Canelo / Arts Council England

Canelo / Arts Council England | 

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Literature in the 21st Century: Understanding Models of Support for Literary Fiction

Appendices 

I – Limitations to the data 

Much of the data in this report comes from Nielsen BookScan. While 

this represents the vast majority of the book market and covers 6,500 

retail outlets including the major book chains, Amazon, the supermarkets 

and most independents, it does not capture the entire market. Figures 

for the ebook market are less comprehensive still. On both counts 

Nielsen BookScan is the most comprehensive available and is the 

industry wide standard for reporting sales. It is also worth underlining 

that the bulk of the research was conducted between January and 

March 2016 when data was only available up to 2015 and so does not 

take into account changes that may have happened since then. 

Most of the respondents to the survey were writers (55%), a self-

selecting group with a possible agenda. Comparatively the number of 

people from the publishing industry itself was relatively small (13%). 

This could be because publishers feel they have less of an immediate 

stake or it could simply be that the report didn’t reach them. However 

given prominent exposure on The Bookseller website, the main trade 

journal, this is unlikely. Instead, for whatever reason, publishers were 

comparatively disinclined to answer the questionnaire in comparison 

to authors. Finally, a significant number of respondents did not specify 

their role (27%). As stated in the methodology, however, the goal of 

the survey was intended as a scientific, rather as a way of capturing 

different views and sentiments we otherwise would not reach.