Market Population Statistics: New-Age/Mind, Body & Spirit/Metaphysical

banko45 · Jan 25, 2010

I am writing a new Query letter for a Non-Fiction book on Planetary Gemology and need to find the Population Statistics for the New-Age/Mind, Body & Spirit/Metaphysical Markets.
Google brings me to places like http://goliath.ecnext.com/, http://www.ined.fr/en/homepage_of_ined_website/, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html, http://search.worldbank.org/all?qterm=retail market, http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=Dashboard&id=44&pmenu_id=11, http://www.marketresearch.com/default.asp?partnerid=901625821, http://www.bizminer.com/marketing-research.asp?aid=78 and on...and on...and on...
...But I still haven't been able to find a Website that divides various market categories into Market populations: in terms of number of people, not sales figures.
Anyone out there in AbsoluteWrite have any suggestions, please?

underthecity · Jan 25, 2010

That's a tough one, and you probably won't find a single, written source that gives those numbers.

My advice: call at least ten, maybe twenty bookstores. Talk to the people who stock the New Age section, or talk to the manager. See if you can get a rough idea of the percentage of books that sell from that section. They might have figures they can share, or they might be able to give you a rough idea.

Then, from those results, do a statistical analysis you can present in your proposal: "From the twenty bookstores surveyed, five percent of their customers bought New Age titles." Or something like that.

Just a thought.

veinglory · Jan 25, 2010

It is going to be an educated guess at best. IMHO the issue is not so much the market as the sales of comparable books and the existence or absence of competitive books. Your subject is very specific so it may be more a matter of showing that you will sell well in a niche market, rather than suggesting there is a large market.

banko45 · Jan 26, 2010

Thanks very much for your replies!
To Veinglory: Once I get the demographic statistics, the point of my Query is to show it is not such a "niche" market. Planetary Gemologists Association - www.p-g-a.org - had 5+ Million hits last year.
To UnderTheCity, I need to find verifiable statistics that PROVE this is not a "niche" market.
AbsoluteWrite: Please keep the thread open and see if anyone can find the link I'm looking for, while I keep working on it myself.
Many Thanks!

susangpyp · Jan 27, 2010

I know my doctor has a new age magazine in her office (Rockland County NY) and I was surprised at the circulation. Perhaps you could find a lot of the more well known ones (I'm not sure they're called magazines) and extrapolate from there.

banko45 · Jan 29, 2010

Thank you for your suggestion, Susangpip. But for this Query the data needs to be really verifiable, mentioning where the data originated. I'm still looking for the right Website. WWW.plunkettresearch.com and bizminer.com didn't have it: but Plunkett suggested www.MarketResearch.com. They just replied to me they don't have the data either. So I'm still searching.
Hopefully someone out there at AbsoluteWrite will already know what I'm looking for?

susangpyp · Jan 31, 2010

Like someone said above, I don't think there is a definitive source. You will have to cobble together statistics like magazine circulations and book sales or conferences etc. You will have to demonstrate the market because I doubt it's defined anywhere.

veinglory · Jan 31, 2010

Personally, I don't think it is plausible to say it is not a niche market. How many people off the street would even know what it was? Rather less than 1% I suspect? Just my 2c.

banko45 · Jan 31, 2010

Well, niche market or not, that's not really the issue. I'm certain, somewhere Online, the demographic statistics are out there, so I'm still looking and will greatly appreciate it if someone on AbsoluteWrite can find the info before I do.
And if I find it first, I'll definitely tell you in this thread.
Thanks,

underthecity · Jan 31, 2010

Uh, yeah. I really hate to tell you this, but you shouldn't count on anyone else to do your research for you. All we can do is offer suggestions.

banko45 · Jan 31, 2010

Thank you for your suggestions.
In fact, I am not trying to have someone else to do the research. I've already been researching it myself for 10+ days. But was hoping someone there at AbsoluteWrite would have some better luck than me.
I've already found one link that gives some of the stats, but I'm still looking for Metaphysical. If you or anyone else out there are interested in the statistics, please take a look at http://www.bookmarket.com/statistics.html.
That gives good data on New-Age. But again, I'm still looking for some sort of demographic rundown that will cover Metaphysical and Body, Mind & Spirit as well.

Market Population Statistics: New-Age/Mind, Body & Spirit/Metaphysical

banko45

underthecity

Finestkind

veinglory

volitare nequeo

banko45

susangpyp

banko45

susangpyp

veinglory

volitare nequeo

banko45

underthecity

Finestkind

banko45