For the last month, I’ve been unpacking The Bookseller’s Digital Census material (as made available in the FutureBook publication). The FutureBook‘s editors, Porter Anderson and Philip Jones, distill down the collated information into the top five current market trends for authors, publishers, and others invested in the digital publishing industry. You can see my thoughts on the first four points by following the links below:
One: Mobile overtakes tablets and dedicated e-readers as the device of choice
Two: Digital sales are still growing, but they are also slowing
Three: Self-love levels recede as many indie authors report lower satisfaction levels
Four: Publishing remains very much divided on matters digital
This week, I’m going to take a look at the 2015 Digital Census’ fifth and final trend as laid out in the FutureBook. According to Anderson and Jones, the last (but certainly not least) point raised by the data is one that ought to prompt serious thought among publishing professionals:
The future is a tricky beast to anticipate with any degree of precision, but it may prove more than useful–it may in fact prove necessary–to think about what’s coming before it arrives. I’m speaking specifically about the future of indie, hybrid, and self-publishing–and it looks like I’m not alone, given that the data collected in the Digital Census comes from end-user perspectives rather than data sets from industry retrospectives. (And Amazon is notoriously coy about releasing its internally-gathered data, so … draw from that what you will, I suppose.)
I’m not particularly depressed over the general feeling that the industry isn’t foresighted or flexible enough to adapt to future change … because I know that indie authors themselves are. Clearly they are, or else they wouldn’t be eyeing the industry so critically! And indie authors must apply their future-thinking in order to stay ahead of the curve and remain the avant-garde, changing what needs to be changed about the publishing industry from the outside (or, in the case of hybrid authors, partially so).
I’m also hopeful because, as the FutureBook indicates, indie authors and other book-lovers espouse the increasingly optimistic outlook that people are actually reading more than ever before. They might not be reading the say way or the same kind of book as they used to, but they are reading, and many of them are becoming writers themselves–again, in new ways and by finding new avenues for narrative-building and storytelling. This is an exciting time we live in and I, for one, can’t wait to check back in with you after the 2016 FutureBook is released and we see what else the world of digital publishing has to offer.
Thank you for reading! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com. And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠
 ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com. |
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