Dan Poynter's View
Participants in the 2005 Book Summit: Industry Leaders Discussing the Future of Publishing in a Flat World are being asked for their views. Dan Poynter, the country's leading expert on independent and self-publishing, is one of the summit organizers. Dan's thoughts on the future of book publishing follow.
Black and white printing is moving offshore; mostly to China. Offshoring will appeal to the large publishers who are trying to cut costs and have the luxury of an 18-month production cycle. Local digital printing will be used for smaller runs and where quicker turnaround is required. To better understand what is happening, read The World Is Flat by Thomas
L. Friedman.
One-third of the world's books are sold in the United States. Last year, 195,000 titles were published, an increase of about 10% over 2003. The increase in title output will continue. See parapub.com/statistics/.
Another interesting trend is the number of editions books are appearing in: hardcover, softcover, large PRINT, eBooks, audiobooks, etc. For example, see Stephen King's book Dreamcatcher at Amazon.com. It is available in nine editions. King wrote it once and it is being sold/consumed nine different ways.
Since 1998, I have promoted The New Book Model or Simultaneous Publishing. It advocates a digitally printed initial run of about 500. See parapub.com/getpage.cfm?file=newbook.html.
The greatest challenge for print-on-demand publishers and digitally printed books is packaging. All books need good design, professional editing and jazzy covers to attract attention and to describe the contents. If you want your book to sell like a book, it has to look like a book. Authors and publishers must invest in the wrapper if they want people to consume the contents.
Black and white printing is moving offshore; mostly to China. Offshoring will appeal to the large publishers who are trying to cut costs and have the luxury of an 18-month production cycle. Local digital printing will be used for smaller runs and where quicker turnaround is required. To better understand what is happening, read The World Is Flat by Thomas
L. Friedman.
One-third of the world's books are sold in the United States. Last year, 195,000 titles were published, an increase of about 10% over 2003. The increase in title output will continue. See parapub.com/statistics/.
Another interesting trend is the number of editions books are appearing in: hardcover, softcover, large PRINT, eBooks, audiobooks, etc. For example, see Stephen King's book Dreamcatcher at Amazon.com. It is available in nine editions. King wrote it once and it is being sold/consumed nine different ways.
Since 1998, I have promoted The New Book Model or Simultaneous Publishing. It advocates a digitally printed initial run of about 500. See parapub.com/getpage.cfm?file=newbook.html.
The greatest challenge for print-on-demand publishers and digitally printed books is packaging. All books need good design, professional editing and jazzy covers to attract attention and to describe the contents. If you want your book to sell like a book, it has to look like a book. Authors and publishers must invest in the wrapper if they want people to consume the contents.
posted by Brian Jud at 1:21 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home