How Big Changes in the Publishing World Affect You

     A friend of mine sent me an article titled, “10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing” by Steven Piersanti. He suggested I might find it interesting since I was in the midst of marketing my own book, A Broken Tree: How DNA Exposed a Family’s Secrets. This article was written in 2016 so the data is a few years old. However, given the nature of changes in the publishing world, I expect these statistics are still even more valid than ever. The article is enlightening and a must read for any author who is seriously thinking of becoming a published author.
Some of the statistics Piersanti shares include the following:

• The number of NEW books published each year in the U.S. has exploded to well over 1 million annually since 2007. At the same time, more than 13 million previously published books are still available through many sources. The marketplace is hugely over-saturated.
•  The U.S. publishing industry sales peaked in 2007 according to reports of the Association of American Publishers (AAP). Despite a 2.5% increase in 2015, U.S. bookstore sales are down 37% from their peak in 2007, according to the Census Bureau (Publishers Weekly, February 26, 2016). 
• The average U.S. nonfiction book is now selling less than 250 copies per year and less than 2,000 copies over its lifetime.
• For every available bookstore shelf space, there are 100 to 1,000 or more titles competing for that shelf space.
• People are reading only books that their communities make important or even mandatory to read. There is no general audience for most nonfiction books, and chasing after such a mirage is usually far less effective than connecting with one’s communities.
• Publishers stay afloat in this worsening marketplace only by shifting more and more marketing responsibility to authors. Publishers still fulfill important roles in helping craft books to succeed and making books available in sales channels, but whether the books move in those channels depends primarily on the authors.
• There is constant turmoil in book selling and publishing (such as the disappearance over the past decade of over 500 independent bookstores and the Borders bookstore chain). Translation: expect even more changes and challenges in coming months and years.

     What does all of this mean to established and new authors? It means that your #1 challenge will be to create a powerful, effective author’s platform, including a robust social media presence where readers can learn more about who you are and what you have to offer. To ignore this reality is to ensure the demise of your career as a successful author.
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