Some moderately interesting statistics are thrown up by The Book Sales Yearbook 2001 (Bookseller Publications, £299). For example: the top five consolidated publishing groups - Bertelsmann, Pearson, News Corp, W.H. Smith and Holtzbrinck - were responsible for a whopping 49.3 per cent of sales in the General Retail Market in 2000; grim news for independents (News Corp's figures include those of Fourth Estate, swallowed by HarperCollins last July), though in these uncertain times maybe it's heartening to learn that the giants control less than half the market.

LRB 22 March 2001 | PDF Download