Thirty
years ago some 45,000 new books were published.
Now the number is seven times that – from traditional publishers – and
20x that when you factor in self-published titles. The volume of books being published is
staggering. Think about it.
If you lived from 1968 to 1988, the combined number of books published in those years would fall far short of what 2018 is producing. In a matter of four years, the number of books published would be equivalent to an 80-year span just a generation or two ago. Is this good for society or healthy for the book publishing industry?
If you lived from 1968 to 1988, the combined number of books published in those years would fall far short of what 2018 is producing. In a matter of four years, the number of books published would be equivalent to an 80-year span just a generation or two ago. Is this good for society or healthy for the book publishing industry?
Let’s
first talk about society. If we weigh
the pros and cons of prolific publishing, we may conclude the following:
Pros
·
More
choice for consumers and greater customization for targeted demographics.
·
More
competing titles could keep prices down.
·
More
books mean more movies-based-on-books will come out.
·
Increased
competition might make the best books even better.
·
Free
speech flourishes and previously ignored or banned ideas, facts, reviews or
theories get to see the light of day.
Cons
·
Library
budgets can’t handle so many more books.
·
Consumers
are burdened by choice – and confused by it.
·
Book
reviewers can’t keep up.
·
Too
many books get published that lack editing, worthwhile content, or good
fact-checking.
·
A
centralization of books gives way to millions of random bits of information.
·
Bookstores and libraries burdened are over how to select what they shelve.
Now
let’s look at the book publishing industry:
Pros
·
Greater
variety of books increases chances of something being purchased.
·
More
authors means more advocates promoting books.
·
More
books increases the chances of some real gems rising to the top.
·
More
books creates more jobs for printers, editors, cover designers, book shepherds,
publicists, etc.
·
Greater
experimentation is taking place when a million books are published.
·
Topics
that otherwise would be ignored are getting discussed and opening the door for
new genres.
Cons
·
Literary
agents have to sift through more submissions and manuscripts than they could
possibly keep up with.
·
Too
many titles sell a few hundred copies or less.
·
Book
reviewers can’t keep up, and will likely see good books slip through the
cracks.
·
More
books compromises the ability of the marketplace to give each of them a fair
opportunity and as a result hampers or clouds the ability of some of the worthy
books to get proper attention.
So,
do the pros outweigh the cons – for society or the book publishing world? The good news is none of us has to
decide. It’s up to each author and
publisher to determine if a book is worth publishing, both from a financial and
societal perspective.
There’s
something appealing to the idea that anyone can publish anything at any time
but it’s tempered with the reality that each book fights for readers and there
simply are more books than readers.
The U.S. population is around 330 million vs. 1 million new titles published this year, would mean that if every man, woman and child read a book a year, each book would average 330 readers. But we know that between illiterates and those that choose not to read books or who suffer a disability or leaning disorder, there is a pool of readers, that’s closer to maybe 200 million adults and teens who read books. So now it’s 200 readers per book. They’d have to read five books a year to hit 1,000 readers. Notice I said readers, and not book buyers. Fewer book buyers exist than readers.
The U.S. population is around 330 million vs. 1 million new titles published this year, would mean that if every man, woman and child read a book a year, each book would average 330 readers. But we know that between illiterates and those that choose not to read books or who suffer a disability or leaning disorder, there is a pool of readers, that’s closer to maybe 200 million adults and teens who read books. So now it’s 200 readers per book. They’d have to read five books a year to hit 1,000 readers. Notice I said readers, and not book buyers. Fewer book buyers exist than readers.
When
I mentioned 45,000 books were published 30 years ago, that was a time without
Netflix, Amazon Prime, You Tube, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, podcasts and other
competing sources of content, much of which is free.
To
be a writer today means you’ll need to work, extra hard – not only to get published,
but to be compensated. Today’s author really is not as respected as he or she
was a few decades ago. To be a
successful author is looking more like a lottery – you have to be in it to win
it, but your chances decrease with so many players involved.
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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting
ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his
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BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2018. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in
Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and
IBPA’s Independent. This was named one of the best book
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