Blogger: Mary Keeley
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) 2015 year-end report was an interesting mixture of up’s and down’s. Some stats were surprising, based on the previous year. Data from more than 1,200 publishers, including “religious publishers,” covering all genres and formats, shows that overall sales were down 2.6 percent from 2014. But that isn’t the end of the story. We talk often here about the need for authors to develop resilience in your writing life. Today, let’s examine a few indicators that point to the resilience of the publishing industry.
- Good News. CBA publishers I spoke to are well past the hit they took as a result of the Family Christian Stores bankruptcy and re-purchase. If you recall, publishers had to absorb hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of dollars in unpaid product invoices and they didn’t get their product returned so they could resell it. Publishers were willing to accept their losses because they didn’t want to see this major distribution channel disappear. Recovery from this double hit in a relatively short time points to the industry’s resilience.
- More Good News. Remember not too many years ago, when prognosticators were predicting the gloom and death of print books? Well, they were wrong. While ebook sales declined last year, trade book sales have been on the increase in recent years, due in part to
millennials’ and younger readers’ preference for print books. Those prophets of doom didn’t anticipate that these groups, who typically are glued to their electronic devices all day, would prefer to read hard copy books for pleasure or study. This is a lesson authors should apply as well: Get to know your readers’ felt needs, reading desires, and lifestyle needs, because what you write still is—and forever will be—all about your readers. Attention to this will feed your career’s resilience.
- Even More Good News. Downloaded audio book sales across the entire industry were up 39 percent last year. We’d been hearing during the year that audio books were doing well, but that statistic surprised me. It made sense when I thought about it, though. Audio books meet readers’ needs in their busy lifestyles.
- What at first was ominous news may have a resilient upturn. Ebook subscriptions didn’t do well last year. Some speculate that this relates to consumer lifestyle (again). You can subscribe to lots of music and listen to it while doing other things. But in today’s fast-pace lifestyle, people can read only so many books in a given time frame. Valid point. Oyster and Entitle shut down operations toward the end of last year, leaving only Scribd, which provides both audio books and ebooks, and Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited to provide subscription services. However, resilience in the publishing industry reigns again. Companies such as Playster might reignite the subscription model, which was once viewed by many in the industry as the future of publishing. Playster is a global, multi-content entertainment platform, one-stop shopping for TV shows, movies, video games, and yes, ebooks. By April of this year all of the BIG FIVE publishers had signed on to partnerships with Playster. Hopefully, they will make this service available to their Christian imprints as well. Just as financial professionals advise investors to diversify, this type of multi-content company might bolster the ebook subscription model. I envision more companies like Playster on the horizon.
These indicators teach us that we can’t predict with any accuracy what will or won’t work in publishing apart from anticipating readers’ lifestyle needs. This goes for authors and your audience as well as for publishers. They also are evidence of the resilience of the publishing industry. And that God is ever present, providing for Christian publishing.
What do you think after reading this? How do you find this information encouraging for where you are at in your writing life now? In the future? Have you heard about or observed other evidence of the industry’s resilience?
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I haven’t read anything on my Nook in months. At work yesterday, I printed off a 30-page government document. Work or pleasure, I want a break from screen time. I thought it was my aging eyes. But maybe I’m a trend!
*Thank you, Mary, for the optimistic report.
You are welcome, Shirlee. Isn’t it good to know we aren’t alone in wanting a break from screen time? I smile every time I see a young reader with a print book in his or her hand.
Thanks for sharing the encouraging news, Mary!
An independent bookstore in Lexington, KY is hosting concerts every weekend this summer. We attended one this past weekend, and the place was packed. I was encouraged by how many people attended and went inside to buy books. I think hosting the concerts is a creative way to draw readers into the store.
Author signings also draw customers; I did several signings at each of the local Hastings’, and had health permitted I could have done more; they wanted me back.
* There’s something about having a real live author sign a copy of a book that really appeals to many people, and it’s hard to do with a Kindle.
* But yes, I did once autograph a Kindle. A chance meeting in a Barnes and Noble coffeeshop led to a lady downloading the digital version of BPH, and when I said that I wish I could sign it for her, she pulled a Sharpie from her purse and said, “Sure you can.”
Jackie, you are so right. What a great story about how resilience and creativity work together.
Concerning the sale of prints books vs. e-books, the return to agency pricing by the Big 5, no doubt copied by the little 1195, and the resulting $4-8 increase in average price for e-books likely had more to do with that than reading habits. I mean, if you have to pay $15 for the trade paperback and $15 for the e-book (when you’ve been paying $8 or $9 for e-books), you’ll likely buy the print book. The pocketbook is still a deciding factor for most consumers. Personally, I read about equally on my Nook and in print books.
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Concerning subscription services, my fledgling sales tanked to nothing the month Kindle Unlimited opened. My limited experience is that subscription services will only benefit authors who already have a good sized following.
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Publishers have accomplished exactly what they set out to do by raising e-book prices: slow the consumer migration from print books to e-books. How this will play out in the future I have no idea, and no means of predicting. The 2.6% drop in sales, to me, seems ominous, and the purposeful suppression of e-book sales doesn’t overcome that. I do know that the AAP data misses a sizable and growing chunk of the market.
Point well taken about ebook pricing, David. That surely is a factor as well. A few years ago CBA publishers told us that their ebook sales were keeping their doors open following very hard years. However, in the past year or two some CBA publishers have been sending blasts weekly–even daily–offering a selection of their ebooks at greatly reduced prices to encourage ebook sales.
The 2.6% drop in revenue covers all tracked categories. But sales in adult fiction and nonfiction were up 2.2% (1.2% among religious publishers), and the 39% increase in audio book sales are encouraging stats.
What wonderful news, Mary! Thank you for this.
* Regarding the drop-off in ebook sales, their offering a less-satisfactory reading experience might have something to do with it.
* There’s an interesting article in ‘Scientific American’ that makes the point that reading is not merely a visual process; it’s also tactile, in that the printed book is a three-dimensional ‘landscape’ and our engagement with the book makes use of qualities that are unavailable in an ebook.
* For example, we tend to remember and ‘hook’ what we read in a physical context. The placement of a sentence within a paragraph, the placement of a paragraph on a page, and the location of that page within the book. This allows us, for example, to quickly find passages we’ve already read and choose to re-read since we know where we’ve seen those particular words, and can immediately go there using the intuition of our tactile faculties. You can’t really do that in an ebook; scrolling doesn’t mobilize this powerful tool in our brains. When we scroll, we’re limited to a one, or at best two-dimensional of what is essentially a three-dimensional experience; we can see a meaningful presentation of physical context on one or at best two pages, but we don’t have access to the third,vertical dimension, the position within the ‘stack’ of pages.
* There may be something similar at work the the refusal of brick-and-mortar to heed the auguries of the digital seers, that they are to creep away and die. I, for one, place a store-bought book in context. I generally remember where I bought it, and when; sometimes I tuck the receipt into the book itself as a subconscious way to hold a pleasant day safe in memory.
* Here’s the link to the article mentioned above –
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/
Interesting, Andrew. “…reading is not merely a visual process; it’s also tactile, in that the printed book is a three-dimensional ‘landscape’ and our engagement with the book makes use of qualities that are unavailable in an ebook.” This surely is true for me and apparently for a lot of other readers too. Being able to see the passage I’m currently reading in relation to the complete book helps me to anticipate what is ahead too.
Thanks for the link. I’d like to read the entire article.
And besides, if you really hate a printed book you can throw it across the room. Doing that with a Kindle gets expensive.
One thing you have to give the Kindle and Nook is that they eclipsed one of Mark Twain’s best loved sayings –
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read.” No longer!
This is very encouraging. Thank you, Mary. I still read e-books and print books. I usually find myself reading e-books when I get one at a bargain price. I’ll feel a little guilty at paying such a low price, but I think it’s a great plan because usually the one at a bargain price will be the first of a series … and I’ll find myself hooked and have to buy the rest. And then I will have come to love the author so much that I’ll purchase her new release–usually the print book–mostly for support. 🙂
Shelli, your plan is a win-win. And I love the way you incorporate a supportive attitude for fellow authors. What goes around will surely come around.
One of the things I love about the Books and Such posts is that you ladies keep a positive, yet accurate, perspective. Thank you for helping us, your readers, to look beyond the doom-and-gloom that could be easy to fall into.
*One of the things that stood out to me was the importance for writers/authors to have an idea of how our readers’ lifestyles impact their reading habits.
*It’s interesting to see the different things publishers have done to keep up with all the new technologies out there. They are learning how to adapt and utilize different venues (for lack of a more accurate word) to get books into readers’ hands. Whether it’s through audio, revamping subscriptions, ebooks and hard copy books.
*I find great encouragement in that. Thanks for sharing these insights, Mary!
I agree, Jeanne. It’s encouraging indeed to see publishers trying new things. Not too many years ago when they were in survival mode, seemingly sitting on their hands not knowing what to do. Next week I plan to focus on one technological advance that is both good and not so good, which published and yet-to-be-published authors need to be ready to respond to.
I look forward to that post, Mary. 🙂
I have dozens of books on my Nook and Kindle that I’ve never read, but I read about half a dozen hard copy books a week. Guess I’m old fashioned.
There’s nothing wrong with old-fashioned, Janet. 🙂 I’ve discovered being able to listen to books on my Kindle Fire. The reading isn’t performance quality, and sounds slightly robotic, but overall, it’s a great way for me to get through some of the books that have been sitting on my Kindle for far too long. 🙂 I love a good hard copy book too. 🙂
Thanks, Jeanne.
Janet, I’m with you. At the end of the day when I reach for something read for pleasure, I inevitably pick one of the print books on my to-read pile over the many on my iPad. According to the stats, we are among the growing percentage of readers.
Good to know we’re not outdated.
It’s interesting that you still read for pleasure after all the professional reading you have to do.
I need to ‘just keep swimming’.
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As for reading print or ebooks?
I’ve moved my Kindle app to my phone and usually read off that. Simply because it’s easier for my very arthritic hands to hold the phone instead of a bigger print book.
I hadn’t thought of that reason, Jennifer. Good point. Thanks for adding that.
Mary, I kept expecting to get to the “bad news” section. Thankfully there was none! how exciting!
Yes indeed, Peter. Sales for Children’s and YA were down, but adult fiction and nonfiction trade book sales were up, due in part to adult coloring books.
It definitely is encouraging to see publishers trying new things and beginning to look for a broader range of genres.
I’ve been addicted to audiobooks for years. They represent 90% of all the books I buy. You can plug in the earbuds and listen at 2:00 a.m. without disturbing a soul.
All the sleep experts tell us to turn off all electronic devices at least an hour before bedtime. If we want a good night’s sleep, we should listen and cozy up to an actual book. I read at night until my eyes droop and fall into a comfortable sleep. I liked to hold a book in my hands when I read to our grandchildren when they were young, too. When I’m at a book selling event, I ask if people read e-books (because mine are available that way, too) and the majority scrunch their noses and say, “No. I like to hold the book.”