There are 4,760,476 ebooks on Amazon right now.
They just keep growing and growing and …
Well, not right now as I’m writing this a few days before you will read it. So right now there are more than that. How many? I waited half an hour and refreshed my screen and there are now 4,763,122 ebooks available.
Half an hour added 2,646 books.
So yeah, right now there are way more ebooks on Amazon than I wrote above. We are quickly approaching the 5 million mark.
What You'll Learn
What does 5 million ebooks mean?
As a reader, it means a smorgasbord of books unlike any seen in history. If you can dream of wanting to read it, with a few carefully worded search queries you can probably find a book to match any crazy idea imaginable. I got 780 results for “space dragons,” but only 72 for “zombie romance with dragons.” I’m almost disappointed. Still, 72 people wrote something that related to zombie romance and dragons. And there is far crazier stuff out there.
I’ve often said that I wish I could be a teenager in this smart phone era if only for the accessibility of books! My choices were limited to a narrow Walden’s Bookstore at the local (45 minute drive) mall. And their selection… I guess you could call it a selection. At least I didn’t have to make the drive too often as the changeover rate ran about at the pace of a frozen stream.
But today with nearly five million ebooks on amazon with 88,620 of those showing up as being free using the search term “free books” and that is not even counting kindle deals or kindle unlimited borrowing… holy wow, I’d never have time to do my homework with that many books around!
As an author though, things are getting tough.
Don’t get me wrong. They aren’t nearly as tough as it is to find an agent to entice a publisher. But we’ve moved beyond the wild west of ebook publishing and deep into the gold rush era. There are so many authors out there that it is getting hard to stake a claim and the spots are getting awfully small. Just not much elbow room anymore.
What I mean is back when I published my first ebook in 2012, there were a lot less ebooks out there. How many? I couldn’t find exact figures, but it was still pretty much the tail end of the wild west days where you could toss up something with a horrid cover, no editing, and still find someone who loved you.
A smorgasbord of books on one device! Image by Jorghex via Wikimedia Commons
A bit of history
To give you perspective, it was Stephen King who paved the way for the ebook revolution back in 2000 when he released his novella Riding the Bullet exclusively online. Chaos ensued! So did epublishing.
The first truly digital ebooks (not on CD) were sold in 2001 for Palm Readers. There were 5,000 books. In 2001.
Amazon didn’t release its first kindle until 2007, which is the same year the ePub format came out (they aren’t even 10 years old!). For a fascinating overview of how fast the ebook market is growing, and how far back its roots go, check out this wikipedia article on ebooks.
In 2012, the year I first published, US ebook markets collected over $3 billion in revenue. There is gold in them there hills.
But is there? Really?
Modern ebook Publishing
I’m not going to say that there isn’t enough money to make a living as a full-time author. There is. People are doing it. Heck, it is possible to at least make extra money as an ebook author, enough to put a bounce in your step and a ton of sunshine in your heart.
What I’m talking about is something else. You see in 2015 AAP (Association of American Publishers) put out that ebook sales earnings were declining.
“After peaking in 2013 at $3.24 billion, eBook revenue declined to $3.20 billion in 2014 and again in 2015 by 11.3% to $2.84 billion. Unit sales also declined by 9.7%, with eBooks now making up 17.3% of the trade book market.” – Books Business Magazine
Of course that is mostly the traditional publishers talking about their books. But even if you take all ebook sales a whole, the growth in revenue is about 1% according to “tech analyst Ben Thompson [who] says in a post on this topic at Stratechery that the overall size of the ebook market appears to be holding more or less steady, growing at perhaps 1% or so per year.” As reported by Mathew Ingram over at Fortune Magazine.
So we have multitudes upon multitudes of new ebooks published annually, the existing ebook pool growing as, unlike traditional bookstores, an ebook never goes out of print or gets pulled off the shelf, and a flat to slight growth in ebook revenue. Does this sound like a gold rush to you? I want to send book pirates to career counseling so they find a more lucrative item to steal.
Not even a decade old! Photo by Andrew Mason via Flickr CCBY
Things have been changing with ebook sales for awhile
Back in 2012, a friend Bruce Blake posted the results of his free promo with 8,248 downloads in Amazon US. That isn’t too astounding when you consider that a BookBub feature will net you at least that. But that was by posting it to FREE sites.
Back in 2012, you could have a book run in its course in the KDP Select free days, do no advertising, and still get around 500 downloads. How do I know? I did it. And then I met Bruce and wised up so the next time I ran a promo I actually told people about it. How did I do? 2,400 downloads. With no paid advertising. The time after that I topped 9,000.
Fast forward to 2016.
Four short years and now if I pay $50 to a solid book marketer like BookSends and they distribute news of my sale, I get around 200 downloads. Freebooksy is slightly more expensive but usually lands me at least 1500 downloads for the $70 or so I spend.
Let me recap:
2012 for $0 I could manage at least 8,000 downloads with just a bit of time sending out the announcement to free book sites.
2016 for $75 I can get around 1500 downloads.
You see where this is going?
There are so many more books out there! I don’t care how good Amazon’s search algorithm is (and it is awesome), it can only fit so many book recommendations on its screen or in an email. Even buying and ad, I’m being listed with lots and lots of other books. Where your book is placed on that list can be pivotal to how many downloads you get ON A FREE BOOK.
And lots of people are giving books away for free to get noticed. There is an entire industry spring up around the idea of giving away books. It is what you do, after all, to attract new readers. Why should they have to pay to discover a new author when it is so easy to find a free book to see if they think you are worth the investment. I get it. I really do. As a reader as I’ve tossed a lot of free books instead of finishing them. But it is even getting difficult to give away free books.
The volume of books available and downloaded is increasing. The number of ebooks sold outpaces print. But remember the revenue is nearly flat. Books are going for cheap, baby!
That is the reality of recent book market, but something new has emerged in the last few months. I’d found a pretty steady niche of marketing once a month, giving away a few thousand books, and getting enough follow up sales to pay off the marketing, book editing, covers, and still had a little in my pocket to play with new markets.
Readers love ebooks, but how do you find your next great read?
In June 2016 that changed.
Sales were cut in half. Free downloads too. A few friends reported the same. A summer reading slump? How odd! Now I’ve seen a plethora of other author blogs mentioning the same thing. Sales are down and it all started about the same time in early summer.
So what the heck is going on?
Did Amazon change their algorithm? Maybe. But that such a change would affect so many other authors? I’m leaning toward the fact we are not new. I released a book in March of this year, and recently a few bundles, but everything has been tied to the same series. If you haven’t read the first book, you aren’t going to want to pick up #4. So I really haven’t creating anything fresh and all the success stories (and there are success stories!) I’ve seen are with new series published quickly (as in book releases a few months apart at the most).
I’m actually feeling a little dated.
I prefer to say seasoned. 😉 But the market right now is not the wild west and I think we just moved beyond the gold mining stage to something new, an era where the author who can launch with good covers, a tightly marketed brand, and a series rather quickly can float to the surface. How long they will stay, I don’t know.
You can’t rest on your laurels in this ebook town. No one cares what you did yesterday, not with 2,646 books published in half an hour. It is about what you are building this minute. I think the book market just got a little tougher and a little more refined. The tried and true tactics of finding a niche for your book, choosing stellar keywords, and running promotions isn’t enough. At least not to get your book to stay high in the charts and make over a thousand a month. Which is too bad because with only 72 other books to compete with zombie romance with dragons was sounding like an awfully good potential niche!
And if you are a newbie and don’t know the nuances of this much more sophisticated ebook market, you’ll either be buried in oblivion before you get going or might get scooped up by less than altruistic vanity press or small publisher. Watch out for the sharks!
Ebooks are the future, but for how many authors? Photo by Johan Larsson via Flicker CCBY
To sum up
Ebooks created an author’s dream world where you don’t need to be vetted by a publisher to create a book and reach fans. But it is also a monster where nothing dies. Ever. The backlog of available books will continue to accumulate. Visibility in that epic slush pile is the challenge.
If ebooks were a healthy market, the revenue would be growing. Maybe not as fast as the number of ebooks available, but it would be growing much more than 1%. This fact does not thrill me. Some key cog in our lovely machine isn’t spinning quite right.
Are there answers or hope? Possibly. I’m still mulling this over in my head, so I’ll get back to you with that!
What about you? Do you see a change in book marketing? How do you find the next book you want to read?
Great article and food for thought as I relaunch my own series. I don’t write fast so there won’t be a second book any time soon, though!
Things will surely change again. And you are on the right track with a mailing list and blog. Google’s search engine is better than Amazon and a fan Bae you can talk to directly is huge!
Hey Autumn! I love this post. It mirrors my thoughts on the current state of affairs with ebooks on Amazon. It would be interesting to see what percentage of the new ebooks are fiction vs non-fiction and how many will step into the market and decide not to write another. I definitely agree with what you are saying about fiction, but do you know how many of the additions must be bumped up by non-fiction as well? As a copywriter on the side, I see a swathe of ghostwritten non-fiction being published just to hook an email or give an appearance of professionalism for a service or product or blog. A large amount of that is padded with uselessness info, rather than quality content. With lots of poor quality fiction being released too, I wonder if the market is going to rebel upwards and step away away from the ‘free’ offer because the hit rate of quality is so poor. I might just be dreaming! 🙂 What I find is terrible is just a likely to become the next big sensation. The numbers are certainly daunting.
Thanks again for the great post!
Ooh, that is a really interesting point about the non-fiction. I’ve begun a book on writing fantasy, partially because I know it is another platform to let people know I have a webpage and courses, but never thought to have it ghost written! I’ll make sure to keep it sleek and useful. 😉 But you are so correct, there must be a slew of new non-fiction being published and that will have a different fight (though similar) to the one going on in the fiction realm.
I do think readers are getting more savvy. These are smart people! I do think there is still a lot of hope for the ebook market if you are producing quality work, but how authors reach readers (and how readers find authors) may change and could definitely be improved. But what is the next big thing …? I’ll probably guess wrong too, but at least we’ll be in the same boat. Glad you liked the post!
Wrote “The End” at the close of my first novel….and read this. So much to ponder as I head into the querying stage of the great big publishing world. (And wow! it’s bigger and scarier than I thought.) Thanks for opening my eyes.
Congrats, Mary! Finishing the first novel is such an awesome and wonderful achievement. Hope you had a glass of wine or bowl of ice cream (or both, which is my favorite) to celebrate.
eBook marketing and publishing is a big, daunting world, but it is best to go in with eyes open. The time for forgiveness on newbie mistakes is long past. So do some strong editing, find beta readers for feedback, hire a quality editor, get a great cover, find ways to tell the world about the forthcoming book now, and start the next one. 😉 Publishing and having some sales is great, but what is really awesome is hearing from readers who loved your book. I still get tingles to know a few readers have claimed me as their favorite author. ME! 😀 😀 I want to give them hugs and sunshine for saying that. So join the e-author group, just do so knowing writing the book and hitting publish is far from the last step.
Awesome post! I agree, it’s an awesome thing that we’re able to put all this information out there so people can stumble onto whatever they like, but the visibility thing is SO much harder. Eventually, though, I’m sure this will inspire lots of awesome marketing creativity that will help people stand out.
I hope so! There are so many websites out there to help people find books and such a growing industry to give away books, but it is all over the place. And the industry won’t survive on free books. It is awesome that Amazon allows us to give away books at all (I have two perma-frees!) considering they pay people to inspect it every time I upload a change even if it is as small as a keyword. Hosting a free book isn’t free at all. Writing a free book isn’t cheap either. But we do it because it allows authors to reach readers. But I’d love to imagine a world where discovering a new author that you’ll love is a bit easier. There is such a thicket of books out there, which is awesome and overwhelming at the same time – like going to a mega grocery store to buy tea … blindfolded!
Great post. I know Amazon tweaks their algorithms regularly (It seems they tend to do it after agreeing to a contract with a big publisher, so I think it’s something they compromise on), but the amount of books out there is the biggest reason, in my opinion. I kinda miss the Wild West days. Those were fun, but we have to keep moving forward. 🙂
The wide west days were fun, weren’t they? I look back and can’t believe how easy it was to sell or give away books. Wish I’d started e-publishing earlier so I could have enjoyed it longer. 😀 But yes, we can’t just look back. It is time to look forward and the reality is there are a LOT of books out there. It is more than rising to the top these days, but discovering a way to be found in all of that. Is it scary that world of mouth is still the biggest way to be discovered?
I would say as a reader that I love my reader (I don’t like saw TV). Don’t rely on many reviews (there is something weird sometimes). There’s too many books good & bads. So, I change my winds to Indie Authors.
1. A fresh view, renew of stories
2. Love to read, revise, review, cross-checked historical facts, dates and so on. Indies, accept sugestions with panache & keep comm channel opens. I can’t do it anymore (Mom very sick). But I creaty strong frienship bonds with many & still talk.
3. Many ask to do my stuff before publish, I do it an always for free & knowing that the expenses are large & the money tight. I buy the books.
3. Amazon is a monster too large & the recent scandal with TOC’S. Umh?
4. Big Names Authors are basking in their seats. I buy a book from my super favorite Mogul Author, he sold what? He took a piece of some of the previous books & dissapear almost completely the main character in the walls. So, he’s in my banned list.
Maybe I didn’t cover all what you express but, I feel good saying that.
Hi Eve! Thank you so much for the comments on what you look for as a reader. I’ve seen that too – the big name author just repacking a few things. I really do think readers are getting savvy. With so much to choose from it has got to be a good story that gets interesting very quickly, with good editing or a reader is going to toss it. Something to keep in mind as authors edit and write! Thanks for you comments and your support of indie authors!
I have written a nonfiction book, CyberDayze, which I plan to make a series. It’s my first book and I am excited about it being listed in Amazon, although my genre is yet to be decided, given the nature of the book. I’m hoping a new one will be made. I call it: Social Network Psychology. Any thoughts?
I like it! It sounds like it might make a good keyword at the least. Creating a new category is difficult (but not impossible) on Amazon. The goal is to make your book find-able but stand out. Look for anything similar (search Amazon’s book database with Social Network Psychology and variations to see what comes up) and see what genres they are using as well as covers. Use those for ideas, but do something original for your book. Congrats on finishing the book! 😀
Every day I wake up, Thrilled that I’m not in writing to sell books. I seldom get a hit, and have no real fans of my writing. I refuse to admit that it’s because my stuff isn’t that good. I prefer to think that with 5 million books out there, even Hemingway would have had a hard time finding an audience. Maybe the days of “The Hero gets the girl” type of book are gone. Oh well, I write what I like to read, the way I like it to be written. I’m on a fixed income, one that precludes earning money. I just write for the joy of writing, and hope it won’t sell in small amounts. If it sell like ‘New York Times list’ for a few months, I can just relax and replace the lost income, from my SS retirement, with income from the invested money of the book(s) I’ve sold. Anything else is just a pain, as it will cut back my retirement and gain me nothing. Very few authors are in my situation, and those that are generally feel as I do. It doesn’t matter what the world thinks, just please yourself. That works for me, and so I’ll just stay with it..
Hi Victor! I think writing because you love to write is really the best way to have it. Love the craft of writing, and the joy of bringing forth a story you love. If it sells, that is awesome. If you want to learn to sell it, there are ways and methods to learn. But to write just to want to earn millions … it sounds so shallow and REALLY HARD to me! 😀
Hi Autumn! You know my story so you know I have plenty of time for reading and writing. Being first an avid reader and lover of epic fantasy, Most books that I have read are those recommended by Authors that I love to read. Thanks to you I found Bruce Blake and a few others. Also about to publish my first I had know idea of these things. It is a lot to think about but I wrote out of love for my son. He gets the biggest kick out of reading about himself. If I can learn how better to sell then I’m all ears..
Hi A.J.! I love the reason you write and I’m so excited as your first publication comes closer and closer! I’m still investigating new ways of reaching readers so hopefully when you’ve launched your book, I’ll have some great tips for you. Until then, I would say blog about it, tweet about, post about it. Make sure people know you are writing a book so that you’ll have supportive and excited fans the moment it is published. That helps a lot!
Autumn, I have never actually written a book, but think about doing it. This article was very interesting and informative, and makes me realize that actually writing a book is probably the easiest part of the process. I wish you the best of luck!
Hi Debbie! Marketing is daunting, no doubt about it. And getting harder, which makes even the author’s with marginally good sales feel like instead of progressing we are scrambling to find a way to maintain footing. But if you the love book and writing … marketing is part of the aspect of being an author. Writing the book, especially that first draft is really the easiest part. Everything that comes after from editing to make a rough manuscript into something exceptional to how to publish and then how to market is the really steep learning curve! Thanks for stopping by and for your comment!
Autumn, thank you so much for this blog, and good to hear from you again. I have a new book which is almost ready for release. I fuss so much over my writing, that I won’t publish unless I have put it through the grills. I have no idea whatsoever about Marketing. I relied completely on my publishers to market my first two books, and what a poor job they did of it. Since then, I have been struggling to let the words out. This third time, I’m determined to go it all alone. This is why I ‘m so interested in what you have to say. By the way, I joined an awesome book club where we read and review each other. Maybe, you already know about the Rave Review Book Club (RRBC). You can check them out here: wp.me/P49Fi9-tI. Since joining them, I have noticed an increase in my book reviews, and sales. Of course, I give away lots of books too. I will try those free sites you mentioned, and will report the outcome when I do.
I’m so glad you find the info here useful! Marketing is an entirely different learning curve from writing. Even publishers rely on the authors, like you mentioned, to figure it out. Argh! What makes it worse is it can have nuances that works in some genres and not in others. But it IS possible to learn and even to have fun with it. After all, you get to talk about YOUR BOOK! Which is hopefully something you are passionate about. 😀
Is your book fantasy? I highly recommend my FB group Slay it for tips on marketing as well as indie publishing. Stop by! I have heard of RRBC, but not yet joined. I’m so horrid at signing up for things, I don’t know why! But I have heard good things and am glad you’ve found them helpful.
I have some posts planned on marketing and will keep analyzing to find what is working now. So stayed tuned and hope to see you back here!
I just joined your FB group. What next? Like I said, I will try anything that will help me with marketing. 🙂
For those of you following this article, here is another view of the situation: http://authorearnings.com/report/october-2016/. It is nice to know that what I am seeing is backed up by data. Indie sales really are down and the drop started in May. The question remains: What happened and what will the next quarter bring?
Sweet, sweet data. 🙂
I love data! All those science classes paid off in so many ways (elemental rules? Fire=heat+light and oh the crap a fire elemental can do!). But yikes, 5 million ebooks and growing!!! This data makes me want to hide under the covers and refuse to come out (unless bribed with tea).
This is absolutely right. I was selling hundreds snd sometimes thousands of books a month in 2014 and 2015 – now my covers are better, my stories are better and even my keywords are better, but sales have slumped. I think it’s time for a new model. Either niche, curated sites or pure subscription to read sites . Interesting times .
We lost Oyster as one of the first subscription sites, but that doesn’t mean someone else won’t make a better model. I’ve been wondering about niche sites too. The processes are in place for authors to easily sell books on their websites or pitch in together to create a stronger site. I hope whatever is going on with the Amazon ebook sales reverses and we are all back to great sales, but, whether this is a hiccup or the new trend, I think indie authors and a few entrepreneurs will look for and create new platforms. Ebooks won’t disappear! But the competition for attention is getting fierce. I’ve tweaked my covers recently too and after seeing some amazing new covers thought about doing it again. And then realized I just can’t. I need to be producing new work and looking for new ways of reaching readers. What we know worked before, like better covers and keywords, to get new attention just isn’t having the same results. Let’s create something else!
Hi Autumn!
You said this in one of your replies: like going to a mega grocery store to buy tea … blindfolded!
The ebook ONLY grew by 1% this last year because of the BIG PUBLISHERS! Anyone who prices their books at the prices THEY HAVE DONE, ARE NOT GOING TO SELL THEM AND THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT!! PUBLISHERS WANT THEIR PRINT BOOKS TO SELL OVER AND ABOVE THE EBOOK BECAUSE “THEY FEEL” THEY MAKE MORE MONEY IN THE LONG RUN WITH PRINT BOOKS BECAUSE EVERYTIME A PERSON IS READING THAT PRINT BOOK, IT IS ALSO ADVERTISING THAT PRINT BOOK TO ANOTHER READER! EBOOKS CANNOT DO THIS!
I don’t know if it is going to have to come down to the ereader manufacturers to SHOW THE COVERS OF THE BOOKS PEOPLE ARE READING??? That WOULD HELP!! Publishers want their books SEEN! They want them to be set down and have people lose them on purpose to other people SEE the books! With books, it’s ALL about SEEING the books for the BIG publishers! THEY feel that form of advertising is GONE! Yes, IT IS! So do the ereader manufacturers NEED to make devices that DO SHOW the COVERS of books people are reading??? Would that help? I don’t know? I tend to think so . . . ???
I AM sick and tired of the COST of the ebook, and the PRINT book costing LESS than the ebook! That just ticks me right off! That is WRONG! Then let’s talk about how every few years there is a HUGE lawsuit PROVING THE PUBLISHERS OVER-CHARGED FOR THEIR EBOOKS! We end up getting a refund from Amazon or wherever people purchased their ebooks! THIS IS WRONG!!!!
This last year I received MORE PRINT BOOKS FOR REVIEW THAN EVER BEFORE IN THE PAST! It’s as if the publishers are intentionally pushing to sell the print version of books on purpose! Why again? Advertising!!! ALWAYS ADVERTISING! An ereader does NOT SHOW the covers of the books people are reading, and the big publishers have ALWAYS COUNTED ON THIS FORM OF “FREE” ADVERTISING!
Now despite my receiving all these print books for review, the print books are the LAST BOOKS I EVER GET TO, “IF” I GET TO THEM TO READ THEM! I much prefer NetGalley over receiving books through the mail! For one, I have NO PLACE to put them! I PREFER TO READ ON MY EREADER! I have bad vision, and this ereader is GLORIOUS for bad vision! I can adjust EVERYTHING I want to with an ereader!
The one thing that REALLY TICKS ME OFF ARE THE PRICES THE PUBLISHERS CHARGE FOR EBOOKS WHEN THEY ARE NEW RELEASES!!! IT’S RIDICULOUS!!! IT REALLY TICKS ME OFF WHEN I SEE THE PRINT BOOK COSTING FAR LESS THAN THE EBOOK!!!!! We ALL KNOW the PRINT BOOK COST FAR “MORE” TO MANUFACTURE THAN THE EBOOK DID! THE EBOOK IS A COMPUTER FILE! IT COSTS VIRTUALLY NOTHING!!! (Well, there ARE costs specific to ebooks, such as formatting, things like that, etc.) BUT it STILL costs far LESS than a PRINT book! Publishers want their books to BE BOOKS IN PRINT, PERIOD! It is ALWAYS going to be a HUGE FIGHT!!! Every few years we ARE going to have these lawsuits again for over-priced ebooks!!! This continuously ticks me off!
With the way EVERYTHING IS MOVING TOWARDS BEING READ ON THE COMPUTER – INCLUDING MEDICAL RECORDS, PUBLISHERS NEED TO REALIZE THAT EBOOKS ARE “THE WAY” READING IS GOING! THEY NEED TO FIND ANOTHER WAY TO ADVERTISE THEIR BOOKS!!! ANOTHER WAY THAT DOES NOT HURT “THE READER’S POCKETBOOK!!!” I’VE ABOUT HAD ENOUGH OF THAT!!!
IT IS THE BIG PUBLISHERS THAT ARE HOLDING THE GROWTH OF THE EBOOK BACK! NOT THE LITTLE GUYS!!! It’s the publishers with the MOST MONEY that complain the loudest! You NEVER hear the Independent author complaining about selling ebooks! They are HAPPY with whatever it is they sell! THEY REALIZE you do NOT NEED A PRINT BOOK TO EXCEL! This is completely DIFFERENT from the big publishers who feel every person out there who buys their books need to be purchased in print or else you are going to PAY, AND PAY DEARLY FOR BUYING THAT EBOOK THAT DOES NOT ADVERTISE THE COVER TO ANYONE SEEING YOU READING THAT BOOK! (In MY opinion, I PREFER this additional privacy to read what I WANT to read!!!) There is not ONE New Release out there where the ebook is at a tolerable $10. No!!! Instead, ebooks cost from $14.99, $13.99, $12.99, $11.99! THOSE ARE THE PRICES OF EBOOKS REGARDLESS OF ANYTHING! IN MY OPINION THIS IS WRONG!!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! PEOPLE WHO PREFER EBOOKS ARE BEING TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS! We DO NEED sales and large discounts to be able to afford AN EBOOK! This is wrong!!! I won’t get off my soapbox that this is wrong, either because they ALL KNOW THIS IS WRONG! They only want that print book out there to advertise what readers are reading! FREE ADVERTISING! TICKS ME OFF!!! Just because “I LIKE TO READ EBOOKS DOES NOT MEAN “I” AM RESPONSIBLE FOR HELPING THE PUBLISHER ADVERTISE THEIR BOOKS!”
i am VERY THANKFUL there is NetGalley that allows me to read a LOT of the bestsellers in ebook format! I am VERY thankful that when there are blog tours, the publishers DO THEN SUPPLY the ebook formats!!! (See!! That right THERE SHOWS YOU the ebook version costs them MUCH LESS!!!)
This is MY OPINION as to why there was ONLY a 1% growth increase in ebooks! Publishers RULE the publishing industry. Yes, there ARE a LOT of independent authors, but still, they ARE OUTNUMBERED! Publishers RULE the way books are published, and especially SOLD, and in the FORMAT THE BOOKS ARE SOLD!
I HOPE this helps bring SOME awareness to my train of thought here, and from my experience. I can say this because I have been blogging for almost 6 years now, so . . . I have seen a LOT! Practically from the BIRTH of the ebook to now!
Any other questions on my opinion, please ask!!
Thanks for allowing us to write what we think about the WONDERFUL EBOOK THAT HAS CHANGED THE WAY WE READ!!!! I LOVE the ebook and will ALWAYS read the ebook! I am dedicated to the ebook because I can bring ALL my books with me and I don’t have to make a decision that morning if I am going somewhere as to what I am going to feel like reading! I have ALL my books with me and can choose ANYTHING I want to read! My eyesight is AWFUL and the ereader allows me the convenience to be able to adjust it as to how I LIKE to read! Larger print, a brighter page (with the Paperwhite AND the Fire which allows for turning the page brighter or darker.) There are so MANY options and ways to read on the ereader you CANNOT PASS IT BY! It’s convenient, too, as I already talked about. I will NOT give up my ebooks! I will FIGHT for the ebook! I believe if the publishers would ONLY ACCEPT the ebook as the NEW way of reading, that 1% would be a LOT HIGHER!!! I guarantee it would be higher!!! Again, just wait until the publishers are taken to court – again! All of us who have bought ebooks will get ANOTHER REFUND FOR HAVING BOUGHT OVER-PRICED EBOOKS!
Again, this is ONLY MY OPINION. I do not know this is FACT for sure, but I am assuming it is given my experience with ebooks, publishers, lawsuits, and the fight FOR ebooks! Talk to your NEWER authors! They have NO problem with ebooks, and in fact, MOST of them accept ebooks and GIVE ebooks! Publishers NEVER give out ebooks! It’s ALWAYS PRINT BOOKS ONLY! EVER NOTICE THAT? YEP!!!
I want publishers to accept ebooks for people who prefer to read them, and I also want the prices of the ebooks to be AFFORDABLE! They should be priced affordably at around the $10 mark when they are New Releases! The prices they charge now are OUTRAGEOUS ESPECIALLY WHEN THE PRINT BOOK COSTS SO MUCH LESS! I ALSO think about our landfills! The Pacific ocean and the HUGE and ever-growing HUGE circle of TRASH swirling around in our ocean! I KNOW there are books in there! There do not have to be! What about ALLLLL these books I have here at MY house I don’t want any longer? I can try to sell them at the next garage sale, but come on! I AM going to be stuck with some even after! That only shows WASTE! We don’t need this waste to end up in our landfills!
The MUSIC industry has HAD to change, the VIDEO industry has HAD to change! Magazines have HAD to change, and NOW it’s time for the BOOK industry to change!!! ALL industries have HAD TO CHANGE!!! Change is part of the evolution of humans! Publishers, GET WITH THE PROGRAM!!!! THEY are the ONLY ONES fighting the change!!! The ebook is HERE and it IS here to stay!
That is EVERYTHING I have to say about ebooks! I LOVE them! It’s TIME to bring them forward! Publishers need to find NEW WAYS OF ADVERTISING THEIR BOOKS JUST LIKE THE INDEPENDENT AUTHOR HAS DONE AND IS SUCCESSFUL AT it!! They connect with their READERS! Again, I guarantee the INCREASE IN GROWTH OF THE EBOOK WILL BE AND SHOULD BE MUCH HIGHER THAN THE 1% YOU FOUND!!
(I do need to thank ALL the publishers for providing me with the ebook version of their books for review purposes, as I have received the incomplete Advanced Reader Copy/Galleys, and for that I am MOST grateful! I am able to read them MUCH BETTER than I am the print version with the two sets of double vision plus shadowing that I suffer from. My eyelids also spasms due to the muscle disease I have, so having the ebook is like GOLD to me! Thank you, publishers!) This should be available to everyone affordably, in my opinion, again.
PS. I forgot to THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH for bringing this subject up! This has been a bone of contention for me for a LONG time!!! I just want the publishers to get with and embrace the ebook and what it CAN DO for them!!
Thanks again!
Laurie
Thank you so much for the comment, Laurie! I can tell you’ve been thinking about this and are definitely passionate about reading and ebooks. I know a few people who are vision impaired or have become so and ebooks are awesome for them! I agree that I prefer my e-reader over carrying a book, though I do still have lots of books on my shelves. lol.
Thinking of the Author Earnings Report that showed more Bookbub ads were going to books produced by big publishing houses does make me wonder if they aren’t ramping out to out advertise indie authors? But even is so, we don’t give up easily. Indie authors will continue to grow and produce amazing books and hopefully find new and personal ways to reach readers. I certainly won’t be giving up!