And they said readers were a dying breed? I beg to differ!
This morning I finally started catching up on the mounds of reading material that sat patiently waiting on the corner of my desk. Some of it books I promised to read for reviews. Some of it books I want to read. And some of it, a short stack of magazines I just couldn’t seem to get around to picking up.
While I was reading my latest IBPA Independent magazine, a trade magazine for independent publishers by the Independent Book Publishers Association, I ran across a few interesting factoids in an article entitled Go Figure: Upward Momentum. So, instead of giving it to you in a nutshell, I going to give you the quote and the source, verbatim from the IBPA Independent.
“Indie publisher are selling more books, which means more profit for their authors. On average, 39% of a single-author publisher or indie publisher’s revenue goes back to the author.” —amazon.com
“Traditional publishing routes yield an average of $6000 for the author. Self-publishing or indie publishing a book can mean four times that—on average, self- or indie-published authors earn $24,000 in revenue.” —Digital Book World, AuthorEarnings.com
“Independent book retailers reported revenue increased by an average of 4.7% in 2015, including a 3.1% increase during the holiday season.” —“Independent Business Survey,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Advocates for Independent Business
“Print books aren’t the only ones slaying the market. Indie published e-book sales saw a 10% increase from February 2014 to February 2016.” —AuthorEarnings.com
“Bookstore sales rose by 3.8% from January 2015 to January 2016”. —American Booksellers Association”
What does all this mean? I don’t know, I was hoping someone would tell me!
My first impression is that, contrary to what so many naysayers in society claim these days, people still read. Book sales keep increasing in all formats—print, digital, and audio.
Print is still alive. Digital isn’t going away. And for those who don’t think they have enough time to read, audiobooks are thriving. All in all, it seems, more people are reading (listening) than ever before. They aren’t watching TV. They aren’t playing video games. They aren’t streaming videos on the countless electronic devices available these days. THEY. ARE. ENJOYING. BOOKS! And that’s the way it should be.
Next up: Why Authors Should Cross-Promote!
The post And they said readers were a dying breed? I beg to differ! appeared first on Chuck Barrett.
