What Will 2014 Bring For Publishing?

If Wall Street is an indicator of things to come, 2014 should be a prosperous new year, not just for the overall economy, but for publishers and authors.

This May, the Dow Jones crossed 15,000. It took six years to advance 1,000 points, from 14,000. But this November it hurled past 16,000, growing 1,000 points in just six months.

Things that are expected to heat up in 2014:

·         Housing

·         Jobs

·         Wall Street

It’s an election year (one-third of the Senate and all of the House of Representatives are up for grabs).

Technology will continue to feed our insatiable desired for faster, smaller, lighter gadgets.

Healthcare will be a growth industry, as Obamacare finally goes from computer glitch and political football to a reality.

And the nation’s newly crowned building, The Freedom Tower, at 1776 feet, will open its doors in 2014 as the country’s tallest building and usher in a new era of construction.

The prosperity of the feel-goof 80s is not yet upon us, but we’ve transferred out of the mindset of the 1930s Depression era. 2014 could launch the run-up of some very good years for the country.

If books mirror the growing economy, then we should see more book sales and even higher cover prices.

Books, in order to capture what people want to read about, will start to cover the hot topics that people want to invest their time, such as;

·         Investing

·         Real Estate

·         Personal Finance

·         Careers

·         Travel

·         Entertainment

Evergreen topics will stay with us, including:

·         Parenting

·         Relationships

·         Health

·         Technology

·         Sports

·         Photography
      Celebrity 

2014 will likely see:

·         An increase in eBook sales

·         An increase in reading device and tablet purchases

·         Stability for brick and mortar book sales

·         An increase in the re-release of backlist in digital-only format

·         An increase in the number of new books published

What will be the big books in 2014? Who knows. Did anyone imagine 50 Shades would sell over 50 million copies?

The Big Five could turn into the Big Four, but that’s all rumor and conjecture. Maybe once the holiday season tallies are made, decisions will happen over to merge or not.

Book sales are influenced, in part, by social media and exposure from traditional media. There will again be changes across the news world. Shows will fold, while new ones taking their place.

One thing that holds true -- books are great sources of content for all media and 2014 will continue to see more interviews, stories, bylined articles, guest posts, and features that connect books to the reading public.

There continues to be shrinkage in book reviews by newspapers and magazines. Declining circulation has led to ad page decreases, which have led to a decrease in the editorial coverage of books. Some newspapers are going digital-only, at least part of the week.

Paid reviews rose this past year. Kirkus, PW Select, and others provide a change-for option. They also have a non-paid section, too.

I don’t expect anything radical in 2014 to shake the book world but it all depends on what Amazon might be cooking up. I believe 2014 will be more of the same as 2013 -- but with more growth. 

Happy Holidays!

DON’T MISS THIS!!!

Here is my 2014 Book Marketing & Publicity Toolkit: Based on 20+ years in publishing --

Master Publishing PR Toolkit

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2013