Does The Book Industry Really Know How Many Books Are Published?

 

There may have been a record number of books published in 2025 -- or not. No one seems to know.  

According to statistics compiled by Bowker, and reported by Publishers Weekly, a flood of books were published last year. However, it is unclear if the number of unique titles has risen -- and if so — by how much.  

Why, in this era of data, do we not know?  

A common practice in the industry is to report how many books were published with an ISBN. An ISBN is like a Social Security number for books. If a book is published as a hardcover, trade paperback, e-book, and an audiobook, that counts as four books even though it is just one title. Soooooo, when we hear the number of ISBNs assigned to self-published books rose by almost 40 percent in one year -- to 3.529 million books in 2025 — we need to pause and evaluate what is really going on here.  

There is no way that the number of unique, author-generated titles has risen by 40 percent in one year. Yes, writing a book is a popular thing these days, and yes, the numbers have been trending up for many years, but no, for all of the books generated in 2024 we did not create 40 percent more of them in 2025.  

We definitely created a lot of books in numerous formats,  and maybe we added some additional unique titles above last year's numbers. But it is hard to say.  

Almost every book now is issued in dual e-book and paperback formats. So, if we hear 3,539,000 self-published books happened in 2025, divide that in half, to 1,769,000. Then, we need to account that many are in the audio format as well, as it is becoming very popular to put a book into audio. And some have hardcover versions as well. It is likely that no more than 1.5 million unique titles were self-published last year. Still a ton, but I could not tell you if the number is going up or down. 

Traditionally published books rose from 602,000 to 642,00 -- or almost 7%. Again, how does that break down by format with double- or triple- or quadruple-dipping per title?  

Combined, we are at 4.17 million “new books” published last year, but for the reasons stated here, it is likely far below two million actual unique titles. Using that number, there are something like 550 unique books published every single day - 23 per hour or one every 2.6 seconds. 

Another issue impacting the huge amounts of published content might be the proliferation of AI.  

Is the new technology making it easier to publish content not crafted in part or whole by a human? Uh, yeah! 

As a ratio of books published, the self-publishing industry output is beyond a 5:1 ratio to what is produced by traditional publishers. But the revenue from regular publishers likely far exceeds what is compiled by self-published books. Almost 80 percent of all of the best-seller lists from the NY Times are occupied by traditionally published books. 

So, however things are counted, the book industry is definitely producing a lot of books in many formats, and we definitely lack a way of knowing how many unique books are published in one year. 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 5,950,000 page views. With 5,600+ posts over the past 14 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs  by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum