The
Big Five in publishing accounted for 46% of all e-book sales in 2012. It is now down to 34%. E-book sales are sinking industry-wide, falling from a peak of 242 million units in 2013 to 204 million in 2015. So what does any of this mean for the
industry?
The
trends are obvious:
·
Print
is up. This past year 17 million more
print books were sold vs. 2014, when 636 million printed books were sold – about
two for every single American.
·
E-books
are losing popularity, primarily when it comes to the Big 5. The self-publishing and small-press markets
are surging by comparison. The share of
e-book sales by self-published authors rose by 50% from 2014. The share of e-book sales by small presses
rose by 17% in the past year.
·
The
number of books sold through measured e-book and Nielsen Book Scan print sales
is down. 870 million books (ebook or
print) were sold in 2014; last year there were 857 million units sold. But audio-books rose. Books sold to libraries
or direct to the consumer were not calculated.
·
The
number of indie bookstores is on the rise.
Roughly 3 in 4 books purchased are print books.
The
book industry seems to be getting healthier.
You wouldn’t know it from Book Expo however. Attendance was estimated at being down 20%
from last year. The event was in Chicago this time around, after the last six
or seven were in New York City. To cut
costs, the New York-based industry didn’t send as many people as usual. Further, the exhibitors took fewer and
smaller spaces, requiring fewer people to man them.
There
were still hundreds and hundreds of official autograph signings and just as
many at publisher booths. The book give-aways
draw in bookstores, libraries, and fans from within the publishing community. But long gone were people who dressed in
costumes or gave away non-book items or had a gimmicky event, like taking your
photo with a Playboy bunny.
The
show was contained to one segment of one floor.
The aisles were too easy to navigate.
Not too long ago they used to be crowded to the point it was challenging
to negotiate your way through the throngs.
The
bigger publishers used to have booths that took up an entire half-aisle or
several aisles. No one this time had that big of a
space, though Workman and Penguin Random House seemed larger than the rest.
But
the show is not necessarily reflective of the industry. It is reflective of how sales take place and
why publishing professionals and writers gather in the first place. The show
has educational panels and provides networking opportunities. I still love
going to BEA but I fear it will get too small too soon.
The
book world continues to change, grow and recreate itself. I still think it needs to do a better job of
branding itself, promoting literacy, and making a strong case for why print
matters. We’ll see what new trends
develop in the near future but one thing is for sure – great books are in
abundance and it’s an exciting though challenging time for writers, publishers,
bookstores, and readers alike.
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Brian Feinblum’s views,
opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his
employer. 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 © 2016
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