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Issue: The Publishing Industry

The Publishing Industry

By: Lisa Rabasca Roepe

Pub. Date: May 7, 2018 Access Date: October 1, 2021 DOI: 10.1177/237455680415.n1 Source URL: http://businessresearcher.sagepub.com/sbr-1946-106481-2887680/20180507/the-publishing-industry ©2021 SAGE Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ©2021 SAGE Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Is its future with independents and audiobooks? Executive Summary

Just a few years ago, industry analysts predicted that e-books would transform the world of U.S. book publishing. The industry has indeed been upended, but the biggest change agents have turned out to be audiobooks and, especially, independent publishers. Unlike the vanity presses of previous decades that published whatever an author wanted, today’s independent publishers vet manuscripts before approving them and can produce high-quality books. Some first-time authors are able to earn higher profits by publishing through an independent than they could from a traditional publisher. Audiobooks have soared in popularity, with the number of titles increasing by one-third just in 2017. E-book readership, in contrast, has peaked and is projected to decline in the coming years. Among the key takeaways: The overall U.S. publishing industry is financially healthy; revenue is projected to grow by nearly 60 percent from 2017 to 2020. One factor driving authors to independent publishers is the consolidation of the traditional publishing industry, which has limited the number of books published by the traditional outlets. The rising popularity of smartphones has facilitated the growth of audiobooks and the decline of e-books. Click here to listen to an interview with author Lisa Rabasca Roepe or click here for the transcript. Full Report

After disrupting the book business through online sales, Amazon is now opening bookstores, such as this one in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A game-changer is roiling the publishing industry – but it isn’t the one everyone expected. Just seven years ago, experts predicted that electronic books would revolutionize the industry. E-book sales had grown by 202.3 percent in less than a year, the Association of American Publishers estimated in 2011. 1 As e-books outpaced hardcover and paperback books in sales, they were hailed as the publishing industry’s savior.

The U.S. industry is still projected to grow substantially – to nearly $44 billion in revenue by 2020 from an estimate of some $27.8 billion last year. 2 But much of that gain is not expected to come from traditional published books, or from e-books. The big disrupters, it turns out, are audiobooks – which now have their own section on The New York Times bestseller list – and, even more significantly, independent publishers. 3 The industry is being transformed by these independent publishers, who are using digital and print-on-demand technologies that allow authors to replicate and manage every aspect of publishing, including setting a price for their book. These indies bear no resemblance to the so-called vanity presses of 10 or 20 years ago that existed as conduits for authors who simply paid to have published whatever they had written. Today’s independents publish a manuscript only after vetting and approving it. They expect an author to help subsidize the cost of publishing, but work with the writer to produce a book that looks as professional as any printed by a traditional publisher. In fact, many independent publishers are employing editors and designers who once worked for traditional publishing houses. This trend is being driven, in part, by the ongoing transformation of many of the most famous U.S. publishing houses from private, family- owned firms to multinational media conglomerates, consolidating the traditional publishing industry. HarperCollins is now owned by Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate News Corp., Simon and Schuster is owned by CBS and Hachette Book Group, once owned by Time Warner, is now under the aegis of Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France. 4 Smaller and family-owned publishers have been bought up and merged into these larger houses, resulting in fewer places for authors to sell to, and ultimately fewer books being published by traditional publishing houses, says Jill Marsal, founding partner of the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency in Solana Beach, Calif. As a result, more authors are turning to independent publishers, and some first-time authors are reaping greater profits than they might have earned with a traditional publisher. “The self-publishing successes of top-selling and midlist authors have made it possible for many of them to earn more income from their writing and have raised questions about why authors need publishers,” wrote Queens College sociologist Dana Beth Weinberg in her study, “The Author-Publisher Relationship in a Changing Market: Risks, Rewards and Commitment.” 5 Five to 10 years ago, self-printing a book was seen as a mark of failure; today, it might be more lucrative than publishing with a traditional house, Weinberg wrote. E-books on the Decline

E-books were introduced by traditional publishers in 1999. 6 While e-books achieved strong initial popularity, current forecasts show that e-book readership is expected to drop slightly in the coming years, from 91.9 million in 2016 to 87.8 million in 2022. 7 While e-books are no longer a growing market, they are a stable one, says Jamie Raab, president and publisher of Celadon Books, a division of Macmillan. There are several reasons e-books have dropped in popularity. Some people still prefer the experience of reading a physical book, Raab says. While some might toggle between physical books and e-books, many prefer something they can hold, and share with others, which cannot be done with a purchased e-book. Print books remain the most popular format for reading in the United States, with 67 percent saying they have read a print book in the past year and roughly 4 in 10 saying they read only print books, according to a Pew Research Center report. 8 Hardcover books are experiencing an increase in sales, up 10.8 percent in 2017 from 2013. 9 Printed Books Remain Popular

Percentage of U.S. adults who have read books in different formats

Source: Andrew Perrin, “Nearly one-in-five Americans now listen to audiobooks,” Pew Research Center, March 8, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y88mjhkp

Printed books remain popular with U.S. readers despite a growing number of alternative platforms. Two-thirds said they had read a print book in the past year, according to a recent survey.

Technology has also played a role in the cresting of the e-book wave. Ownership of an e-reader – a handheld device such as a Kindle or Nook primarily used for reading e-books – peaked in 2013 at nearly one in four U.S. adults and has declined since then, according to the online statistic portal Statista. 10 In comparison, there has been a steady increase in consumers owning smartphones, which allow for easy access to audiobooks but are less convenient for reading e-books because of their small screen. The percentage of U.S. adults owning a smartphone almost doubled from 2011 to 2015, according to a Pew survey. 11 Meanwhile, sales of tablets, another avenue for reading e-books, have been slipping. 12 Some experts attribute the decline in e-book sales to pricing. Bestselling e-books are no long significantly cheaper than the hardcover versions. 13 A hardcover copy of Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” was selling for $16.05 on Amazon.com on April 30 and for $14.99 as an e-book. James Comey’s bestseller “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership” had a $3 price difference between hardcover and e-book on Amazon. Prices have converged because publishers “don’t want books devalued” and have therefore raised e-book prices for new best-sellers, Raab says. Audiobooks Increase in Popularity

The rise in smartphone use has resulted in more people listening to audiobooks. Almost one in five U.S. adults (18 percent) listens to audiobooks, up from 11 percent in 2011, according to a Pew report. 14 Just under one-quarter (23 percent) of 18-to-29-year-olds have listened to an audiobook in the past 12 months, compared with 16 percent in 2016. 15 Audiobook sales for 2016 were an estimated $2.1 billion, up 18.2 percent over the previous year, according to the Audio Publishers Association. 16 The market for audiobooks is growing, Raab says. The last three quarters of 2017 brought in $490 million in audiobook sales. 17 The number of audiobooks published in the United States has increased sharply, from about 4,600 titles in 2009 to more than 35,500 in 2015. 18 In its 2017 annual report, the Audio Publishers Association reported a 33.9 percent increase in the number of audiobooks published compared with 2016. 19 “I think people have come to like the experience of storytelling through listening,” Raab says. “When an audiobook is done well, it is very enticing.” The success of audiobooks is partly driven by the fact that it is easy to listen while on the go and doing other things; the top reasons people listen to audiobooks instead of reading are the ability to multitask and the portability of the content. 20 Independent Publishers Come to the Fore

Even as the audiobooks market grows, it has been surpassed by the rise of independent publishing, which generated $1.25 billion in revenue in 2016, according to a 2017 report by the website AuthorEarnings. 21 These publishers are leveling the playing field for authors turned away from traditional publishing houses or seeking an alternative to them. The independents take advantage of two technologies – print-on-demand and digital publishing – to eliminate the cost of warehousing and, in some cases, printing and shipping books. “There has been significant growth in the self-publishing and it’s not going away,” says Beat Barblan, director of identifier services for R.R. Bowker LLC, the company that establishes International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN). Since 2011, ISBNs for self-published titles have increased 218.3 percent, according to Bowker’s report on self-publishing from 2011 to 2016. 22 A survey of 2,545 authors done in 2015 by Writer’s Digest and Digital Book World, an annual publishing conference, found that, while nearly three-quarters had published a book, only 13 percent had done so through a traditional publisher. The survey found that 56 percent had paid to have their book published and 31 percent used an independent publisher that vets manuscripts and expects the author to subsidize costs. 23 Print-on-demand technology has transformed the industry, making it easier to self-publish a book by eliminating the need to shell out a lot of money to print or warehouse books, says Angela Bole, CEO of the Independent Book Publishers Association. Her group has more than 3,000 members, including independent publishers, self-published authors, small presses and mid-sized publishers. Watch video with Michael Wehmeyer of the University of Kansas on e-readers:

Traditionally, books were printed on offset presses by the thousands to keep printing costs low, Bole says. Digital printing allows for printing one book at a time, she says. In the last three years, the quality of print-on-demand publishing has improved so much that it is hard for consumers to tell the difference between a book printed digitally or by an offset press, according to Bole. These savings have enabled independent publishers to change the way authors are paid. Authors forgo an advance in exchange for earning a larger percentage of the profits through royalties, which publishers can afford because none of their money is invested upfront, Weinberg says. And, unlike traditional publishers, indie publishers do not require authors to give up the rights to their work, because the author subsidizes the costs to produce the work. “You will get paid for it and you own it at the end,” she says. “There is no risk for authors, but instead immediate reward.” And the industry disruption doesn’t stop there. E-book distribution platforms such as Smashwords and Amazon’s CreateSpace allow authors to publish and distribute e-books for free. There is a charge only if the author wants to sell a print product. At Smashwords, authors determine the price, retain all rights and receive 85 percent of the net sales proceeds from the e-book. Additionally, the platform distributes the e-book to Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony and other mobile app platforms. When Bole became the Independent Book Publishers Association’s CEO four years ago, she often heard members complain that their publisher created a bad book for them with a terrible cover and the wrong International Standard Book Number (ISBN). Many were using a vanity press and did not know it, Bole says. One of her goals as association CEO is to help authors understand the difference between what she calls a “service provider” and an independent publisher. “If you go with a service provider, which some people call vanity presses, you’re the publisher, you decide how strict the edit will be and the quality of the book falls on you,” she says. “They are just providing you services that you have paid for.” In contrast, she says, an independent publisher will take responsibility for production of the book, give it a barcode, have it professionally edited and produce a professionally designed cover. Some of the well-respected independent publishers include Turning Stone, Greenleaf, Lifetree Media and She Writes Press, Bole says. Rather than going with anything that is submitted, these publishers vet manuscripts and are committed to publishing high-quality editorial products. After nearly 20 years in the traditional publishing industry, Brooke Warner said she left her job as an executive editor at Seal Press, a division of Perseus Books, to start She Writes Press in 2012 because she was tired to saying no to great books. “I’ve seen authors get rejected, not for the merit of their work, but for their lack of connections,” she said in a 2017 TedTalk. 24 The breaking point came when Warner wanted to acquire a book about transgender families, but was told Perseus did not want to publish it. Instead, she says she was encouraged to acquire a book about makeup that already had a celebrity endorsement. The traditional publishing industry is signing only authors who are already famous, and as a result it is missing out on talented writers, Warner said in a phone interview. Warner is not alone in believing that traditional publishing is too focused on author fame. “Generally, they have been pretty strict gatekeepers,” Bole says. Today, she says, such publishers expect writers to provide an “author platform” – a strong ability to sell books through prior reputation, social media presence, speaking engagements and media interviews. “You need to have a strong author platform before they would even consider publishing you,” Boles says. Marsal, the literary agent, also says many publishers will ask about the author’s platform before acquiring a book. The traditional publishing model has become a collaboration between publisher and author, with the publisher promoting the book and the author delivering an established following from social media, speaking engagements and interviews, Marsal says. Traditional publishers are also frustrating authors. When an author knows he or she has a good book but the publishing house says it can’t sell it, it really means the writer’s platform isn’t big enough, Warner says. “It’s a little dishonest,” she adds. Raab of Celadon says that “there are a lot of people who won’t get published by traditional publishers, and that’s always been the case.” Independent publishers are “good for these authors for finding a way to get their work out there.” Shakeup at Traditional Publishers

While there has been consolidation in the big five publishers, Raab doesn’t see this as reflecting a contraction of the market. While almost every large publisher is now publicly owned and there are fewer publishing houses, there are more divisions and imprints owned by each publisher, she says. That hasn’t changed the title count or what gets published, she says. Some of the new divisions or imprints are specialized. Macmillan hired publishing veterans Raab and Deb Futter to start Celadon Books with the idea that it would publish a highly curated list of 20 to 25 new titles a year. 25 “It’s editorial talent that brings in author talent,” Raab says.

Borders, founded in 1971, filed for bankruptcy in 2011, a casualty of the changing book business. (Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The bigger challenge is the shrinking distribution channels, Raab says. Large bookstore chains such as Borders and Hastings have gone out of business while big-box retailers such as Target and Costco are carrying few titles. Many in the industry are worried about the financial health of Barnes & Noble, the nationwide bookstore chain, whose number of stores fell almost 13 percent between 2008 and 2017. 26 “They are restructuring and publishers are hoping their business will pick up,” Raab says. In contrast, independent bookstores are making a comeback. Between 2009 and 2015, their number grew by almost 35 percent, from 1,651 stores to 2,227, according to the American Booksellers Association, a trade group. 27 Even Amazon has turned to brick and mortar, introducing 15 bookstores in cities such as Seattle, San Diego, Chicago and Washington, with promises of more to come. 28 Yet even with these new bookstores, there are concerns about where readers are finding books. “The biggest problem is discovery,” Weinberg says. “People are so bombarded, it’s harder to get their attention.” Author Mary Ann Koontz promoted her self-published 2017 thriller, “Shards of Trust,” on social media, arranged for a book signing at Barnes & Noble – donating a portion of her profits to a local children’s hospital – and occasionally offers readers online deals to buy her e-book. “I’m always reading articles about the best way to promote your book without spending a lot of money because I’ve already invested a lot of money into publishing the book,” she says. Traditional publishers have made limited attempts to compete with the independents. “It doesn’t seem to have worked out so well,” Raab says. In 2008, HarperCollins introduced Authonomy, a platform that allowed writers to circumvent the traditional publishing process by uploading their work and inviting readers to post reviews. 29 Each month, HarperCollins editors would select five manuscripts to review, which led to the discovery of several popular authors, including thriller writer Steven Dunne and romantic comedy writer Kat French. Yet, the site was closed in 2015. HarperCollins executives said few titles were being published from the site because the community of authors participating in it was shrinking. 30 Can Self-Published Authors Make Money?

The 2015 Writer’s Digest and Digital Book World survey revealed a highly stratified authors’ world. It found that while most earn less than $3,000 a year, there are authors who earn impressively more. According to the survey, 9.7 percent reported earning $100,000 or more

Page 6 of 11 The Publishing Industry SAGE Business Researcher ©2021 SAGE Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. per year, with 4.1 percent earning $250,000 or more. While it is possible to make more money publishing with an independent press than with a traditional publisher, the majority of indie book authors are not making millions, Bole says. If an author has a following, is a social media maven or public speaker and already knows people who are potential buyers of the book, it makes sense to self-publish because the author will reap more of the profits, she says. With a traditional publisher, most authors receive only 8 percent to 12 percent of the profits. In comparison, Warner says, She Writes Press gives 60 percent to authors. Even Raab of Celadon agrees that it is possible to make more money by self-publishing. Publishing with an independent publisher is not as expensive and most authors will start making money the minute their book is published, she says. “We have big staff to pay at a publishing house – editorial, marketing, art staff – and all those people have to be paid,” she says. “That is simplified with self-publishing.” About the Author

Lisa Rabasca Roepe is a journalist who writes about the culture of work, personal finance and technology. Her work has appeared in Fast Company, Ozy.com, Family Circle, Good, Quartz, The Week, HR Magazine, Men’s Journal and Eater. She also is a Forbes contributor. She has written previously for Business Researcher on business accelerators, craft brewers, the restaurant business, video games and the diet industry. Chronology

1600s-1800s Foundation of U.S. publishing industry is laid. 1638 The first printing press is imported from England to Cambridge, Mass., initially to print religious works. 1685 Printer William Bradford establishes a press in Philadelphia. 1728 Benjamin Franklin opens his print shop, also in Philadelphia. 1817 Harper Bros. opens its publishing house in New York City. 1848 George Palmer Putnam establishes a publishing house in New York City. 1846 Charles Scribner opens his publishing house, also in New York. 1920s-1950s New York City becomes center of U.S. publishing industry. 1915 Alfred A. Knopf publishing house is established in New York. 1924 Simon and Schuster is founded in New York. 1925 The Viking Press opens, also in New York.… Random House is founded in New York City. 1960s-1980s Publishing houses merge or are bought by non-publishers. 1960 Random House purchases Alfred A. Knopf. 1965 RCA acquires Random House for $40 million. 1975 Gulf + Western acquires Simon and Schuster.… Barnes & Noble becomes the U.S. first bookseller to discount books. 1987 Media conglomerate News Corp acquires Harper & Row. 1990s-Present E-books, e-readers and audiobooks are introduced. 1993 BiblioBytes launches a website to sell e-books on the internet. 1995 Jeff Bezos begins selling books on his e-commerce platform, Amazon, which calls itself the world’s biggest bookstore. … Audible, a seller and producer of spoken audio entertainment, including audiobooks, is introduced. 2000 A small group of writers launches BookSurge, a platform designed to enable authors to publish their work while retaining content rights and sales profits. 2005 Amazon acquires BookSurge. In 2009, the name is changed to CreateSpace.

2006 Hachette Livre purchases the Time Warner Book Group.… Simon & Schuster becomes part of CBS. 2007 Amazon introduces the Kindle e-reader. 2008 Author, speaker and angel investor Mark Coker introduces Smashwords, an e-book distribution platform. 2009 Barnes & Noble introduces the Nook, another e-reader. 2012 Independent publisher She Writes is created because traditional publishers are signing fewer authors. 2016 E-book sales decline by 18.7 percent during the first nine months, while paperback sales are up 7.5 and hardback sales increase by 4.1 percent.

Resources for Further Study Bibliography

Books

Cam, V. V., “Because Self-Publishing Works: Everything I Learned About How to Publish a Book (Vol. 1),” Jack Langedijk, 2017. An author provides tips, tools, checklists and templates for self-publishing. Gabrielle, Gundi, “Kindle Bestseller Publishing: Write a Bestseller in 30 Days!” Amazon Digital Services LLC, 2017. A successful author outlines how to write and publish a Kindle bestseller.

Greco, Albert N., Clara E. Rodriguez and Robert M. Wharton, “The Culture and Commerce of Publishing in the 21st Century,” Stanford Business Books, 2006. Three Fordham University professors examine issues, challenges and problems confronting the U.S. book publishing industry. Kowis, Mike, “14 Steps to Self-Publishing a Book,” Amazon Digital Services LLC, 2017. A corporate tax attorney and author provides step-by-step directions on how to self-publish a book.

Articles

Laube, Steve, “Who Owns Whom in Publishing?” The Steve Laube Agency, Sept. 9, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/y8qavv6j. A literary agent describes the five big U.S. publishers and who owns them. Mance, Henry, “Books industry divided over new era of self-publishing,” Financial Times, March 18, 2018, http://tinyurl.com/ycksjw6e. A journalist looks at the changing marketplace for book publishing, which one editor describes as a “civil war” between traditional companies and self-publishers. Noble, Carmen, “How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.com,” Harvard Business School, Nov. 20, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/ybqwvk96. An account of a report by Harvard business professor Ryan Raffaelli about the revival of independent bookstores. Perrin, Andrew, “Nearly one-in-five Americans now listen to audiobooks,” Pew Research Center, March 8, 2018, http://tinyurl.com/y88mjhkp. A researcher breaks down audio, print and e-book use in the United States.

Reports and Studies

“Self-Publishing in the United States, 2011-2016,” Bowker, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/yaa92gd7. A report that offers a year-by-year comparison of the number of titles registered in the Bowker’s Books in Print database. The Next Step

Barnes & Noble

Duffer, Ellen, “Barnes & Noble Revenue Decreases Again,” Forbes, March 31, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ybrezbuk. The bookstore giant announced plans for five new, much smaller locations after recently released sales figures showed a drop in revenue.

Filloon, Whitney, “Can $26 Short Ribs Save Barnes & Noble?” Eater, March 30, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yb3375hl. Barnes & Noble has expanded beyond book sales and coffee shops to open full-service restaurants at a handful of its locations. Liptak, Andrew, “Barnes and Noble’s new app makes finding your next read less overwhelming,” The Verge, March 28, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yc3xov98. The bookstore’s new app, Browsery, seeks to create an online community of readers who can recommend books to one another.

Independent Publishers

Shields, Mike, “‘Our business model has been completely jeopardized’ — these publishers say Facebook has nearly destroyed their livelihoods,” Business Insider, April 16, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yd9ld94u. Creators of a new digital platform designed for publishers are hoping to recruit independents that have been severely hindered by a recent change to Facebook’s news feed algorithm. Ulin, David, “How Small, Scrappy Local Book Presses Have Turned L.A. Into a Publishing Town,” Los Angeles Magazine, April 16, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yd4n65zu. Los Angeles’ diversity has provided the catalyst for the development of a thriving independent publishing industry. Weaver-Zercher, Valerie, “Books love the small: How indie stores and publishers fill the niches,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 27, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yb4cjtj5. Independent publishers thrive on taking on risky projects that big publishers avoid, says an acquisitions editor at a small publisher. Organizations

Audio Publishers Association 333 Hudson St., Suite 503, New York, NY 10013 1-646-688-3044 https://www.audiopub.org/ An organization that advocates for the interests of audio publishers. CreateSpace 4900 LaCross Road, North Charleston, SC 29406 1-843-760-8199 https://www.createspace.com/ An e-book distribution platform owned by Amazon that allows authors to publish and sell e-books for free. Digital Book World 1140 Broadway, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10001 1-212-447-1400 www.digitalbookworld.com Organization providing best practices to the publishing industry. Hachette 1290 6th Ave., New York, NY 10104 1-212-364-1100 www.hachettebookgroup.com One of the “big five” publishers, owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France. HarperCollins Publishers 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007 1-212-207-7000 www.harpercollins.com One of the majors, owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s conglomerate News Corp. Independent Book Publishers Association 1020 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Suite 204, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 1-310-546-1818 www.ibpa-online.org A nonprofit membership organization for the independent publishing community. Macmillan Publishing 75 Varick St., New York, NY 10013

1-212-226-7521 http://macmillan.com One of the big five publishers, owned by Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. She Writes Press 1569 Solano Ave., #546, Berkeley, CA 94707 1-480-275-4280 https://shewritespress.com/ An independent press focused on publishing female authors. Smashwords, Inc. 15951 Los Gatos Blvd., Suite 16, Los Gatos, CA 95032 www.smashwords.com An e-book distribution platform that allows authors to publish and sell e-books for free. Notes

[1] Elizabeth McKenzie, “A Book By Any Other Name: E-Books and the First Sale Doctrine,” Illinois Institute of Technology, April 2013, http://tinyurl.com/y7v2wps6. [2] “U.S. Book Industry/Market—Statistics & Facts,” Statista, http://tinyurl.com/ycdm3593; “Analyzing the Publishing Industry in the United States 2017 – Research and Markets,” BusinessWire, July 4, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/yakfyd44. [3] “New York Times Debuts Monthly Audiobook Bestseller Lists,” American Booksellers Association, March 7, 2018, http://tinyurl.com/y8hhu4h6. [4] Steve Laube, “Who Owns Whom in Publishing?” The Steve Laube Agency, Sept. 9, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/y8qavv6j. [5] Dana Beth Weinberg, “The Author-Publisher Relationship in a Changing Market: Risks, Rewards and Commitment,” Digital Book World, 2015. [6] “Ebook Timeline,” The Guardian, Jan. 3, 2002, http://tinyurl.com/ya2xp6xo. [7] “Number of digital publishing product users in the United States from 2016 to 2022, by format (in millions),” Statista, http://tinyurl.com/ycpbl6vp. [8] Andrew Perrin, “Nearly one-in-five Americans now listen to audiobooks,” Pew Research Center, March 8, 2018, http://tinyurl.com/y88mjhkp. [9] Jim Milliot, “Print Sales Up Again in 2017,” Publishers Weekly, Jan. 5, 2018, http://tinyurl.com/ycz8awro. [10] “Share of U.S. adults that own an e-reader from 2009 to 2016,” Statista, January 2017, https://tinyurl.com/yb3rorcr. [11] Monica Anderson, “The demographics of device ownership,” Pew Research Center, Oct. 29, 2015, http://tinyurl.com/n9e74wg. [12] Brian Heater, “What happened to tablet sales?” TechCrunch, March 21, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/k9xwhwy. [13] Amy Collins, “Ebook Sales Figures in Decline? No so!” BookWorks, Jan. 16, 2018, http://tinyurl.com/y77q7o2q. [14] Perrin, op. cit. [15] Ibid. [16] “Audiobook Industry Sales Survey Key Points,” Audio Publishers Association, accessed April 26, 2018, http://tinyurl.com/ybmas56h. [17] “January 2018 Report: US online book sales, Q2-Q4 2017,” Author Earnings, January 2018, http://tinyurl.com/y9m27q2j. [18] “Audiobooks in the U.S. - Statistics & Facts,” Statista, http://tinyurl.com/y7erhlb2. [19] “Audiobooks Continues Double-Digit Growth,” Audio Publishers Association, June 7, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/y779kwny. [20] Jim Milliot, “Audiobook Sales Up Again in 2016, Posting Double-Digit Gains,” Publishers Weekly, June 7, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/ycfcn9g8.

[21] “Print vs Digital, Traditional vs Non-Traditional, Bookstore vs Online: 2016 Trade Publishing by the numbers,” AuthorEarnings, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/ycr48hbk. [22] “Self-Publishing in the United States, 2011-2016,” Bowker, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/yaa92gd7. [23] Weinberg, op. cit. [24] Brooke Warner, “Green-Light Revolution: Your Creative Life on Your Terms,” TEDxTraverseCity, June 22, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/y85jrbxt. [25] Alexandra Alter, “A New Publishing Imprint at Macmillan, From Two Hitmakers,” The New York Times, July 12, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/y8h43jcx. [26] “Number of Barnes & Noble stores from fiscal year 2005 to fiscal year 2017,” Statista, 2018, http://tinyurl.com/y9rguksy. [27] Carmen Noble, “How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived In Spite of Amazon.com,” Harvard Business School, Nov. 20, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/ybqwvk96. [28] “Welcome to Amazon Books,” Amazon, http://tinyurl.com/y8jd632g. [29] Henry Mance, “Books industry divided over new era of self-publishing,” Financial Times, March 18, 2015, http://tinyurl.com/ycksjw6e. [30] Alison Flood, “Authonomy writing community closed by HarperCollins,” The Guardian, Aug. 20, 2015, http://tinyurl.com/yddkxq9z

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