The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 19, May 5, 2002, Article 4

NUMISMATIC PRINT RUNS -- PART  II

  Dick Johnson writes: "Your item in last week's E-Sylum
  was timely. My publisher and I are agonizing over this very
  subject. What print run for my book, "American Artists of
  Coins and Medals"?

  Attached is page 7 from my proposal that I prepared for
  my publisher, Peter Falk, to take with him to Lyons, France,
  to meet with his parent company, artprice.com.  They will
  make the decision this week when to publish and how many
  copies to print. Since they are savvy with international sales,
  library sales, bookstore sales, I had to furnish only the
  estimate for the numismatic field. Here is what I wrote:

  How Big a Numismatic Market For This Book?

  3,000.000 -- Coin savers. The U.S. Mint uses this number
            of U.S. citizens who save coins out of change.

 500,000 -- Size of U.S. Mint mailing list (estimated); to which
            they sell coin and medal products.

 153,200 -- Unduplicated number of collectors who subscribe
            to the four largest numismatic publications.

  88,100 -- Subscribers to Coin World, largest coin publication
             in America. Author was founding editor of this weekly.

  27,800 -- Membership in American Numismatic Association,
            largest numismatic collector organization.

   5,000 -- Estimated number of serious numismatists in America,
            the core segment of numismatics.

   2,500 -- One numismatic book dealer's estimate of total
            different customers he has sold books on internet; his
            eBay rating is 1,600.

   1,250 -- Unduplicated number of book buyers of four largest
            book auction houses (estimate).

     468 -- Subscribers to Numismatic Bibliomania Society
            electronic newsletter of book buyers.

  The number of American coin and medal collectors -- while
  down from previous high numbers in the 1980s -- is still quite
  large. The new Statehood Quarter program of U.S. Mint has
  begun to increase the number of collectors again.

  As collectors develop more sophistication in the field they
  tend to move into new categories (not in above list). They
  join specialized organizations, recognizing the need to learn
  more in the new specialties, they find this in the literature by
  adding new books to their library.

  Reference books are the most purchased according to one
  numismatic book dealer: "buyers today want a book to use
  and read and refer to again and again in their specific interest."

  Note:  That last quote was from Charlie Davis, whose
  statement summed up the American numismatic book market
  more succinctly than I could.  Thanks Charlie!

  I felt the readers of this Newsletter are so important that I
  included the exact up-to-the-minute number in this proposal.
  You're counted!

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

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