Articles

By LDSPMA

1. The number of books being published every year has exploded.
According to the latest Bowker Report (September 7, 2016), more than 700,000 books
were self-published in the U.S. in 2015, which is an incredible increase of 375% since
2010. And the number of traditionally published books had climbed to over 300,000 by
2013 according to the latest Bowker figures (August 5, 2014). The net effect is that the
number of new books published each year in the U.S. has exploded by more than 600,000
since 2007, to well over 1 million annually. At the same time, more than 13 million
previously published books are still available through many sources. Unfortunately, the
marketplace is not able to absorb all these books and is hugely oversaturated.

2. Book industry sales are stagnant, despite the explosion of books published.
U.S. publishing industry sales peaked in 2007 and have either fallen or been flat in
subsequent years, according to reports of the Association of American Publishers (AAP).
Similarly, despite a 2.5% increase in 2015, U.S. bookstore sales are down 37% from their
peak in 2007, according to the Census Bureau (Publishers Weekly, February 26, 2016).

3. Despite the growth of e-book sales, overall book sales are still shrinking.
After skyrocketing from 2008 to 2012, e-book sales leveled off in 2013 and have fallen
more than 10% since then, according to the AAP StatShot Annual 2015. Unfortunately,
the decline of print sales outpaced the growth of e-book sales, even from 2008 to 2012.
The total book publishing pie is not growing—the peak sales year was in 2007—yet it is
being divided among ever more hundreds of thousands of print and digital books.

4. Average book sales are shockingly small—and falling fast.
Combine the explosion of books published with the declining total sales and you get
shrinking sales of each new title. According to BookScan—which tracks most bookstore,
online, and other retail sales of books (including Amazon.com)—only 256 million print
copies were sold in 2013 in the U.S. in all adult nonfiction categories combined
(Publishers Weekly, January 1, 2016). The average U.S. nonfiction book is now selling
less than 250 copies per year and less than 2,000 copies over its lifetime.

5. A book has far less than a 1% chance of being stocked in an average bookstore.
For every available bookstore shelf space, there are 100 to 1,000 or more titles competing
for that shelf space. For example, the number of business titles stocked ranges from less
than 100 (smaller bookstores) to up to 1,500 (superstores). Yet there are several hundred
thousand business books in print that are fighting for that limited shelf space.

6. It is getting harder and harder every year to sell books.
Many book categories have become entirely saturated, with a surplus of books on every
topic. It is increasingly difficult to make any book stand out. Each book is competing
with more than thirteen million other books available for sale, while other media are
claiming more and more of people’s time. Result: investing the same amount today to
market a book as was invested a few years ago will yield a far smaller sales return today.

7. Most books today are selling only to the authors’ and publishers’ communities.
Everyone in the potential audiences for a book already knows of hundreds of interesting
and useful books to read but has little time to read any. Therefore people are reading only
books that their communities make important or even mandatory to read. There is no
general audience for most nonfiction books, and chasing after such a mirage is usually far
less effective than connecting with one’s communities.

8. Most book marketing today is done by authors, not by publishers.
Publishers have managed to stay afloat in this worsening marketplace only by shifting
more and more marketing responsibility to authors, to cut costs and prop up sales. In
recognition of this reality, most book proposals from experienced authors now have an
extensive (usually many pages) section on the authors’ marketing platform and what the
authors will do to publicize and market the books. Publishers still fulfill important roles
in helping craft books to succeed and making books available in sales channels, but
whether the books move in those channels depends primarily on the authors.

9. No other industry has so many new product introductions.
Every new book is a new product, needing to be acquired, developed, reworked,
designed, produced, named, manufactured, packaged, priced, introduced, marketed,
warehoused, and sold. Yet the average new book generates only $50,000 to $150,000 in
sales, which needs to cover all of these new product introduction expenses, leaving only
small amounts available for each area of expense. This more than anything limits how
much publishers can invest in any one new book and in its marketing campaign.

10. The book publishing world is in a never-ending state of turmoil.
The thin margins in the industry, high complexities of the business, intense competition,
churning of new technologies, and rapid growth of other media lead to constant turmoil
in bookselling and publishing (such as the disappearance over the past decade of over 500
independent bookstores and the Borders bookstore chain). Translation: expect even more
changes and challenges in coming months and years.

STRATEGIES FOR RESPONDING TO “THE 10 AWFUL TRUTHS”
1. The game is now pass-along sales.
2. Events/immersion experiences replace traditional publicity in moving the needle.
3. Leverage the authors’ and publishers’ communities.
4. In a crowded market, brands stand out.
5. Master new digital channels for sales, marketing, and community building.
6. Build books around a big new idea.
7. Front-load the main ideas in books and keep books short.

By Steven Piersanti, President, Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Updated September 26, 2016

Vector illustration credit: Vecteezy!

“In this new marketplace in which all book sales depend on the author’s efforts and general retail book sales are flat, doesn’t it just make more sense to self-publish?”

Berrett-Koehler President and Publisher Steve Piersanti responds:

One of The 10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing that I have written about highlights how most book marketing today is done by authors, not by publishers. That statement has led some observers to question what value publishers offer and whether authors would be better off self-publishing their books, given that the authors, more than their publishers, will drive sales. The case for self-publishing is further strengthened by today’s ability of authors to reach the marketplace through Amazon.com, the new social media, and the authors’ own websites.

In fact, I concur that self-publishing is the best avenue for many books, and I often encourage authors to go this route—particularly when they are able to sell many copies of their books through their own channels.

However, a good commercial publisher still brings tremendous value to the book publishing equation in multiple ways:

1. Gatekeeper and Curator: In today’s insanely crowded marketplace with an overwhelming number of publications competing for our attention, publishers select and focus attention on books of particular value and quality, thereby helping those books stand out. The validation, visibility, and brand provided by publishers add great value to those books.

2. Editorial Development: Berrett-Koehler raises the editorial quality of each book in several ways, including extensive up-front coaching of authors to improve the focus, organization, and content; detailed reviews of the manuscript by potential customers to make the book more useful to its intended audience; and professional line-by-line copyediting. Such editorial development is often pivotal to a book’s success.

3. Design: Self-published books often stand out in a negative way because their covers and interiors appear underdesigned (or overdesigned). Some self-published books lack the professional and appropriate appearance that good publishers bring to books.

4. Production: Although authors can now produce books on their own computers, publishers can save authors a lot of work while bringing higher quality to layout, proofreading, indexing, packaging, and other aspects of production.

5. Distribution: Publishers can usually make books available through many more channels (trade and college bookstores, multiple online booksellers, wholesalers, and other venues not open to self-publishing companies) than authors can on their own.

6. International Sales: Berrett-Koehler’s books are sold around the world through distributors in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and Canada.

7. Networks of Customers: Berrett-Koehler brings books to the attention of our networks of individual customers, institutional customers, bulk sales customers, association book services, catalog sellers, other special sales accounts, and countless other groups. We have been building up these networks for eighteen years, and they add lots of value in helping books to succeed.

8. Publicity and Promotion: Although the publicity and promotion efforts of authors may actually exceed those of their publishers, publishers still reach many prospective buyers that authors cannot reach on their own. This is particularly true for a publisher like Berrett-Koehler that has a multichannel marketing system that combines online, direct mail, bookstore, publicity, social media, e-newsletter, website, special sales, conference sales, and other channels of marketing for each new book.

9. Foreign Translation Rights, Audio Rights, Digital Rights, and Other Subsidiary Rights Sales: This is an area of great focus and success for Berrett-Koehler (with over two thousand subsidiary rights agreements signed thus far) and helps books to reach many more audiences than the publication of just the English-language print edition. Authors also receive extra revenue, a higher profile, and greater satisfaction when their books are published in a variety of languages.

10. Coaching: Perhaps the greatest value provided by publishers is less tangible than the previous items on this list. Just as coaching regarding a book’s content and organization can be pivotal to its success, so too can a publisher’s coaching on the title, price, design, format, timing, market focus, marketing campaign, and even tie-in to the author’s business strategies make a big difference in whether a book succeeds.

In the end, working with good publishers is a partnership. For books to succeed, authors and publishers must collaborate in many ways. For example, the publishers set the table through their marketing channels, but whether the books actually move in those channels often depends on the marketing that the authors carry out.

Berrett-Koehler has been extraordinarily fortunate in that so many of our authors have worked with us—and continue to work with us—in this partnering way. We have tried to spell out some aspects of this partnership in the Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for BK Authors.

We also appreciate the many BK customers who partner with BK and with our authors in spreading the word about our publications, serving as manuscript reviewers, and contributing in countless other ways.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Vector graphic designed by vecteezy.com