Book Publishing is a Business
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 13th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Any writer who doesn’t view their work as a business is making a huge mistake. Book publishing for the big New York companies is about generating revenue, occupying shelf space and selling copies. Unfortunately it’s not about “great writing.” If you wish to become a successful author and make a career as a writer, you must create good content that has an audience. It is in the best interest of all writers to view their work as a business. Book publishers are not in the business of taking care of writers, they are in the business of selling books—selling content.
Regardless of how you publish, your writing must be considered a product that is in search of an audience. Every decision you make, from basic marketing, publicity and promotion should center around the idea of creating an audience that is interested in reading your work. New York publishers market an inch deep and a mile wide. As an author you need to market yourself and your writing an inch wide and mile deep. The more you can distinguish your writing form every other author in your genre the better chance you have of becoming successful.
Book Publishing is Crowded
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 12th, 2010 | 2 Comments » (Click to add yours!)
With over 800 new titles being published every day in the US, the sheer volume of product is astounding. It is estimated that last year over 350,000 new books were published, each looking for a place in the market. If you estimate a growth factor of 10-15% in the number of books being published each year, that represents over 1 million new titles every three and a half years. The traditional bookseller marketplace cannot absorb all these books. So what should authors do?
First off, authors need to continue to write and produce new content, which is now and will always be king. The evolution of book publishing will reward writers who are prolific and can produce quality content that sells predictable numbers of copies regardless of the form of delivery. If writers can control the content they produce by securing rights and ownership, they will be rewarded handsomely in the future.
The old ways of publishing books are beginning to fade, the market is shifting and the consumer is changing the ways they want content. The long narrative will always be the standard but the delivery may not be print. Digital is the future but content will always be king. For the first time, many authors under contract are moving to self-publishing, however, to be successful they must do it right. Don’t follow the heavy advertising of these POD companies. You need to produce a quality product to be successful and profitable.
Independent Publishing is Now a Viable Option
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 11th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
The proliferation of the self-publishing industry augmented by print-on-demand technology is viewed with mixed signals. The stigma attached to these books as being of poor quality is the perception the market has of all titles produced by the large POD companies. This is but one of the problems associated with Independent books trying to find space in the traditional marketplace of bookselling. The biggest traditional New York based publishers have been successful at associating self-publishing with the complete and total lack of editorial control, true of the biggest in the market. This in turn used to result in all Independent books being perceived as not worth reading. Now that perception is changing.
The only way for Independent books to reverse this and gain full acceptance as well as sales in the traditional marketplace is to establish themselves as a viable entity. The first step is to make certain that the book you publish is as good editorially as possible. The second step is to publish independently under the banner of the new hybrid model. These companies have the perception in the market of a traditional publisher with direct sales and national distribution because they vet each and every manuscript they publish. The author maintains complete ownership and all rights to the content while gaining marketplace access never before available to the self-published author.
If you are searching for a better method of self-publishing, check out the INDI Publishing Group, link at the top right hand corner of the page. It’s the newest and best option for the self-published author.
Authors Must Take Control
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 7th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
There are two distinct and separate markets for selling books, the most commonly recognized is the traditional. This includes all the major bookstore chains, independent bookstores, retail booksellers of various kinds, big box retailers and all other outlets that sell books. The second market is everything else, often referred to as the “specialty” or “straight from the trunk of your car” market. Fortunately the online sellers bridge both markets. The six largest publishers in the world, control, dominate, and subsidize the traditional marketplace. All self-published, print-on-demand, and small publishers that utilize POD technology fight and scratch for placement, acceptance, and sales in the traditional market.
The only way the Independent author can find a place for themselves in the traditional market is to establish a niche outside of the “self-published” world. Perception in publishing is everything and if your book is immediately labeled “POD”, you have a tremendous mountain to climb without the hope of much success in the traditional market. It would be a tremendous help is the independent author could develop a community, create a united voice, and begin to stand on their own. This is what is meant by taking control and is the first step toward acceptance in the traditional market. Trying to find your way in the traditional market for book sales when you are labeled “POD” is fraught with numerous problems.
Booksellers Wield the Big Stick
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 6th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Large booksellers, online as well as brick and mortar, have always used their strength and dominance in the marketplace to force the biggest publishers into creative ways of making up for the lack of single copy sales. This “recommended” compliance means that if publishers don’t pay the price for placement then the retailers will seek other sources of funding, namely from smaller publishers. The rule of thumb in New York has always been if you lose the space you will never regain the position. In the past it has always been subtle requests for more advertising allowances, placement fees, money for newsletters or in store promotions, you name it and they seemed to always find a way to tap into the pockets of publishers.
This is the biggest reason why the marketplace is not now and never will be a level playing field for publishers outside the big six in New York. The same holds true for the independent bookstore and their competitive fight against the big box retailers. Even though it is illegal to offer larger discounts based on volume, it doesn’t eliminate the loopholes that all publishers use to get around this issue. When it comes to the market for book sales the best way to compete is to exploit the weakness of the major companies and utilize the strength of a combined independent bookselling community.
Pricing of eBooks
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 5th, 2010 | 2 Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Amazon’s pricing of the Kindle eBook downloads is a good example of how a bookseller is forcing publishers into an uncompromising position. It seems their strategy was to sell reading devices by losing money on each download. When the major publishers decided to sell eBooks to Amazon at the same price and discount as a hardcover, the company took a different approach. The loss per download was nothing more than the cost of doing business, all factored into the price of each Kindle sold.
Where the big publishers made their mistake was allowing Amazon to set the price of the eBook. They never figured the $9.99 price point would stick with consumers. Now the largest publishers may be forced to reset their cost structure to accommodate this price. The problem is that publishers don’t want to share a larger percentage of profits with authors and they use the low Kindle price as a crutch.
Big publishers have created this monster and now they have placed themselves in a position where the world’s largest online bookseller is establishing eBook prices. For those of us trying to gain traction with our own Independent books the relevance is that it gives all of us a clear opportunity. The more we can afford to under price the bigger guys, the better chance we have of selling units and creating an audience. Their dilemma is our opportunity.
