Bookcrossing Statistics

After reading some discussions recently on the Bookcrossing forums about the numbers of books which are journalled I decided to look at my own statistics.  Obviously there were any number of things which I should have been doing instead but there you go.

Bookcrossers normally categorise their book releases as 'controlled' - when the book is given to a specific person - or 'wild' - when the book is left in a public place for anybody to pick up.  Personally I tend to think about my releases slightly differently.  I have always felt that leaving a book at an Official Book Crossing Zone (OBCZ) is less wild than leaving it anywhere else.  I also decided to distinguish books which I have taken to bookcrossing meets.  Obviously I tend to see who takes these books away but when I set off for the meet I have no idea who, if anyone, is going to take them so they aren't quite the same as most controlled releases.

There are various estimates for the percentage of released books which are journalled, often these estimates range from 10% to 20%.  I have no idea what research, if any at all, these estimates are based on.

Based on 109 books that I have released since getting involved with bookcrossing in 2008 I have 37% rate of journal entries.  This is quite a bit higher than is considered normal.

66 of my releases have been in OBCZ's and 26% of these have been journalled.  This is only slightly higher than normal .

Of my 18 truly wild releases only 2 have been journalled. This represents 11% which is within the range normally expected.

My statistics are skewed by the 69% journal rate on my 13 controlled releases and the 100% journal rate on the 12 books which have been taken away from meetings.

On the bookcrossing forums it is not unusual to hear of books being journalled years after being released.  The journal entries on my books have sometimes been made on the day they were released, usually for books taken from meets, up to 258 days after the release date.