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From Jan Nathan, PMA October 2005: DID YOU KNOW
That during the year 2004, there were 375,000 new titles published in English-speaking
countries? According to a new press release by the RR Bowker Company, Anglo-American
publishers published 80% of all new English-language books in 2004, whithe the
U.S. accounted for 52% of the total. Now this is just new books, remember, not
counting any of the evergreen backlist that many of our member publishers count
as their active backlist.
Adult fiction, poetry, drama and literary criticism accounted
for 18% of the new and children's/young adult had a 12% share of
the new titles; and science and technology a 9% share. Continuing
their downward spiral were computer books, showing a 14% decrease
from 2003. Both religion and travel saw a double-digit increase,
while history, sociology, economics and education experienced declines.
Plot Twists In Store
Writers, Retailers Team Up to Push Their Own Agendas
By David Segal
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 12, 2005; Page C01
BROOKLYN, N.Y.
Standing on a fashion show catwalk, Wendy Shanker is warming up
a crowd that has come for an in-store glimpse of Macy's latest
outfits for spring. At 5 feet 7 and 220 pounds, Shanker is not
the sort of woman you typically associate with models or glamour
or capri pants. She doesn't sound like one either.
"A lot of people don't like the word 'fat,' " she says
into a microphone, on a makeshift runway set up in the women's
department. "I'm fat. It doesn't describe who I am. I'm the
same as everybody else. I just wear bigger pants."
This gets a chuckle from the audience, many of whom are just as
big, or bigger. This is a plus-size fashion show, with models from
size 14 on up. But this event is about more than just clothing
in very generous proportions. It's also, weirdly enough, a book
party, and Shanker is an author, doing what a woman has to do today
to get her book sold.
Read More...
A Capital Time For Books
An estimated 75,000 people turned out at the third annual National
Book Festival Oct. 4 to see and hear more than 80 authors read,
discuss and sign their work along Washington, D.C.'s National Mall.
The free-to-the-public daylong event was hosted by Laura Bush and
organized by the Library of Congress, supported by a corps of volunteers
that included Library employees and members of the Junior League
of Washington.
Mrs. Bush came fresh from a state visit to Europe that included
a stop at a national Russian book festival in Moscow for school
librarians, hosted by that country’s first lady, Lyudmila
Putin. The Russian event was the first of its kind and was inspired
by last year's National Book Festival, at which Putin was Bush's
honored guest.
" Our history is a great story, patched together piece by
piece," Bush said. "By reading together and sharing stories
we become part of the fabric of the American community." Bush
went on to express her great personal connection to books, as well,
adding "A good book is like an unreachable itch; you just
can’t leave it alone."
Throughout the day, crowds packed into tents to hear authors
including Wally Lamb, Catherine Coulter, Walter Isaacson, Pat Conroy,
Avi. Mary Pope Osborne touched on a recurring theme when she said, "I'm
very moved by this event. The spirit here is so amazing—bi-partisan,
so to speak. You get the sense that the Library of Congress was
always waiting for someone to come in and celebrate books and reading
like this."
Pat Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers
spoke enthusiastically about the event's growth over the past two
years. "We finally got it more spread out onto the Mall," she
cheered. " Now we just need to fix one more glitch—the
book sales tent." Laws prohibit the sale of certain goods
for profit on government property, making it hard to buy books
at the event.
" This is a wonderful event," said James Patterson. "But
you could easily quadruple the number of people here if you could
just find the right way to get the word out about the power of
stories. Somebody's got to tell the story of books—to capture
the hearts and minds of the American people."
--Shannon Maughan -From Publisher's Weekly on line newsletter
10/6/03
For Chain Stores, Comparisons Finally Favorable
The nation's two largest booksellers have something they haven't
had in a long time -- good news to report. After several successive
quarters of slogging through a weak book market, Barnes & Noble
and Borders Group today both reported significant sales gains in
their second quarters. They posted increases not only in total
revenue, but also in same store sales, a more telling indication
of how the retailers are performing. The improved results echo
those disclosed by Books-A-Million yesterday.
Read More...
LARGE PUBLISHERS DOWN; SMALL PUBLISHERS UP
New titles from the big New York publishers declined 5% last year,
mostly in adult fiction and travel. Title output was up 5.8% overall
for a total of 150,000 titles. University press title output was
up 10% over 2001. More than 10,000 new publishing companies were
established in 2002; there are 73,000 publishers nationwide. OTOH,
the big five publishers in New York accounted for 45% of the market
share.
"Remember, the key to selling a lot of books is persistent
promotion. Most authors and publishers give up too soon. This is
a huge mistake! It takes time to build up word-of-mouth. Don't
think about promoting your book for just a few months. Decide to
promote your book aggressively for at least a
year!"
-Mark Victor Hansen
Co-author of the best-selling series
Chicken Soup for the Soul ® and other books
Who is Really a Publisher?
Pat Bell
In the Beginning
Once, it was easy to get the answer to "Who's really a publisher?" In
classical times, an author or poet simply paid a scribe to make
copies of a work for circulation. In more recent years, particularly
during the 19th and 20th centuries, book publishers (our main interest
here) were companies that paid authors for the right to publish
the authors' work.
Some authors, however, paid for their books to be published. Firms
that did this sort of publishing were dubbed "vanity presses" by
others in the industry because of the belief that authors were "vain" if
they wanted to see their work in print so much that they were willing
to pay for it. There was considerable stigma attached to books
from vanity presses, which became notorious for demanding big sums
of money in return for very little output. As a rule, bookstores
and libraries would not buy books with those imprints.
Read More...
Subsidy Publishing vs. Self-Publishing: What's the Difference?
by Moira
Allen
You've written a book. It's a great book. You know it's needed,
that people would buy it. But you can't persuade a commercial publisher
to agree. So now you're considering investing your own money to
have the book published.
When you look at advertisements for "publishing," however,
matters become confusing. Many "Publish Your Book" ads
look alike -- yet some are for subsidy publishers and others are
for printing companies that help authors "self-publish" their
work. How can you tell them apart?
Read More...
DrNunley's Biz-Tips
by Kevin Nunley
Don't Rush Marketing!
Marketing works best when it isn't rushed. The best advertising
media require you to place your order well in advance. Great designers,
writers, and (especially!) TV production firms are usually booked
weeks into the future.
Quality. As you can quickly see, you get better quality when
you don't rush your marketing. A top writer can take several weeks
to write your sales letter. We've worked 7 days a week to improve
the speed for good writing, but long copy can take a professional
writer several days of full-time work to complete. Many expert
designers like to flesh out several versions of your ad, web site
look, or logo before deciding on the best. That, too, takes time.
INTERWEAVE PRESS of Loveland, Colo., is the type of publisher
that the Book Industry Study Group believes is not represented
in traditional measurements of the size of the publishing industry.
The publisher is part of a larger company, and the majority of
its sales are generated by channels outside of bookstores. These
are the kinds of publishers that, according to BISG's new report, "Under
the Radar," generate billions of dollars of sales that are
not included in statistics compiled by the Association of American
Publishers or even BISG's own Trends study.
According to "Under the Radar" findings, about 63,000 publishers
with sales of less than $50 million generate annual revenue of about $14.2
billion, and the majority of that revenue--about $11.5 billion--come from publishers
with sales between $1 million and $49'9 million. Jeff Abraham, executive director
of BISG, said that while some of that revenue is represented in current industry
sales estimates--which puts total revenue at between $23.7 billion and $28.5
billion--a significant portion is not. "We've always heard anecdotal stories
about how much activity occurs outside of traditional book publishing and bookselling.
This study tries to quantify how much," Abraham said.
The study, conducted by InfoTrends, found that about 34% of the sales of publishers
in the study come from bookstores and book wholesalers (including only 3.3%
from the chains), although book wholesalers were found to be the fastest growing
channel. Nonbook wholesalers, which service accounts such as health stores
and sporting goods stores, represent about 20% of sales, while sales through
catalogues contribute about 10% of revenue. In addition to wholesalers, the
fastest growing segments were online retailers and direct-to-consumer.
Abraham knows that the "Under the Radar" findings challenge many
industry assumptions, so he plans to put together an industry taskforce that
will work on a process that can combine the results of the report with traditional
industry measurements. He sees the study "as a good first step" in
better understanding the size of the book market.
Subsidy Publishing vs. Self-Publishing: What's the Difference?
by Moira Allen
You've written a book. It's a great book. You know it's needed,
that people would buy it. But you can't persuade a commercial publisher
to agree. So now you're considering investing your own money to
have the book published.
When you look at advertisements for "publishing," however,
matters become confusing. Many "Publish Your Book" ads
look alike -- yet some are for subsidy publishers and others are
for printing companies that help authors "self-publish" their
work. How can you tell them apart?
Some Definitions
A commercial publisher distributes books under its own imprint.
It purchases manuscripts from authors, and handles the cost of
producing those manuscripts: Cover and interior design, typesetting,
printing, marketing, distribution, etc. The author is not expected
to pay any of these costs. The books are owned by the publisher
and remain in the publisher's possession until sold; the author
receives a portion of sales in the form of royalties.
A subsidy publisher also distributes books under its own imprint.
However, it does not purchase manuscripts; instead, it asks authors
to pay for the cost of publication. With the exception of certain
types of publishers such as university or scholarly presses, any
publisher that requests a fee from the author is a subsidy publisher.
As with commercial publishers, the books are owned by the publisher
and remain in the publisher's possession; authors receive royalties.
A self-publisher is an author who pays for the cost of designing,
printing, and distributing his or her book. Frequently, the author
invents and registers a publishing "imprint." Self-published
books are the property of the author and usually remain in the
author's possession; all sales proceeds belong to the author.
A "printer" or "book producer" is a firm that
works with self-publishing authors to produce professional-quality
books. To confuse the issue, some printers call themselves "publishers," but
are not publishers in the traditional sense of the word. Instead,
they offer a range of book production services (such as design,
typesetting, and printing), and may also offer marketing, distribution,
warehousing and fulfillment services. ("Fulfillment" includes
order processing, book shipping, and customer invoicing.)
Whether you self-publish or use a subsidy publisher, you need
to know what types of services you are paying for. Be sure to ask
the following questions before signing any contract:
-
Who owns the book? Subsidy houses not only charge for their design,
printing, and distribution services, they also claim various
rights to your book. Printers and book producers charge only
for their services; all rights to your book remain with you.
-
Will
I receive royalties or all sales proceeds? If the answer
is "royalties," you're
dealing with a subsidy house. Subsidy publishers pay authors
a standard royalty of around 10-15%
(which may be based on the retail price of the book or upon
a discounted price). When you self-publish, you receive all
sales
proceeds (although
this does not necessarily translate into profit).
-
Where
will the books be housed? A subsidy publisher will retain
all books except
for a few "author copies." A printer
or book producer will give you the option of storing the books
yourself, or paying for warehousing. In either case, the books
belong to you. (Warehousing is a good option if you are using
the printer's fulfillment and shipping services.)
-
How much control do I have over the production process? With
commercial and subsidy publishers, the author's input usually
ends with the
delivery of the manuscript. In self-publishing, you have complete
creative control over the development of your product. A book
producer will offer you a menu of services; you pay only for
those you need.
If, for example, you're experienced in desktop publishing,
you might choose to design your own interior layout, but contract
for
an artist to handle the cover. You should be able to review
and approve any suggested designs, layouts, fonts, etc.
-
Who
sends books to reviewers, and who pays for it? Some subsidy
publishers may
ask you for a list of potential reviewers; others
have their own lists. If you want additional books sent out,
however, you will usually have to pay for them -- at 40% or
more of the
cover price of your book. If you self-publish, sending out
review copies is entirely your responsibility, but since
the books already
belong to you, you won't pay anything "extra" for
those copies.
-
Who
handles marketing and advertising? In this case, regardless
of whether you choose
subsidy or self-publishing, the answer
is "you." Subsidy
publishers include "marketing" as one of the services
you're paying for, but generally do little beyond placing a small "tombstone" ad
in a major newspaper. It is up to you to determine what your
target market is and how to reach it, and up to you to pay
the costs of
reaching that market. A key question to ask yourself, therefore,
is whether the benefits of a marketing campaign outweigh the
costs, based on whether you receive all sales proceeds or only
a percentage
in royalties.
-
What
is the cost? Neither subsidy publishing nor self-publishing
is cheap; both
will cost you thousands of dollars. Subsidy publishing
requires a large investment up front; self-publishing may involve
a smaller initial payment (the cost of producing and printing
your book), but also involves the ongoing costs of marketing,
publicity,
warehousing, book packaging and shipping, and so forth. Your
first question, therefore, should be whether you can afford
to finance
your book at all; your second should be "what do I want
to get for my money?"
Financing your book is never a decision to be made lightly. Unless
you have money to burn, it should never be made on the basis of
ego: The desire to see your name in print no matter what the cost.
For those who have studied the market and developed a professional
product, however, "doing it yourself" has often proven
an effective (and even profitable) way to bring a good book to
life.
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