In the news this week we have heard about the phenomenal sales of Dan Brown’s new book The Lost Symbol.
In fact his publisher, Transworld, claimed that ‘in its first 36 hours the book had broken the record of total lifetime sales for any adult hardback novel ever published in the UK.’*
The first print run of the book was a staggering one million copies and apparently the reprint button is about to be pushed for the next printing.
All of this must be very exciting for Dan Brown, his agent and his publisher.
However, the sting in the tail of this story is that in the scramble for market share, retailers have taken discounts to ever deeper levels resulting in copies being sold for just £4.99.
Literary agent Jonny Geller is quoted as saying, ‘If the most popular book on earth is a fiver, what does it tell the punter? Books are worthless. Retailers are just throwing away their industry.’*
And I absolutely agree!
Surely this is no way to publish books successfully so that all parties are properly rewarded for the role they have played in making the book available to the public?
It seems to me to be an incredibly short-sighted approach which continues to devalue books at an alarming rate.
The last few years have seen an increase in the polarization of the very small number of authors who achieve such levels of ‘success’ – and everyone else.
As a result, it is much harder for new talent to break through and publishers continue to narrow their perspective of what new books will ‘work’.
Yet the industry continues to shoot itself in the proverbial foot with this mindset and ultimately will suffer as a result.
Already major change is underway with the advances in technology enabling authors to be increasingly successful at building their own audiences and publishing their own books.
That’s not to say that the traditional publishing route can’t still be an extremely positive route to market for many writers. Fortunately we haven’t yet reached that point.
And the upside to all of this can be found in the increase of ingenuity of the independents – both publishers and retailers – who continue to find ways to be successful with interesting new projects from interesting new authors.
However, it is sad to see that the scramble for market share amongst conglomerates and large retailers seems to have introduced a culture which doesn’t look good for the long term health of the industry overall.
Perhaps the pace at which the change we are witnessing today will accelerate even further and with it bring increasing opportunities for authors to pave their own path to their readership?
What do you think?
Share your views by posting your comments below …
* Reported by trade magazine the Bookseller, click here to read the full article …
Tags: book, publish, publisher, publishing industry, readers, retailer, success
I personally would not shell out any money for a Dan Brown book, but I do find it interesting that something that is so popular is being sold so cheaply. The law of supply and demand should come into play here. If readers are able to buy book by the most popular authors at much cheaper prices than they pay for lesser known authors, market chaos could result. The future of the book business is certainly uncertain. Will brick and mortar stores go the way of the dodo bird? Will traditional publishers become a minority? It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Thanks, Julia, for the food for thought.
Donald James Parker
Author of All the Voices of the Wind
I draw a parallel with the music industry. The unit retail price of CDs has diminished and MP3 technology has drawn this down further to an extent that I wonder how a (profit) margin is maintained. The product life cycle of a single or album has shortened too, with saturation exposure designed for immediate impact and then a quick turnaround to the next “in” thing. I hope the book world doesn’t follow this pattern but the volume of celebrity books on the shelves quantifies the risk. Books are for life – not just for Christmas!
I trust that quality will rise to the surface in traditional and new publishing media. I’m sure there’s an author out there who will emulate the Arctic Monkeys’ success story with a direct audience interface and I’m sure it’ll be someone with a book as strong a product as the music they first released. Oh, and as well as enduring talent, it probably helps to be cool too.
Thanx so much for your comments & I agree that it is bizarre to see something which is so popular sold so cheaply!
Publishers and retailers have been talking about the parallel with the music industry for years … yet remain stuck in old patterns of thought & behaviour. In such situations, eventually something will come along to force change if it isn’t embraced voluntarily.
I do believe in talent shining through and am passionate about supporting that as much as I can.
Hopefully writers will feel increasingly empowered as the options expand for direct access to their audience alongside possibilities to work with independents who think ‘outside of the box’.
So let’s keep writing and reaching out to our readers in as many ways as we possibly can …