On Demand books showed a 132% increase over last year's numbers, while traditional publishing decreased by 3.2%.
"Our statistics for 2008 benchmark an historic development in the U.S. book publishing industry as we crossed a point last year in which On Demand and short-run books exceeded the number of traditional books entering the marketplace,"said Kelly Gallagher, vice president of publisher services for New Providence, N.J.-based Bowker.
According to Gallagher, the Bowker data reveals the top five categories for U.S. book production in 2008 were:
1. Fiction (47,541 new titles)
2. Juveniles (29,438)
3. Sociology/Economics (24,423)
4. Religion (16,847)
5. Science (13,555)
Read the full story on the What They Think website.
