examines non-fiction sales trends to gain a broad overview of Australian non-fiction sales patterns. Third, the use of 'narrative non-fiction' in this research is explained. Finally, after further analysis of the NB data, the fourth section sets out narrative non-fiction sales patterns. These findings provide a rare snapshot of Australian book-buying patterns after the introduction of NB in 2001 (before the datasets were revised in 2002) and before the widespread popularity of online retail sites in the late 2000s and, more recently, ebook sales.1. Quantitative methodologies and the use of Nielsen BookScan dataWith the adoption by Australian book scholars of 'new literary empiricism', interest has grown in the insights to be gained from new quantitative methodologies. Library circulation records (Dolin, Lamond), Auslit data, (Ensor, Bode, 'Publishing'), and combined archival resources (Johnson-Woods) have presented new opportunities for data-mining and posed new challenges for contextualising the findings. Over the last decade scholars have reflected on the ways in which these methodologies fit with the interests of Australian literature as a discipline (Bode, Beyond) and on the need for reflexive approaches in their use (Picture, Ensor). Paul Eggert proposes 'keeping the empirical and the theoretical in continuous tension' (61) and Jason Ensor rightly argues that 'new empiricism's strength is also its primary weakness and ...it should not operate too long without the support of archival and qualitative research' (Still Waters 4). This essay can be regarded as an experimental, early attempt to garner insights from Nielsen BookScan commercial sales data about broad Australian sales patterns; equally, the limitations of the methodologies are also acknowledged throughout. Nielsen BookScan was established in Australia just over a decade ago and scholars are still experimenting with the potential use of this commercial data. …