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Economist Joel Waldfogel looked at how women and men have influenced the publishing industry for the last 70 years and found that since 2020 at least, women have been publishing more books than men.
Data Waldfogel analyzed from “Goodreads, Bookstat, Amazon, and the National Library of Congress” revealed that the percentage of books published by women increased from 20% in the ’70s to more than 50% by 2020. This is the first time this has happened in the U.S.
With this increase in books published by women comes another increase: the Association of American Publishers has said that revenue for the publishing industry rose 12.3% in 2021, generating $29.3 billion.
Though this increase in books published by women may have dislodged a few male authors, Waldfogel notes, it has grown the industry overall, offering a diversity of voices that wasn’t available to readers before.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.