I’m following up on James Scott Bell’s excellent post, Advice to Traditionally Published Authors, by suggesting some additional reading about the current publishing landscape, for both traditional and independent writers.
Shutterstock photo purchased by TKZ
Traditional publishing sales are flat
Several major publishers are struggling with declining sales, according to a recent article in
Publisher’s Weekly:
The PW article attributed the declining sales to a lack of major bestsellers, and noted that publishers are under increasing pressure to find “big hits.”
Indie ebook writers overtake traditional authors on Amazon
The
PW article doesn’t address the continued growth of independent publishing as a factor in the flattening market for traditional publishers. That seems like an oversight, especially when one considers the following information from the
January 2015 Author Earnings Report:
“In mid-year 2014, indie-published authors as a cohort began taking home the lion’s share (40%) of all ebook author earnings generated on Amazon.com while authors published by all of the Big Five publishers combined slipped into second place at 35%.”
I think that eventually, traditional publishers will face reality and give writers better contract terms, as Jim described in his post on Sunday. But for now at least, they’re sticking to their guns, putting more emphasis than ever on finding bigger, bolder hits. I wonder how long that will work for them?
2015 Predictions
Well okay, we’re more than halfway through 2015, but Mark Coker’s predictions for this year are still worth reading:
Can you suggest any other articles about the publishing world to add to this reading list?
Here is a reader survey from bestselling author Marie Force: http://blog.marieforce.com/the-results-are-in-2015-reader-survey/
That’s interesting about the reader subscription service feedback, Nancy. I suspect they’re not a great deal for writers, at least right now. And as a reader, I’d rather buy the book in a way that gives more money to the writer.
Kathryn,
Thanks for the info and the links. Lots to think about for someone deciding which direction to go.
Just my two cents, but if I had a great manuscript and a publisher was interested in it, I’d tell the agent to push for better terms than are usually offered in publishers’ boilerplate contracts.
The may-2015-author-earnings-report/”> latest Author Earnings Report suggests that agency pricing has led to higher ebook prices and lower sales for Big Pub. The only upward trend lines are with indie-pubbed and Amazon-pubbed ebooks.
Thanks for that update, Jim. That’s what makes me think that publishers are eventually going to have to offer writers better contract terms. Otherwise, any writer with an established track record would likely consider going indie with a new book.
Yesterday SF author John Scalzi’s blog entry was on the sales for the hardcover life of his recent novel, Lock In http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/08/10/the-state-of-a-genre-title-2015/ It was interesting to see how the sales broke out. Although SF is a different genre than thrillers, readers here my find his post interesting. I was especially surprised at the audiobook sales. In the blog he expresses his opinion on digital only self-publishing. His opinion is different from what I have seen expressed here. His opinion is that anytime one shuts off a sales channel, one is potentially leaving a lot of money on the table. I think that’s a valid point.
Interesting reading, Cat–thanks for sharing it!
Thanks for the links, Kathryn. Interesting reading that must now be put into the mill.