10 Shocking Truths about Book Publishing

[Brian G Turner]

This article is a few months old, but it does underline some pretty horrible observations on the publishing industry:

10 Awful Truths About Publishing - Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Here are the main points it covers:

- The number of books being published every year has exploded.
- Book industry sales are stagnant, despite the explosion of books published.
- Despite the growth of e-book sales, overall book sales are still shrinking.
- Average book sales are shockingly small—and falling fast.
- A book has far less than a 1% chance of being stocked in an average bookstore.
- It is getting harder and harder every year to sell books.
- Most books today are selling only to the authors’ and publishers’ communities.
- Most book marketing today is done by authors, not by publishers.
- No other industry has so many new product introductions.
- The book publishing world is in a never-ending state of turmoil.

It doesn't make for the most cheerful reading!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Too many books, too few readers. That's basically the book business in a nutshell. I do find communities important - I'm in a very proactive community of women writers based in NI and that community has done loads to give me exposure I wouldn't have had on my own.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Woe, woe and thrice woe!

Madness, foaming meerkats, plagues of rats, uncontrollable diarrhoea, unlimited rice pudding!

This is actually a serious problem. Leaving aside personal considerations, if writing as a career becomes viable for a vanishingly small number of people then the pool of those who wrote professionally will shrink to the mega-successful (and there aren't many JK Rowlings) and the independently wealthy. We'll miss out on great books and great writers because they simply won't be able to afford to write.

Edited extra bit: and +10 sci-fi points to anyone who gets the rice pudding reference.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Too many books, too few readers.

That's a succinct assessment.

 

[Paul_C]

The same is no doubt true of most of the arts.

For example, whilst there are a few seriously wealthy musicians out there, the market is also flooded with people trying to eke out a living, with a number of people resorting to teaching to make ends meet, or bands who work 4/5 of the year to pay for the 1/5 they spend touring and recording.

From what I've heard on programs like The Comedian's Comedian Podcast, this is also true of comedy and I know that my ex-partner spent years going to drama school etc. to become an actress, and the only paying job she ever got was one advert for Gaviscon in 2012 which just about balanced out the debt she accumulated.

Apart from one or two exceptions the same is true of sport, lots of people don't become hugely rich and successful though many spend years and large amounts of their own (or their parent's) money trying. In a lot of sports even the successful ones don't make much money from it.

So those who are driven to write will write, and if they're lucky they might make a little money.

If they're really lucky they might be able to make a living, though they might have to run "How To Write A Bestseller" classes to help pay the bills.

If they're REALLY lucky they might even have enough left over to buy luxuries - like a small s/h car, or a week in a B&B in Skegness.

But they're not the only ones.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

If they're really lucky they might be able to make a living, though they might have to run "How To Write A Bestseller" classes to help pay the bills.

This is true. I made a reasonable profit last year from writing (about 1/3 of my business income). The bulk of that came from funding, running courses and being on panels. Sales - meh. Frankly for me there isn't much money in selling books but a reasonable amount in talking about them...

 

[Cathbad]

If they're REALLY lucky they might even have enough left over to buy luxuries - like a small s/h car, or a week in a B&B in Skegness.

I feel I'm lucky to be able to pig-out on Pizza from my earnings once a month!

 

[Paul_C]

There's another thing I forgot to add (which also applies to music) - there's an awful lot of old-but-good stuff out there which (in part due to the rise of the internet) is also relatively easy to acquire, especially if you don't mind reading on a tablet or e reader.

So not only are you competing for attention with all the other new authors, you're competing with (almost) everything that's been written before, and there's quite a lot of that.

 

[tinkerdan]

I don't know WHO::

unlimited rice pudding

::would get this

 

[AlexH]

There's another thing I forgot to add (which also applies to music) - there's an awful lot of old-but-good stuff out there which (in part due to the rise of the internet) is also relatively easy to acquire, especially if you don't mind reading on a tablet or e reader.

So not only are you competing for attention with all the other new authors, you're competing with (almost) everything that's been written before, and there's quite a lot of that.

That's what I was about to add after I read your first post, and it's all being added to at a crazy amount every year.

 

[Stuart Suffel]

apparently it's possible to get books for free via some websites, or so a friend told me. So, that's not good.
I'm no so sure it's all bad. As literacy expands in developing countries, so will readership. Might take a while though.

 

[Cathbad]

As literacy expands in developing countries, so will readership.

These nations may not relate to what's currently offered/current writers. They will probably look for home-grown authors.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Everybody believes they can be an author.

 

[Cathbad]

Everybody believes they can be an author.

With self-publishing made so easy, they can!

(Not necessarily good ones...)

 

[Stephen Palmer]

heh heh

 

[Stephen Palmer]

you know I think a writer and an author are different creatures Cathbad

 

[Stuart Suffel]

Yeah, dunno 'bout that site info. Read some PW reports a while back, and while overall sales were down 7%, the trajectory looked good.
Bit of selective info in that article methinks.
I did think this bit of info was a/ good news and b/ confusing.
'the average new book generates only $50,000 to $150,000 in sales'

If that's true, all is well n good, imo.

re ebook publications of 700,000. well that's kinda meaningless info. More pertinent would be ebook sales per books published, using different medians and different conditions (ie, e-book publications range from the highly legit and prominent to the exact opposite end of the scale. And also, in print sales, this needs to be broken down further, ie vanity press, POD, or whatever. Maybe collectors of this data has already done so, but I'm not getting that sense from this article)

 

[tinkerdan]

A writer writes::

you know I think a writer and an author are different creatures Cathbad

::An author is one of those that has published::
I suppose the next question is is what do you consider as published.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

A writer writes::

::An author is one of those that has published::

I suppose the next question is is what do you consider as published.

 

[Phyrebrat]

And it'll only get worse if the pattern of kids' behaviour (that I see as a teacher) carries on as it now operates; social media and the internet have replaced more 'worthwhile' pursuits such as reading fiction (and fishing).

pH