Trending in publishing.
September 11, 2013
I’ve been out of touch with the publishing grapevine up until recently, but some interesting items have just crossed my radar.
Firstly, it seems the innovation that was to destroy the dead trees publishing business – the ebook – well … isn’t. As novelty fades and reality invades, ebook sales seem to be reaching a plateau, at about 20-25% of the book market. What’s even more interesting is that the reason for that share seems to be a certain genre of book. I don’t remember any of the futurists predicting the ebook would be the high-tech alternative to the magazine slipped in front of the naughty book cover!
Also, I’m seeing more and more ereader apps and services appearing around the world (I even interviewed for one). The latest take on this phenomenon is Oyster books which is adopting the Netflix model – all you can read for a monthly subscription fee. Time will tell how it goes, but only the very avid reader (or short subscriber!) could reap financial benefit from that model.
The last item is the most interesting to me because I have, independently, been thinking about utilizing the latest trend in indie publishing – crowdfunding. How to go about it, and how well it works for most, are topics for another blog post. Suffice it to say for now that the really interesting thing is when you see stories like this one, where an author overshot his project target by a mere half million dollars. It actually sounds like a very innovative project, which is one of the valid reasons for the campaign’s success – but $580,000? It just reminds me of the bubble in indie ebook publishing that started with the successes of early adopters in kindle self-publishing. I wonder, will we see the kickstarted equivalent of JA Konrath soon publishing an ebook telling us how we can all make a fortune publishing the crowdfunded way? It’s inevitable. Heck, it might even be me writing that ebook! Survivor bias striking again. I’d better get in fast before that new avenue gets over-saturated too!
Entry Filed under: Indie-Publishing