In the traditional publishing landscape, small publishers and self-publishers found it very difficult or even impossible to get into the bookstores. The whole publishing industry was dominated by a few companies who had the funds and marketing power to dictate what you could buy and read.
Since it is expensive to print, market and distribute books, they rejected everything that didn’t fit their marketing strategy or could attract only a small niche of buyers. More that 90% of all manuscripts are rejected by the big publishers! Only what they thought was a sure bet was published. That’s why you find so many books from celebrities and authors in bookstores, who already have a name and following on TV or in print magazines.
But the times are changing.
Both traditional Publishers and bookstores are under heavy pressure because the power is switching from the publishing house to the reader. Because of sophisticated search capabilities on the web, the buyer will find what they want to read. Also, Social Networks will have an enormous influence. On these sites, people will make suggestions about what they read and their reviews will decide if a book or e-book will sink into obscurity or propel to the top.
The Bowker Report – the global leader in bibliographic information – reported that the U.S. production of traditional books was flat in 2009 compared to 2008 at about 290,000. However, it was an extraordinary year of growth in the number of “non traditional” books which were marketed almost exclusively on the web and printed on demand by self and niche publishers. Bowker projected that about 760,000 were produced and published that fell out of the traditional publishing definition. This number is a 181% increase over 2008, which doubled 2007′s output.
There are no estimates for ebooks, but I predict, that the output will be as great as print on demand, maybe even bigger. Sure there will be a lot of crap coming out of this fast growing print on demand and e-book market, but like YouTube videos, the best can make it into the news.
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