Monthly Archives: March 2011

Go Read This | A Newbies Guide to Publishing: The List Experiment Update

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I’m loving watching JA Konrath experiment with pricing the way he is, there’s much for him and others to learn. I wonder if any publishers are doing such brave and bold exercises? I suspect not. Though that said, I have watched some movement by publishers over the least few months and perhaps that indicates that they are.

I dunno if Disturb can crack the Top 100 or not. If it doesnt by the time The List drops to #90, then Ill put it back to $2.99 and drop the price on another, better-selling ebook. I believe Origin, Endurance, or Trapped could hit the Top 100 at 99 cents.

The concept of putting items on sale has served retailers well. Im thinking that my new sales strategy will always have one or two novels at 99 cents, and then rotate the titles monthly.

It should be fun to watch what happens for the rest of March…

via A Newbies Guide to Publishing: The List Experiment Update.

Go Read This | Bloomsbury sees ebook sales leap – Telegraph

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In what is a fascinating piece for a number of reasons, The Telegraph reports on Bloomsbury’s successes in selling ebooks. I’m struck most forcefully by three things:

  1. Richard Charkin is as refreshingly open, honest and forthright as ever, which is good to see. We still miss his blog though.
  2. Bloomsbury have been playing the game pretty well on the library front and their partnership with Exact Editions seems to be yielding dividends.
  3. Charkin highlights the speed at which older readers are taking up ebooks. I’m not terribly surprised by this, but it is interesting, considering they remain amongst the most loyal readers!

Richard Charkin, executive director, said: “If sales continue the way they have in January and February, which we would fully expect, they are going to be off the scale. If that is an indicator of future growth then we expect digital sales of Bloomsbury titles be as high as 25pc of sales. They could be even higher.”

Bloomsbury, which reported £90.7m sales and £5.5m of pre-tax profits last year, would not reveal what proportion of profits ebook sales were likely to account for in 2011, but it is expected to be considerably higher than 25pc. Digital book margins are higher because there are no printing costs involved nor any extra costs incurred by over-estimating print runs or pulping books with errors in them. “The biggest saving is in cock-ups,” Mr Charkin said.

via Bloomsbury sees ebook sales leap – Telegraph.

Go Read This | From Book Oven to PressBooks, Hugh McGuire Shares His Startup Story

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This is why Hugh McGuire is so great, he’s clear-sighted and setting about fixing a REAL problem. Success cannot be too far away. I love the idea of PressBook, I want it to succeed, I’m sure it will:

Book production is broken right now, because it’s still focused on creating a print book, and then somehow generating an ebook. So ebooks are still an afterthought in production processes. But even more important, in the long run, is that those producing books aren’t yet even thinking about the web – which I’m certain will be the ultimate place that books will live.

via From Book Oven to PressBooks, Hugh McGuire Shares His Startup Story.

Go Read This | Will Independent Bookstores Seize the Day? « INVERSO

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Intrigued by this article:

Even if a substantial majority, say sixty percent, of the supply gap is captured by Amazon, B&N, or by a conversion to digital reading, there remain tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars of annual book sales up for grabs in towns like Southbury scattered across the United States. Our own ongoing consumer research, conducted by Verso Digital, provides additional reason for optimism. The data consistently point to a hybrid print and e-book market that will persist for decades. E-reader owners who classify as avid readers ten or more books bought per year are splitting their purchases between print and e-books in nearly identical numbers. Moreover, there is a sizable majority of readers, over 70%, who express strong resistance to the idea of screen-reading as a substitute for print, a percentage that has remained steady across multiple surveys over the past two years. The resistance is strongest among older 45-plus readers, who already account for more than two-thirds of the consumer books purchased in this country. As these readers downshift into retirement or more flexible work-leisure lifestyles, their proportion of the book market is likely to increase, further making the case for print’s durability.

via Will Independent Bookstores Seize the Day? « INVERSO.

Go Read This | Why Multichannel Bookselling is the Future | Publishing Perspectives

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I’ve been struck by how many booksellers are doing well by selling ebook readers. A casual comment hit me over the weekend when someone mentioned that the falling prices of non-branded ereaders was impacting overall revenues. That goes to show the value of owning the device as well as the channel to sell content on the device. On the other hand, it must be painful for bookshop staff to be selling devices that will ultimately close the majority of bookstores!

E-book-news.de recently reported that Thalia’s e-reader, the Oyo sold unexpectedly well in stores, not online. People wanted to touch and try out the readers. But once those Oyo readers are in use, their sales will be exclusively online, and it’s hard to imagine their e-books won’t cut into store sales you don’t have to go to a Thalia store to pick up your online purchase, which cuts out an important opportunity to buy stationary and a toy!, or that a more e-reader-educated generation might not be comfortable buying the readers online in the first place.

via Why Multichannel Bookselling is the Future | Publishing Perspectives.