Indie Authors, the trend is your friend!

There is an old saying around Wall Street, “the trend is your friend.” Don’t buck it nor try to get greedy with it, just ride it. The same can be said about anything in life and especially when it comes to being an Independent Author.

On January 4th,  Written Word published their Top 10 Trends. I am going to go through them and lend my insight or thoughts. The link to the article is at the end.

 1. The Majority of Fiction Sales will Come from eBooks

Data Guy notes in his DBW White Paper that 70% of adult fiction sales were digital last year. It is likely that ebook readership will continue to grow in 2017. More eBook readers means more eBook sales. This means that if you’re writing fiction, promoting your eBooks is a good place to focus in the coming year.

This is obviously good news for us Indie Authors as the market will stay strong.  But is also can mean more competition.

2. Indie Authors and Small Presses will Dominate

In the October 2016 author earnings report we saw the Big 5’s market share continue to drop. Small presses, Indie authors, and Amazon imprints account for over 50% of market share. This shows a continued shift in reader perception: a book does not need to be traditionally published and available in brick and mortar stores in order to be deemed readable. Jane Friedman of The Hot Sheet foresees a tough year for traditional publishers.

This is a key piece of data.  Is it any wonder that we saw last week’s article by Laura Gough dissing indie authors.  Add in the closing of AllRomance, Ellora’s Cave and others at the end of 2016. Self Publishing has taken over.

3. Amazon Imprints will Command Top Spots

Amazon now has 13 active publishing imprints, each catering to its own genre market. In 2016, 7 out of the top 10 Kindle best-sellers were books published by their imprints. Data Guy also reports that Amazon imprints took an additional 4% of the market share in the last quarter. While there is no stated proof that Amazon’s algorithms favor Amazon published titles, the rankings make a convincing argument that they do.

While we gripe about Amazon and some of their iron-fisted approach, they are still the 800# gorilla of the marketplace.  What is interesting is the Createspace opportunity. If we make that work it is off to the races.

4. Kindle Unlimited Readership will Continue to Grow

In his 2017 predictions, Mark Coker of Smashwords talks about the value proposition of Kindle Unlimited for readers (point number 7). For your average reader, Kindle Unlimited is a no brainer, in the same way that Spotify and other music streaming services are no brainers for consumers. This is exacerbated by the language that Amazon uses to market their service to readers, namely by telling readers that a book is “free” if they are a subscriber.

If Amazon had not banned, Facade’s Surrender, I would still be part of KU. In fact, I was looking at returning to the program.  Then my sales of the four-book set at Smashwords took off. Still mulling it around.

5. Crowding will Result in Increased Competition

Mark Coker talks about how the life cycle of a book has changed with the introduction of digital listings. It used to be that once a book stopped selling (or if it never sold at all) it was removed from the shelves, no longer discoverable by readers. Since eBook retailers don’t have to limit their “shelf space”, books stay available and discoverable for much longer (potentially forever). This means that the competition only continues to rise as not only do new authors begin publishing, but the old ones continue to put out new books and republish their backlists.

This one is a no-brainer. We Indie Authors need to think long and hard where we position our books within our genre.  To be aware of what is happening in that genre. I write urban erotica. There are over 16,000 titles in that space!  The old axiom of know your market holds true, and the riches are in the niches.

6. Audiobooks will Gain in Popularity

The Pew Research Center reported an increase in audiobook listeners in 2016, with 14% of survey respondents saying that they listened to books. Additionally, The Association of American Publishers reports that audio remains the fastest growing format. This trend is driven by changes in how and where we listen to content. Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn weighed in on the effect of smart home speakers on content consumption.

This is a key one I believe.   I will be looking into this more as the year proceeds. There are some interesting quotes so take a look at the link.

7. Marketing will Determine the Winners

We all know that writing a book is only half of the battle. In an increasingly crowded eBook market, successful authors are authors who spend time and money marketing their books. Time and time again, email marketing has proven to be the best way to engage an audience. Ricardo from Reedsy has seen a rise in authors seeking assistance with marketing:

…A profession I see emerging more and more is that of “book marketers”, i.e. people with strong digital marketing skills (often authors themselves) who know about Amazon SEO, lead generation, email marketing, and search & social advertising. They’re more than VAs in that they work with the author to draw a marketing plan and then teach them how to execute it.- Ricardo Fayet, Reedsy

Boom!  I know you all were waiting for it. The thorn in our side, the fly in the ointment and the bane of our existence.  We as indie authors have limited budgets or if any at all. Meaning you will need to find time to learn one or two devices of marketing and become real good at them. Or fall into the morass of many and drown.

8. The Performance of Facebook Ads will Decline

Facebook ads continued to gain popularity among every business, large and small in 2016. Greater demand for Facebook ads led to increasing costs on the platform, which made their efficacy go down for marketers focused on ROI. Mark Dawson of The Self Publishing Formula recommends supplementing your social media advertising with Amazon Marketing service ads:

Amazon Marketing Service ads are likely to become the next big thing in the indie ads space. I have been experimenting with them on a reasonably large scale, and am achieving a steady 80% return on investment. By merging traditional CPC campaign strategy with specific tactics particular tot he ebook space, savvy authors could make a killing before too many people try to muscle their way into the market.- Mark Dawson, The Self Publishing

Since I write erotica, I am closed off from FB ads (Amazon and Twitter too). I am going to re-look at Amazon and see if there are any opportunities there.

9. International Audiences Provide Opportunities for Growth

Mark Lefebvre of Kobo Writing Life has always been an advocate for expanding your audience internationally. His prediction for 2017 is that:

More indie authors will find audiences outside the more established markets of the US and the UK by embracing publishing wide. Yes, there is still digital growth in these areas, but there are so many other English and non-English language markets globally that have been growing in the same way that the US and the UK was growing a few years ago, and many authors publishing through Kobo Writing Life are starting to see growth in those markets (and yes, even without translating to other languages)- Mark Lefebvre, Kobo Writing Life

This one fascinates me!  This will be my focus for 2017. I have been looking at the German market. It is huge and they have a thirsty appetite for erotica.

10. Authors Will Band Together

When we reached out to Jason Freeman, CEO of Instafreebie, his thoughts on the coming year were hopeful:

My prediction for 2017 is that we’ll continue to see a trend of authors supporting other authors through collaboration on promotions. Whether it’s through group giveaways, anthologies, and samplers, authors will continue to find success when they understand that promoting their book is not a zero-sum game.- Jason Freeman, Instafreebie

This will take time but I think it has merit.  Especially in the anthology market.

Here is the link to the full article.  There are some other good quotes and what it means to us directly.  https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/2017...

I deliberately held off with graphics as not to clutter the page today. But will leave you with one

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