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I have heard figures like 100,000 - 250,000 books are published every year, but this probably includes already established authors.

Are there any numbers for how many 1st time authors books are published every year (not including self publishing) ?

Edit: 1st time author means- 1st time ever published under any name, in any format( paper or ebook), self published or otherwise.

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    Probably pretty tough to figure out - especially because even "1st time author" might be poorly defined (experienced authors under new pseudonyms; authors who have written something other than novels previously; authors who have previously self published...)
    – Standback
    May 23, 2011 at 22:15
  • I wouldn't make a guess because I believe there are numerous authors that get published every year since 80% of the US population would want to write a book and get it published sometime in their life
    – user2385
    Jul 30, 2011 at 7:30
  • According to Bowker Info, there were over 300,000 titles published last year, but that does include previously published authors and would also include established authors who write under pen names in addition to their own names. Trying to determine how many of those titles came from new authors may be hard to do, but I'd be interested in hearing an approximate number if anyone can find a source. My thinking is that the larger publishing houses are much less likely to take a chance on a new author. They have a large business to run, and they need to sell a lot of books to do it. Unless you've
    – Steven Drennon
    Jul 30, 2011 at 13:08
  • @JjRoch , most people only think about writing books, but very few actually even finish the 1st draft. So the number maybe lower than you think.
    – Shantnu Tiwari
    Aug 15, 2011 at 15:18
  • I'm sure the number of people who at one time or another have said, "I'd like to write a book" is much larger than the number who actually put one sentence on paper, and that is much larger than the number who complete it. Just like the number of people who say "I'd like to learn to play the piano" or even "I'd like to lose weight" is much larger than the number who actually follow through. Etc.
    – Jay
    Aug 28, 2013 at 13:25

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I have not seen any statistics on how many new authors enter the market each year. The closest statistics I could find were from Bowker Info about how many books are published each year from 2002-2010. It breaks the information down by category.

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Warning: Sources links aren't English.

After some research, I have found this site which approximately said

In France [...] classical edition have its constraints and can publish only between 500 and 1 000 new authors per year.

It's not an official number, but it could make a good start point. In the same time, around 69 000 books are published each year in France (according to registration of copyright, here).

If we keep the same percentage, for 250 000 books published each year, between 1 800 and 3 600 are books from new authors.

I know they're is a lot of weaknesses in my calculation: the first number come from a marketing announcement and doesn't include self-publishing when the second one include them, so the true number is probably higher.

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I've seen this question asked on other sites and the answer is always, No one has any good statistics on that.

Some ballpark thinking:

As we do have reasonably reliable statistics that about 300,000 new titles are published each year, that's clearly the upper bound.

Assuming that most authors publish more than one book -- and clearly there are some out there who churn them out -- most of those 300,000 are probably not by new authors.

So the number of new authors each year is likely in the tens of thousands.

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This site has done some research into how many people are actually writing books seriously with a view to getting them published. The answer is a little under 1 million, with a turnaround averaging 3.5 years, meaning that is the period of time on average they stick at writing.

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    Can you please link specifically to the article in question? Also, please disclose your affiliation with the site in your answer.
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Aug 27, 2013 at 22:38

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