For book/ebook authors, publishers, & self-publishers

Opportunites for Savvy Publishers

In the 20th Century, the American book market grew to be the world’s largest (with over 33% of total books sold) because of superior titles. From Fitzgerald and Hemingway to Kerouac to Tom Peters, publishers produced new titles so compelling that readers had to have them. In the decade of the 2000s, however, more and more books were published (thanks to POD and short-run, digital printing) and quality was negatively impacted. In 2008, over 400,000 new titles were introduced—many of them were not well written or properly vetted. The same hard cover book that sold for $19.95 in 1999 cost $29.95 in 2008, yet the production value and the content were worse than 1999.

When readers rebelled in 2008 and 2009 against paying more for the same or less quality product, publishers were forced to cut costs. Publishers worldwide laid off hundreds of employees and blamed it on the recession.

On closer examination, and with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, the slow down in book purchases (which should have increased, or at least stayed flat, as people cocooned in their homes) was caused by traditional publishers inability from 1999 to 2008 to provide new, compelling titles. Small publishers poorly informed readers of exciting titles traditional publishers were not providing. And the brick and mortar retailers made the business decision to offer less shelf space to all but the top selling titles. All this forced consumers from 1999 to 2008 to spend money on an increasingly limited set of titles—driving up prices and alienating readers.

Out of chaos comes opportunity. There has never been a better time to publish compelling titles that readers want.

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Comment by Bill Frank on July 29, 2009 at 9:05pm: Maria—
Wow! So many good questions. Thanks for your comments.

Don't read too much into POD books lowering publishing standards. Many POD books are well written and well designed. I believe that every book should published, so long as it can be published profitably. There are many POD books that don't meet my qualifications. Of course, there are many traditionally published books that don't either.

What I mean to say about the lowering of production and content standards is that publishers have taken the easy way out too often and readers rebelled. How many Chicken Soup books do we really need? How many Who Moved My Cheese books do we need? It's easier to create a series of books based on a successful first title than it is to vet a new author writing new, unproven material.

When I say independent publishers poorly inform potential readers, I'm talking about how difficult it is for a small publisher to get the word out about a new book. The internet has made it easier—that's true, but it's still hard to rise above the clutter when 400,000 new books are published each year.

You ask about book returns. They are the bane of the publishing industry. The dirty little secret that nobody wants to address. The history behind returns dates back to The Great Depression, when nobody was selling anything, let alone books. Smart publishers convinced bookstores to accept their books "on consignment," promising that if the books didn't sell, the bookstore could return them for a full refund. Time moved on, but nobody told the publishers that The Depression was over. They never changed the returns policy. The bookstores have little incentive to change the policy. In fact, bookstores use the returns policy to boost their cash flow. They order books without paying for them in advance, take them into the store and return them for a full refund after 90 days. Since the bookstores don't pay shipping either direction, there is no financial impact on them.

Depending on the genre, book returns can be between 20%-60% of the initial book order.

The best way to approach this new publishing environment is to use The New Book Model proposed by Dan Poynter in the Self-Publishing Manual. The basics of the model are to write good content, design a striking cover, print a limited number of books. use some of the printed books for Review Copies, sell the other printed books to cover the cost of printing all the books and wait for the reviews to come in from the good reviews before placing your next printing order. Repeat, as needed.

Comment by Maria Mar on July 28, 2009 at 10:02pm: Hi, Bill,

This post is like a history of book publishing in a paragraph. Ayayayay, Bill, I need a slow-motion second take.

In the first paragraph, you seem to be saying that POD books lowered the publishing standards and that as a reaction readers rebelled and publishers had to cut cost. This would mean that the fault for publishers having to cut cost was the outburst of POD publishing. Did I understand this well?

Then in the second paragraph, you revise that position --I think-- and say that it was the rigidity of the traditional publishers which was at fault, and that the book stores' limited shelf distribution didn't help either. Am I getting it right so far? But when you say that the small publishers "poorly" informed readers of interesting titles in that same paragraph, I get a bit confused as to how this all plays out.

What do you mean by "poorly" informed the public?

I am getting the sense that it was a mixture of all these things that created the book sales crisis. Let me know if I got it, or clarify what you are saying, please, as this subject is fascinating.

There's something that interests me and I am wondering if you could talk about this, if you haven't. (I'm new here.) What is this insane habit of book returns? How did it get started and why on earth is it still going? I mean, you can't use a piece of garment and then return it. But you can go home, read the book and return it the next day. This seems to me a really big waste of money and profit in the publishing world.

It seems to me that the publishing world has to change BIG TIME, but that traditional publishers are so, well... traditional that they are resisting it beyond all reason.

Finally, there is so much going on, in formats, publishing alternatives, ebooks, audio books, small publishers, online publishers, so-called self-publishers, etc, that it challenges us all. What would you recommend as measures to face this publishing revolution and improve book sales?

Light and love,
Maria Mar