Pulp Market Share, 1920

[ratmmjess]

Title Data: 31 pulps.

• Adventure: 1 pulp, 3.2%.
• Detective: 3 pulps, 9.7%.
• General: 12 pulps, 38.7%.
• Humor: 2 pulps, 6.45%.
• Romance: 3 pulps, 9.7%.
• Saucy: 10 pulps, 32.3%.
• Western: 1 pulp, 3.2%.

Issue Data: 478 total issues.

• Adventure: 24 issues, 5%.
• Detective: 76 issues, 15.9%.
• General: 206 issues, 43.1%.
• Humor: 24 issues, 5%.
• Romance: 34 issues, 7.1%.
• Saucy: 98 issues, 20.5%.
• Western: 28 issues, 5.9%.

Combined Data:

1. General: 38.7% of titles, 43.1% of issues.
2. Saucy: 32.3% of titles, 20.5% of issues.
3. Detective: 9.7% of titles, 15.9% of issues.
4. Romance: 9.7% of titles, 7.1% of issues.
5. Western: 3.2% of titles, 5.9% of issues.
6. Humor: 6.45% of titles, 5% of issues.
7. Adventure: 3.2% of titles, 5% of issues.

Conclusions: 1920 was very much a plateau year for the pulps. Only one more title published than in 1919, one less issue than in 1920, and--unusually--several otherwise dependable pulps had skip weeks or skip months, so Detective Story Magazine (ordinarily a weekly) only had two issues in February, and The Popular Magazine (ordinarily a monthly) only published two issues during March, April, and May. 1920 was a year of depression in the United States, caused largely the by usual post-war economic adjustments, and it's not surprising that the pulp industry was hit by this--a similar dynamic takes place after World War Two and after the Korean War.

So the industry as a whole is fortunate to hold steady. There was some contraction in 1919, with Railroad Man's Magazine being folded into Argosy, and in 1920 you have Green Book Magazine, a former slick with theater-oriented fiction, becoming a generalist pulp. (It didn't work, and Green Book was cancelled in 1921). Nobody follows up on the appearance of Western Story Magazine, which remains the only Western pulp, but it shifts to a weekly schedule in October, which is a sign of publisher confidence and market demand.

However, one genre had a better year than 1919: saucy pulps. 3 more titles than in 1919, 26 more issues, and a solid #2 market share. I don't think 1920 is the peak year for the saucy pulps, but the #2 share is likely the highest it'll ever be for the saucy pulps.