What can a print publisher even do for you now?

Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch – always a reliable source of analysis from the word-mines of making a living as a professional author – digs into some of the recent publishing numbers that have just come out via Data Guy, and asks the question, just what can a print publisher even do for you now?

Basically, the fiction selling game is mostly online and within that, mostly Amazon-owned, now.

KKR says …

According to Data Guy, three-quarters of all U.S. adult fiction is bought online. Again, that’s print, audio, and e-book.

And she highlights the fact that in many genres, indie is the only way to go – just forget about traditional publishing.

Every single genre has at least a 70% e-book sales rate. That means of all books sold, at least 70% of them in adult fiction are e-books. Which is online. Which means that selling your book to a traditional publisher, who often does less with their e-book editions than indie writers do, will actually hurt your readership, not help it.

And she then looks at how badly African Americans have been served by the previous gatekeepers of culture …

To understand the kind of myopathy that the entertainment industry (including the book industry) has shown to African Americans, look at the stunned surprise the movie industry (and pundits) have displayed just this month as the movie Hidden Figures ruled at the box office.

You can read her full article over at http://kriswrites.com/2017/01/25/business-musings-the-data-divide/

Indie writer versus Traditional writer? Who won/lost in 2016?

Category: Writer's Dojo