I subscribe, free of charge, to John Kremer’s weekly newsletter which offers great marketing tips, useful facts, and other things related to the world of book marketing. If you’re a writer with a published book and you’re not familiar with Kremer, his is a good name to know. He’s the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book, now in its six edition. I have a copy of an earlier edition and it’s an excellent resource for both fiction and nonfiction writers.
In his April 19th newsletter, Kremer wrote that after compiling information from its Books in Print database, Bowker states that 288,355 books were published by traditional publishers in 2009, but a whopping 764,448 titles were published by print-on-demand services. That’s over one million titles released last year!
Traditional publishers published 45,000 novels, 32,300 children’s books, 19,300 religious titles, 15,400 science titles, and 26,000 economic titles. Also, three companies, BiblioBazaar, Books LLC, and Kessinger Publishing reprinted almost 700,000 titles which means authors are not only competing with new titles, but nearly another million re-released books. I’m beginning to think it’s a small miracle that anyone sells anything.
Kremer went on to add that the main POD publishers were CreateSpace with 21,819 titles, Lulu.com with 10,386 titles, Xlibris with 10,161, AuthorHouse with 9,445 titles and PublishAmerica with 5,689 titles.
Since these are print titles, that’s an awful lot of paper, don’t you think? If you’re interested in Kremer’s newsletter, visit his website to find other good stuff at http://www.bookmarket.com/
As always, my amateur sleuth, Vancouver-based, Alex Bellamy mysteries can be found at:
FATAL ENCRYPTION,http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl
TAXED TO DEATH,http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n
2 comments:
I've been a subscriber to Kremer's blogs, rtwitter feeds and such for nearly 2 years now. His insight is usually spot on but I disagree with his assessment of the value of Twitter as a marketing tool. Despite his advice, which I have followed closely, Twitter has been a waste of resources and time. I can track a single book sale to over 300 hours spent on Twitter. Otherwise, he is a great resource to follow and read.
I agree with you, James. Twitter is one big advertising forum that doesn't inspire people to buy books, though I have a collegue who does sell her nonfiction book quite well that way. I also notice that my blog count spikes when I mention a new posting on Twitter, but that doesn't translate into sales.
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