What will publishing be like in 2020

Although, another trend just might be a swing to e-books and titles that reflect more of how to deal with whatever is current for them.

Your point about item 5 makes sense, S. So, like you suggest, maybe a leveling off instead of a continuing of the upwards of 3 digit growth seen early in the pandemic. Great article. Always good to get a feel as to what is happening in the market place. Such massive changes occurring on all levels. This was outstandingly helpful. Thank you. I am looking into the audiobook publishing workflow now.

If you are interested to convert your book into audiobooks, please reach us nancy blitzmatics. This valuable article is timely and provocative. As a debut author, I along with thousands of other writers know the difficulties which exist in vying for acceptance. The trends you outline are exciting. Thank you for your insight. Excellent predictions and an interesting article.

Keeping this one to read again, and use as inspiration to get my butt in the chair. Thanks for this article! Thanks for great article. I have a lot to learn. When I think of self publishing I assume Amazon is it.

Your article seems to indicate there are other options. How do I find these? Hi Brenda! There are actually MANY stores and libraries and apps out there that you can publish on. We have lots of authors and companies in our group, including Written Word Media, Mark Leslie Lefebvre, and others mentioned in this article. I welcome your thoughts on hybrid publishers — is this a way forward to share the cost of marketing and publishing or is it another way of embracing vanity publishing?

The costs make no sense when you see how easy it is — empowering, too — to DIY it. Why pay? Thank you — I will share this with my small writers group. You gave me a couple resources to check, too, and prompt me to get back to my manuscript! I like the idea of several working together. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Wattpad is another popular self-publishing avenue. But the premise is a bit different than the usual self-publish process.

Wattpad had a surge in and searches remain high in Most of the stories on Wattpad are free. A few of the most popular stories on the site have been turned into printed books through Wattpad Books and movies through Wattpad Studios.

For example, the After series was originally published by author Anna Todd on Wattpad. After is a book series that was originally self-published. Before this deal came about, it was reported that other internet giants like Facebook, TikTok, and Netflix were interested in Wattpad. This means there will only be four major players in the industry, further concentrating publishing power in the hands of a few companies.

The Authors Guild is sharply critical of the merger. They predict that this imbalance in the publishing industry will reduce competition for manuscripts, drive down financial advances, and make it difficult for authors to negotiate contracts. Groups in Canada , the UK , and the US are urging government authorities to put a stop to the merger. So far, the merger has cleared all of these hurdles. As many in the industry view the top publishing houses as turning into behemoths that seek to control the entire book market , indie publishers are seeing a surge.

These smaller publishers are in direct contrast to the big-money operations of the top four publishing houses. Some of their print runs are only 1, copies. Mango Publishing is a small indie publisher that has seen company revenue growth in recent years. Mango Publishing prides itself on publishing books from distinct and diverse voices in our culture.

From to , it was the fastest-growing independent book publisher in the US. CCBC found that whites and animals starred as the main characters in books far more often than African-Americans and brown-skinned people. In addition, recent surveys have shown a lack of diversity among those working in the publishing industry. Stats like these have led many in the industry to call for more diversity —in authors, in characters, and in publishing executives.

The hashtag has more than k posts on Instagram. In , the hashtag PublishingPaidMe went viral, as well. On Twitter, authors used the hashtag to share the value of their book advances.

It became clear that white authors had more lucrative deals when compared to black authors. After the hashtag went viral, The New York Times went on to analyze more than 7k books. One way publishing houses have responded to the criticism is by hiring editors specifically focused on acquiring books by Latinx and BIPOC black, indigenous, and people of color. Some publishers have also created inclusivity plans and donated to anti-racism organizations. As an author, Dr. Either way, the publishing industry has to learn that there is more than one audience out there.

One publishing expert says that email is x more effective than social media when it comes to book sales. Some authors give away free stories to the readers on their email lists. Some even monetize email subscriptions by offering premium content. Author Seth Godin has written more than 20 best-selling books. He uses a daily email to market to and engage his audience. Plus, the content of his email is posted every day on his blog—it has more than 7, entries. Even though email is a successful marketing trend that looks to be sticking around for the future, authors are also experimenting with promoting their books on social media.

Posting on TikTok, a relatively new platform has emerged as a genuine marketing strategy for many authors. The popular BookTok has nearly 12 billion video views. Searches for BookTok took off in The book even returned to the best-seller list in the summer of Even though the pandemic is easing, the accessibility, low cost, and success of these events have kept them around in In fact, one literary festival reports they are currently holding off on booking authors for their spring event.

Either way, it will be fascinating to see how these publishing industry trends play out over the next few years. Add as a new topic? For example, the emergence of ebooks, audiobooks, and digital technology.

Learn about 11 of the biggest publishing trends for right here. Growing Demand for Audiobooks and Ebooks During the last 10 years, demand for print books has waned.

However, demand for ebooks and audio books has skyrocketed. In fact, audiobook revenue has been up Additionally, audiobook listeners trended younger. Fifty-five percent of listeners were below the age of The survey stats showed an increase from , and the expectation is that audio will continue to grow. Indie authors have long experimented with audio, and we see more indies getting into audio in Marketing audiobooks remains a challenge for authors but effective marketing will become more important as the space gets more crowded.

Start learning about how audiobooks are made and sold. If you already have an audiobook and own the rights, make sure to distribute your audiobook to as many outlets as possible.

Talk to other authors who have had success with their audiobooks and learn what is working for them when it comes to marketing. Authors have long seen success with collaborative marketing techniques like email list swaps and group giveaways. In , we expect to see more cooperative marketing as competition grows and indie authors find creative ways to gain an edge. Of course, authors will need to be strategic to see success here.

Oversaturating readers or marketing to the wrong audience can damage an email list. But, as many authors know, getting it right will pay off. We also expect that indies will continue to innovate when it comes to collaboration.

Start establishing relationships with authors in your genre or your local community. Try small collaborative experiments. Make sure to do your homework on your collaborators before partnering up with others. As we learned from our author survey this year, successful authors tend to have large backlists.

In , we expect to see more authors collaborate on series and universes to speed up the process of building their backlists. It started with romance but sci-fi and fantasy authors are creating giant interconnected universes with a stable of co-writers and ghostwriters.

Granted, sharing a backlist will require sharing income in some fashion, but with tools like Abacus from PublishDrive , revenue sharing is getting easier. We expect more authors to join together and make more money faster from this shared model than they could on their own.

Similar to 2, Building relationships with other authors can lead to some fantastic opportunities. If you have an idea, reach out to your network and see how you can make it happen. This publishing trend is a reality across every online industry. As the big players, like Amazon, Google, and Facebook rely more and more on advertising money, they lose incentive to provide a broad reach for free. This means that blog posts, Facebook posts, and Amazon book listings will see fewer views for free also known as organic reach.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in that organic reach of branded pages would decline, and that has played out as expected over the past two years. What replaced them? Carousels of ads. Discovery will not happen organically. Pay attention to the changes that are occurring on Amazon and in the industry at large. Listen to or follow industry leaders like Joanna Penn or Mark Dawson to stay in the know. Control what you can. As mentioned in the preceding trend, getting your book in front of readers for free is going to get even more difficult.

No one is thrilled about this, but it is the reality of a maturing marketplace. Online advertising is widespread to the point where in many industries, you MUST run ads to compete.

As self-publishing grows and organic reach declines, we expect to see the same in publishing. Authors will need to learn how to use paid advertising if they are serious about making writing a career. If you have yet to develop marketing skills and savvy, is the year to do it.