The Publishing Business Is Not Dying

THE PUBLISHING BUSINESS IS NOT DYING There, I said it, and no, it isn’t simply wishful considering. The uncooked numbers are in, due to the Association of American Publishers, and I’m delighted to cross on the news that the publishing enterprise just isn't solely alive and well, however growing. Comparing March 2011 to March 2010, we see general growth of about 15%, up from $356,200,000 value of books bought in March 2010 over all seven of the categories tracked to $407,200,000 in March 2011. That means in case your writer is crying poverty, it in all probability means they’re doing one thing wrong. It’s not the economy, stupid, it’s most likely an over-reliance on retail, and on printed books over e-books. Though with $69,000,000 worth of e-books sold in March of this 12 months, e-books remain a small part of the overall publishing enterprise, their progress can not me underestimated. In raw dollars, the e-e-book’s portion of the publishing business in March of this year is more than twice what it was in Ma rch of final 12 months. This tends to assist the assumptions of people, like me, who have predicted that e-books will double their market share yearly earlier than discovering a secure point at about eighty-ninety% of the general business. If the industry stays secure, we will anticipate that e-books will make about $one hundred forty,000,000 next March then $280,000,000 in March of 2013, and dominate the publishing enterprise as a whole by the tip of 2014. Honestly, I think this is as near a sure factor as you can get in this sort of business projection, and I’m banking a lot on it with my consulting practice, which helps artistic studios (mostly online game builders) establish their very own (primarily e-e-book pushed) publishing programs. Here’s how it looks, March-to-March, based on the Association of American Publishers, as reported on AuthorLink: So publishing isn't a dying enterprise, but there's a main change within the works on the format entrance, with declines in pape rbacks of $9.7 million more than made up for by a $40.9 million increase in e-guide gross sales, accounting for the lion’s share of the overall revenue progress of $51 million over the identical month final 12 months. This would indicate that e-books are bringing in new readers, not simply stealing readers from struggling trade paperbacks. And that’s received to be the best information of all. What does this mean to authors? Easy: maintain writing. There might be a publisher on your work, and there's an audience for your work, and that audience is spending cash on books. I’m a guide lover, a guide collector, and I actually have a particular affinity for the paper e-book, however as a professional author I am and all the time have been, strictly in enterprise terms, a content material supplier. From a mercenary standpoint I need my contentâ€"my storyâ€"offered in no matter format will get it to the most important audience. If that’s an e-e-book in whatever format, read on no matter device, convey it on. â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans Hey Phil, I’m in full agreement. Everything I’m seeing factors to the same issues. Writers who work and take likelihood is writers which might be going to find and build an viewers. And you have to do it by way of good stories, not simply Facebook. Mel