Tag: Bowker

Kelly Speaks, Self-Publishing Week in Review

Self-Publishing Week in Review: 11/12/13

As a self-publishing author, you may find it helpful to stay up-to-date on the trends and news related to the self-publishing industry. This will help you make informed decisions before, during and after the self-publishing process, which will lead to a greater self-publishing experience. To help you stay current on self-publishing topics, simply visit our blog every Tuesday to find out the hottest news.

On the Books: Allison Winn Scotch to self-publish fifth novel with Jennifer Garner’s production company attached to film

Entertainment Weekly reports that Time of My Life author Allison Winn Scotch plans to self-publish her fifth novel The Theory of Opposites. This article briefly shares why Scotch plans to self-publish and tells a little bit about the book.

DIY: How to Understand Self-Publishing Acronyms

Bowker’s Senior Manager of Publisher Relations and Content Development, Patricia Payton, recently moderated a session at BEA’s uPublishU on understanding how to distribute a book and offered an extensive glossary of terms. This article shares some of the terms and provides the link to the full list of terms.

Self-Publishing And Direct Sales: Pros, Cons And Problems

This Forbe’s contributor discusses her decision to only sell her self-published book via direct sales. She shares the benefits and disadvantages of this method.

Mahwah teen becomes self-published novelist

This is an inspiring story of a 15-year-old sophomore who has recently self-published her first novel. It shows that anyone, no matter what age, can achieve their dreams of writing and publishing a book.

If you have other big news to share, please comment below.

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the 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 at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Kelly Speaks, Self-Publishing Week in Review

Self-Publishing Week in Review: 11/05/13

As a self-publishing author, you may find it helpful to stay up-to-date on the trends and news related to the self-publishing industry. This will help you make informed decisions before, during and after the self-publishing process, which will lead to a greater self-publishing experience. To help you stay current on self-publishing topics, simply visit our blog every Tuesday to find out the hottest news.

Smart Businesses Find that Self-Publishing Isn’t Just for Authors Any More

Self-published books are a great part of businesses’ “content marketing” strategies. This article talks about how smart businesses are taking advantage of self-publishing.

3 Simple Censorship Rules Can Safeguard Self-Published Ebooks

Censorship has been a hot topic recently due to the self-publishing erotica scandal. This article talks about how censorship impacts self-publishing and how changes may impact the future.

Self-publishing grows, with almost 400,000 titles last year

A recent Bowker report shows that self-publishing is still a growing trends. More than 391,000 self-published titles were published in 2012. That is a 59 percent increase compared to the year before.

Opinion: How Indie Publishing Compares to the Indie Music Scene

This interesting articles compares indie publishing and indie music. Not only does it point out all the perks of independent publishing and music, but it also discusses the growing acceptance of indie publishing.

If you have other big news to share, please comment below.

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the 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 at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Kelly Speaks, Uncategorized

Online Retailers Gained, While Brick-and-Mortar Lost In Wake of Borders Exit

Bowker recently released a study detailing the sales of online and brick-and-mortar retailers after Borders’ exit from the market. Here is a summary of the results:

  • Online retailers — led by Amazon —  earned 44 percent of America’s book dollars. This is up from 39 percent in 2011.
  • Barnes & Noble, including BN.com, remains the second largest bookselling outlet.
  • Women increased their lead over men in book buying, accounting for 58 percent of overall book spending in 2012, up from 55 percent in 2011.
  • Men are bigger hardcover buyers.
  • Ebooks continue their steady upward trend, with an 11 percent share of spending in 2012, compared to seven percent in 2011.
  • Despite the growth of ebooks, traditional print book output grew three percent in 2012.

This information is important for authors who have already self-published or who are considering self-publishing. It is essential that authors are aware of industry trends, so they can use the information to make the best publishing and marketing decisions for their books.

These results show the importance of offering an ebook version of your self-published book. Despite the popularity of ebooks, there is still a demand for print books. For many authors, the best option is to offer both a print and ebook version in an attempt to reach the largest market. However, this varies greatly from author to author and depends on the target market as well as the author’s personal goals.

To learn more about the Bowker report, visit http://www.bowker.com/en-US/aboutus/press_room/2013/pr_08062013.shtml.

I’d love to know, how do the results in this report impact your self-publishing decisions?

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the 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 at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

Statistics Suggest Good News for the Self-Publishing Author

Bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information management, recently released 2007 book publishing statistics compiled from its Books In Print database. Based on figures from U.S. publishers, Bowker is projecting that U.S. title output  last year increased slightly from 2006 to almost 300,000 books. That’s over a quarter of a million books published in one year alone.

Here’s another interesting statistic, while traditional book publishing was basically flat last year, there was a staggering rise in the reported number of on-demand and short-run books to 134,773, pushing the grand total for projected 2007 U.S. book output to 411,422 books. In fact, Bowker has planned to separate this particular output from its traditional reporting and has begun tracking the On Demand industry segment separately.

What does this mean for you? To begin, your book may not stock in every bookstore. Or any bookstore. And it’s entirely possible that you may not want it to.

As a self-publishing author, these statistics undoubtedly suggest your sales opportunities will continue to grow and become more profitable. Sales are shifting from offline to online. More and more people are becoming comfortable with (and even accustomed to) shopping online. Selling books online is more cost-effective than selling through a typical bookstore, and that means more money in your pocket. It’s no coincidence that Amazon’s book sales numbers mirror the same increases on an annual bases. That’s good news.

It’s been said before on this blog, make sure your self-publishing choice lets you set your own retail price, royalty, and discount to take maximum advantage of shifting consumer trends.

Something to keep in mind as you wrap up your writing and begin the publishing process.

Have fun and keep writing

– Karl Schroeder