Suw Charman-Anderson

Suw Charman-Anderson, Contributor

I’m a geek & author covering self-publishing & crowdfunding

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6/28/2012 @ 12:27PM |2,060 views

Self-Publishing And Ebook Sharing: The Industry's New Bellwethers

A fair worker presents a Sony e-Book at a stan...

Image credit: AFP via @daylife

Never in the history of books have authors and publishers alike had access to two such fantastic bellwethers of readers’ desires than self-publishing and ebook sharing sites. Never has it been easier to take the market’s temperature and find out what’s popular.

Microsoft’s Social Media Collective took at look at self-publishing and ebook sharing sites and found that romance dominates in fiction sharing (academic books dominate in non-fiction). Says Alice Marwick:

While all sorts of books are shared online, many of the ebook sharing sites I’ve come across are largely comprised of romance novels.

Romance, of course, is already a big part of the publishing industry:

Romance novels [comprise] 13% of the US market and generating more revenue than any other category:

Romance fiction: $1.358 billion in estimated revenue for 2010
Religion/inspirational: $759 million
Mystery: $682 million
Science fiction/fantasy: $559 million
Classic literary fiction: $455 million
[Source: Romance Writers of America]

Most of those sharing ebooks are women, says Marwick. This may reflect the fact that women have less disposable income than men. They may find current prices prohibitive, particularly if they are having to choose between buying a book and buying their children new shoes.

Does this then point to a large, under-served corner of the romance market? And is there an opportunity to craft an offering that meets those needs with more affordable books? Clearly it would have to be a volume sales proposition, but equally clearly the demand is already there.

Also interesting is the predominance of erotica in self-publishing. Marwick again:

Cutting out the middleman of publishers, even prolific publishers like Harlequin, has opened heretofore ignored markets. And one enormous market is clearly erotica written by and for women. Who are not only buying ebooks, but cracking the DRM on them and sharing them with friends.

The tempting reaction for publishers is to gnash their teeth, search for stronger DRM and bewail the evil grasping nature of those who would dare crack it. But that would be to quite spectacularly miss the point. There’s clearly a market for erotical written by women for women, but this market is, as per romance, not wealthy and potentially under-served.

Would it not make sense, therefore, for publishers to experiment with a budget imprint for erotica? Perhaps an ebook-only model, where the authors get no advance but instead get paid monthly, and the publishing house practices some innovative cost containment during production. That doesn’t mean firing the editor or letting shoddy copy through, but looking at an imprint as a cohesive body of work and looking for economies of scale. For example, creating a standard cover design instead commissioning a new one on a book by book basis. (Remember Penguin Classics?)

Another example of how self-publishing can reveal untapped markets is to look at what’s happening with individual novels, free or paid. For example, 120,000 people downloaded James Oswald’s Natural Causes since the beginning of May. A supernatural crime novel set in Edinburgh, it’s had 83 review, 60 of which are 5-star, all without any real marketing. In conversation with the Crime Fiction Lover site, Oswald explains:

There was no marketing plan beyond giving the book away to try and entice people into buying the second one. It hit the top of the charts in a couple of days and has been in the top five ever since. Once you’re at the top of the Amazon free chart, I guess it’s self-perpetuating. You get exposure so more people download the book so you get greater exposure. The reviews have been a very pleasant surprise.

This is the kind of activity that publishers shouldn’t ignore, particularly given Oswald’s backstory:

Pretty much every rejection letter I’ve ever had has gone along the lines of, ‘We love your writing, but we just don’t know how to sell it.’ Apparently the subtle blend of crime and supernatural doesn’t go down well. Fans of John Connolly might find that faintly insulting, and there are more and more authors ignoring the genre boundaries these days. Sarah Pinborough’s Dog-Faced Gods trilogy is a good example, and Ben Aaronovitch’s London series.

The lesson to take away from this isn’t just that someone should take a second look at Oswald’s work (although they should) but that not knowing how to sell a book doesn’t mean that said book is unsellable. Risk-averse investments may seem safe in times of economic uncertainty, but readers don’t wake up in the morning and say ‘Hey, we’re in a recession, let’s read some books that are exactly the same as the ones we read last year’. They want a good read and perhaps aren’t as fussy about genre definitions as marketing departments are.

Self-publishing is a useful proving ground for new ideas and genre hybrids. And ebook sharing sites are great for learning about what genres are in demand. Both are useful bellwethers for the industry, providing insights into the market and illustrating niches waiting to be served.

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  • Brittani Hensel Brittani Hensel 10 months ago

    The thing I love about indie publishing is the ability for new material. I don’t like that middle man telling me what’s good and what isn’t. Now with BookTango – you can publish your e-book for free, which gives me full range of anything I could possibly wants. AND – authors get fair treatment by getting 100% of their royalties. (Yeah I know, it’s crazy, but totally true.)

  • Suw Charman-Anderson Suw Charman-Anderson, Contributor 10 months ago

    Of course it’s great to see all sorts of books that don’t necessarily meet publishers’ needs getting out there into the great wide world through self-publishing. But there is a difference between a well written and a badly written book, and that’s to do with characterisation, plot, style, dialogue, etc., all of which can be improved with practice and attention to detail. Simply chucking your stuff out there without giving it the work it needs is a bad idea imho. (And btw, authors don’t get 100% of their royalties – the ebook stores take a cut. They do get more, though, which is obviously good. )

  • Brittani Hensel Brittani Hensel 10 months ago

    Hey there! I should have clarified. All good books should edited, both line, content, and developmentally. I do know that books purchased through booktango.com do offer the author 100% of their royalties however. I should have clarified there, as well. If purchased through Amazon or Barnes & Noble, yes, they would take a cut.
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