Writers Be Careful When You Self-Publish
Selling Books is Big Business
Books are being printed every single day. Bowker reported that the total book output for the United States in 2007 was 411,422 books. This does not include thousands of books that do not bother with obtaining an ISBN from Bowker. Many of that number of published books came from self-publishers and small publishers, whose collective sales in 2005 were over $14 billion dollars. Of all the books that come out, less than 20,000 books published every year make it into the chain bookstores. Millions of books are now sold online, through internet sales pages, or Amazon, or through specialized shops and outlets. Bargain books have become ordinary, with discounted books accounting for tens of millions of dollars.Some industry estimates of total books sales from all sources is around $30 billion dollars.Book sales for the year 2009 have fallen, though ebook sales are rising. Amazon’s Kindle sales has awakened other publishers to the potential for the e-book, as other large mega book sellers have rushed to manufacture their own ebook reader. It remains to be seen how large an impact ebooks will have on the industry. The internet has already impacted newspapers, and some argue conventional publishing will one day be a dinosaur.
Historical Romance Novels are Still Hot
As a sub-genre, historical romance novels have always done well. Sales revenue for those books keeps rising, as does the sales for romance novels as a broad genre. Mystery novels also continue to do well. Western fiction novels have not been giant earners over the decade. Interest in the western as a novel has diminished. Louis L’Amour was the leading light in the world of readers of westerns, and since his death there have been no writer on the western fiction scene to replace the author some call The Dean of Western Fiction.
Self-publishing is Big Business
Self publishing has become a phenomenon in this country. However, the stats tell a story, too. Most self-published books sell less than 100 copies. However, tens of thousands of these self-published books are printed annually. Thus, there are tens of thousands of boxes of unsold books sitting in thousands of garages around the nation.Any author wanting to self-publishing better do some homework. There are hundreds of companies out there eager to accept a writer’s hard-earned money, and will will go to great efforts in printing a book for that money. But, what is not revealed to most writers is that the author is the one primarily responsible for marketing their book. So, the author who self-publishes could easily become the largest purchaser for the book.
Interestingly, even if an author gets published in a traditional publishing house, the main marketing job still belongs to the author. The author is the one who should be actively involved in creating publicity for his or her book. Frankly, in today’s market, a writer would be wise to hire a publicity agent with experience at promoting authors. It would be an investment both in his or her publishing company, as well as investing in the book and the writer.
