The Future is Non-Traditional
By Jerry D. Simmons | April 11th, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Look at that title and you wouldn’t know someone was writing about books and publishing but the future for selling books that are Independently Published is through the Internet.
Most Independent Authors fight for space in the traditional marketplace: bookstores, mass merchants, anywhere that titles from major publishers are displayed. In my opinion, that is the wrong place to spend your time and money. The big six dominate that market, representing a combined 80-85% of the shelf space and possibly as high as 90% of the total sales. The price of entry is too high and your chances of selling enough books to pay for the marketing and placement allowances are remote. Besides, the big retailers are never going to allow a continual presence in their stores.
That is not meant to dash all hope but let’s be honest, it’s extremely difficult for major publishers to sell all of their titles. What chance does an Independent Author have of making a real dent and sell enough to warrant continuous shelf space and sizeable reorders? Not impossible but not probable either. I want each of you to be successful. Your future is sales to the specialty market and through the Internet. I believe there are tremendous possibilities in those areas and not fighting and scratching for inches inside a traditional bookstore.
The big six have not figured out how to utilize the Internet to their advantage, but when they do, they will monopolize your opportunities. Beat them to it, do some research and find pockets of readers who want your books. I’m certainly not the Internet expert but there are plenty of people who know how to do this. However, let me caution you, the same goes for Internet marketing as for traditional marketing, there are never any guarantees and do not pay for something you cannot confirm. The future for substantial sales of Independently Published books is not the local bookstore but the online bookstore.
This blog is unedited, please disregard mistakes in spelling and grammar.
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