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fjtorres · 07-16-2016, 01:53 PM

AUTHOR EARNING'S Data Guy just gave a presentation at the Romance Writers of America, detailing the state of the Romance book market in 2016:

http://authorearnings.com/2016-rwa-pan-presentation/

The charts are downloadable and mostly self explanatory.
He thoroughly dissects the results of different strategies for title length, pricing, release rates, whether to participate in Kindle Unlimited, whether to set the first volume in a series free...

Interesting reading for anybody curious about how the romance cake is baked.

For everybody else, the juicy stuff lies in the general ebook market overview in the first few slides:

http://authorearnings.com/wp-content...07/Slide08.png

http://authorearnings.com/wp-content...07/Slide10.png

http://authorearnings.com/wp-content...07/Slide12.png

http://authorearnings.com/wp-content...07/Slide14.png

Points that stand out:

- Romance makes up 4.4% of the print book sales captured by Nielsen Bookscan and 45% of paid ebook sales at Amazon. Romance accounts for 235M paid ebook sales a year across Amazon, Apple, Nook, etc. Essentially, two thirds of the romance book market is invisibile to the publishing establishment because 89% of all romance books sold are in digital form.

- More generally: Kindle ebook market share is up to 74%, Apple is running at 11%, Nook 5%, Kobo 3%, Google 2%, and Other 2%. (Back in 2010, when Agency first kicked in, Amazon stood at 54% and Nook at 26%, with Sony around 10%).

Much more at the source, including the usual pretty pictures.

One point to remember: Harlequin policy through the decades was to let most of the titles they published go out of print after a couple of years and, since they considered them "played out", would routinely revert rights upon request. That practice has, of course, ended. But in the years between 2007 and 2012 a whole lot of romance writers rescued a whole lot of titles from out-of-print, typically adding new covers and re-releasing them on KDP. That means they not only brought along the titles but also their "brands" and their readers.

In short: to a very large extent, Indie ebooks becoming a mainstream business is due to romance readers. (With SF&F right behind.)

07-16-2016, 01:53 PM	#1
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	Author Earnings Romance market analysis AUTHOR EARNING'S Data Guy just gave a presentation at the Romance Writers of America, detailing the state of the Romance book market in 2016: http://authorearnings.com/2016-rwa-pan-presentation/ The charts are downloadable and mostly self explanatory. He thoroughly dissects the results of different strategies for title length, pricing, release rates, whether to participate in Kindle Unlimited, whether to set the first volume in a series free... Interesting reading for anybody curious about how the romance cake is baked. For everybody else, the juicy stuff lies in the general ebook market overview in the first few slides: http://authorearnings.com/wp-content...07/Slide08.png http://authorearnings.com/wp-content...07/Slide10.png http://authorearnings.com/wp-content...07/Slide12.png http://authorearnings.com/wp-content...07/Slide14.png Points that stand out: - Romance makes up 4.4% of the print book sales captured by Nielsen Bookscan and 45% of paid ebook sales at Amazon. Romance accounts for 235M paid ebook sales a year across Amazon, Apple, Nook, etc. Essentially, two thirds of the romance book market is invisibile to the publishing establishment because 89% of all romance books sold are in digital form. - More generally: Kindle ebook market share is up to 74%, Apple is running at 11%, Nook 5%, Kobo 3%, Google 2%, and Other 2%. (Back in 2010, when Agency first kicked in, Amazon stood at 54% and Nook at 26%, with Sony around 10%). Much more at the source, including the usual pretty pictures. One point to remember: Harlequin policy through the decades was to let most of the titles they published go out of print after a couple of years and, since they considered them "played out", would routinely revert rights upon request. That practice has, of course, ended. But in the years between 2007 and 2012 a whole lot of romance writers rescued a whole lot of titles from out-of-print, typically adding new covers and re-releasing them on KDP. That means they not only brought along the titles but also their "brands" and their readers. In short: to a very large extent, Indie ebooks becoming a mainstream business is due to romance readers. (With SF&F right behind.) Last edited by fjtorres; 07-16-2016 at 01:56 PM.