Number of booksales from Bukowski (1 Viewer)

Petey

RIP
I know it`s a tough question but does anybody know how many books were
sold worldwide ?
In the German-speaking part ( including Germany, Austria and Switzerland)
he sold estimated 4 - 5 million pieces.
I found one example as a proof for this high number in my book shelf - it is
the german translation of Notes... dated Dec. 1982 and the editon says it is from 156 - 163 thousand.
But nobody except for Carl Weissner will know it for sure.
Bukowski was temporarity on the market from seven german publishers.

Any ideas from the US and other markets ?
 
Nobody ? Hey come on folks as mentioned before it's a tough one but there
must be any estimation !
Bukfan any ideas for the scandinavian area ?
Ponder any guess for the Benelux ?
hank solo for the U.K. and Ireland ?( i saw lots of Buk`s books in Dublin`s bookstores)
mjp any information from John Martin for the U.S. ?
 
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Only Martin (and Bukowski) would know those numbers. I'm sure Martin knows quite precisely for Black Sparrow, but foreign sales - who knows how accurate the statements were. Foreign royalties did exceed those from Black Sparrow at some point, but I doubt there will ever be a concrete number you can point to and say, "Bukowski sold xxxxxx books."

Whatever the number is, it's a lot for an independent literary press, but a drop in the bucket for modern commercial publishers. One Harry Potter book probably sells more copies in the first week of release than 40 years of Bukowski sales combined.
 
A first printing of a book in Denmark is usually 5-10.000 copies. Buk's first 5 novels was printed and a collection of short stories plus an anthology of poems. A few of the novels were later reprinted in cheaper formats. All together I would guess about 50-70.000 Buk books were printed.
Assuming Buk's popularity being the same in Sweden and Norway as in Denmark, we can figure the total sales for Scandinavia out by looking at the size of the populations in those three countries. There's about 5 mill. in Denmark. 4.5 mill. in Norway and almost 9 mill. in Sweden. That would be about 200-280.000 copies printed in Scandinavia. If we're optimistic let's say about 300.000 copies in total and probably not less than 200.000 as a minimum. It's hard to say because if Buk sold really well it could be as much as 400.000 copies. Personally, I would guess about 300.000 copies.
Then we also have Finland and Iceland to consider although they're not part of Scandinavia but they're part of the Nordic countries...
 
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Whatever the number is, it's a lot for an independent literary press, but a drop in the bucket for modern commercial publishers. One Harry Potter book probably sells more copies in the first week of release than 40 years of Bukowski sales combined.

Yeah, but Harry Potter will be vanished and forgotten in 40 years. Buk will be read forever.

(oh, btw - I don't know if Potter dies in his last novel, but as we know, Buk does. And in both cases it's the 7th novel (counting 'Shakespeare' as a novel). What a coincidence!)
 
Nobody ? Hey come on folks as mentioned before it's a tough one but there
must be any estimation !
Ponder any guess for the Benelux ?

I have no clue...

The only thing I know is that Buk is still popular in Holland. The last reissues of Post Office, Women and Factotum are printed in november, 2005.

Do they read in Luxumburg?
 
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