From the Booksellers's Association of UK & Ireland:
http://bookseller-association.blogsp...-just-get.html
Quote:
Today we face the prospect of drowning in tidal wave self-published eBooks, YouTube videos, photos, independent music videos and tracks etc which are loaded onto sites alongside and often more frequently than traditionally produced works. Historically these self-published works have been regarded by many as substandard works, looked down upon by the traditional marketplace who referred to them by the term ‘vanity publishing’. Some would even still argue that if you can’t get a publisher, producer or third party to publish your work, then it must be of questionable quality and of little value.
Some claim that by 2020 50% of all eBooks will be self-published. We would question that and suggest that it is probably a huge understatement and the figure is more likely to be 75%.
|
Quote:
|
Michael Kozlowski’s recently advocated that in order to address this that ‘Indie eBooks Need to beSegregated’. We would strongly disagree with this reactive and somewhat naïve approach which is aimed at suppressing creativity. Segregation is a false economics move aimed not at segregating good and bad but at protecting yesterday’s financial model and its bets from the new offerings.
|
Quote:
Some state that the consumer demands quality and that this can only be achieved through the editorial development process. However there are now many consumer viewpoints and values and these often clash with these traditional binary beliefs.
Who would have believed that some low quality YouTube videos would receive the number of viewings they have and gone on to spawn new stars of their own.
Who would have expected the global sensation of ’50 Shades of Grey’ and it now being adapted to mainstream film?
Would we have ever heard ‘Gangnam Style’ without YouTube?
Would performers such as Lilly Allen or the Arctic Monkeys have made it if left to the traditional music business?
|
One telling point from the music industry experience: From 2000 to 2013, consumer spending on music has dropped from $3.8B to 2.8B (over 25%) yet artists' share of the pot has grown from 14% to 17% (over 20%). Of course, that total consumer spend doesn't include performance or licensing revenue, so when we here about massive drops in music revenues due to digital music, what were are hearing is about drops in the giant multinationals' share of the business.
That is likely to be replicated in the ebook business: lower consumer spend, lower publisher revenue, *higher* author revenues.
For a look at the likely fate of many (non-BPH) publishers, consider what is (deservedly) happening to Harlequin).
http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/...reality-sucks/
Quote:
Since 2009, Harlequin’s sales have steadily declined.
2009: $493 million
2010: $468 million
2011: $459 million
2012: $426.5 million
2013: $362 million.
Doing math, which is part of reality, we see an accelerating decrease. Those years coincide with the rise of indie/hybrid/Martian authors. As a member of the Romance Writers of America and a lot of other writers’ groups, I can tell you that RWA, by far, is the most advanced and savvy group of authors around. Surprisingly, SFWA (Science fiction, fantasy writers) is one of the least tech-savvy, business savvy groups. Romance writers have been leading the way in embracing indie publishing. Thus authors who might once have fought for a HQ contract are now doing it themselves. And some very successful romance writers have jumped ship and gone indie. Their defection has not been offset by successful indies going trad.
Add in a second factor: the decline of print sales. Spare me the numbers touted by publishing. Take out your top 5% of authors whose books get brought in to COSTCO on pallets, and print sales are dropping fast. Especially for mass market paperbacks, which is HQ’s bread and butter, much like garbage was the Sopranos bread and butter. We still make a lot of garbage but there is less and less shelf space for print books and more and more readers are going digital.
|
More at both sources.