July 2012 A quarterly guide to what’s new in self-publishing Full reviews of 45 titles Listings for 184 new books Plus: ◗ What sells in the self-publishing market: A Bowker study ◗ Book industry couple turns to DIY ◗ Rachel Abbott: #1 on Amazon U.K. SELF-PUBLISHING Taking the Measure of Self-Publishing In surging market, paperback, Sales by Segment nonfiction do best 2% By Jim Milliot 2% 18% 15% At the uPublishU conference held June 3 at the Jacob 16% 5% Sci/Tech/Med 11% 9% Academic/ Javits Center in New York just before the official opening Professional of BookExpo America, Kelly Gallagher, v-p of publisher 22% Religion Juvenile 38% services at Bowker, offered the most detailed analysis yet Nonfiction of the characteristics of the self-publishing market. 45% Fiction 25% ooking at overall growth, noticed by the reading public or Bowker reported that a larger publisher. 211,269 titles were self- Beyond documenting the surge Sales by Sales by published in 2011 in either in the number of self-published Dollars Units print or digital form, com- titles released last year, Gallagher source: Bowker Market Research Lpared to 133,036 in 2010. (The number presented information on who is tend to buy more of the expensive aca- of titles is based on registered ISBNs.) buying self-published titles and what demic/professional and nonfiction titles Gallagher observed that while the types of books they are purchasing. than women, who dominate the fiction increase in output is a sign of a vibrant While women bought more units than buyers. The age of buyers is pretty evenly market, he also pointed out that the men last year, 62% and 38% respec- divided among the major age groups. growing number of titles represents tively, men spent more money on self- Those buying the most titles are in the increased competition among self-pub- published books, 56% of sales. The dif- 30-to-44-year-old age bracket, closely lished authors vying to get their books ference, Gallagher explained, is that men followed by the 18-to-29-year-olds (25%) and those 65 and older (24%). Sales by Format Fiction was the largest category in 2011, accounting for 45% of units, but because of the lower prices of fiction works, the segment only accounted for 25% of spending on self-published books last year. The highest amount was in the Sales by 8% Hardcover nonfiction segment, which accounted for Dollars 75% 11% 6% 38% of spending despite selling many Softcover fewer units. The juvenile segment was a E-book relatively small portion of sales in 2011, Sales by representing 9% of spending and 11% of 6% All others Units 47% 41% 6% units. The reason for the nonfiction seg- ment’s ability to capture a higher per- centage of dollars than units can be seen 0% 20% in the average price consumers paid for 40% 60% 80% 100% source: Bowker Market Research self-published books last year. The non- WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 1 SELF-PUBLISHING Price by Genre fiction category easily had the highest Average Price average price per title, at $19.32; the average price paid for a fiction book was $6.94, the low- Sci/Tech/Med $8.77 est among all segments. Consumers bought more paperbacks in 2011 than any Academic/ other format and spent more on that format as well. Professional $13.24 According to Bowker, paperbacks represented 47% of self-published units purchased last year, but accounted Religion $12.93 for 75% of spending. While e-books were a close second in terms of units, at 41%, they trailed significantly in Juvenile $9.47 the spending category, accounting for only 11% of sales. The reason for the difference is easy to see: the average Nonfiction price paid for an e-book was $3.18 last year compared $19.32 to $12.68 for a paperback and $14.40 for a hardcover. Fiction $6.94 Gallagher said that later this year Bowker will release a White Paper on the self-publishing market that will include more analysis of the dynamics of the $0 $5 $10 $15 $20 segment. ■ source: Bowker Market Research authors promoting e-books have traditionally had limited New Tool Aims to options. “If you have an e-book, how can you give someone a sam- ple of that and make it feel personal, like you’ve connected Help Self-Published with the reader?” Ogorek says. “That’s really how the Book- Stub idea came about.” Authors Market According to Ogorek, authors can even autograph Book- Stubs before handing them out to fans or potential readers.“How do you capture the experience of a book sign- E-books ing or the experience of connecting with the reader by giving Late last month Author Solutions launched them a physical copy of your book in a digital work? The BookStub, an e-book marketing tool that answer is BookStubs.” BookStubs are available as part of publishing packets for provides self-published authors a way to all authors self-publishing via any Author Solutions imprint, distribute promotional copies of e-books. including Abbott Press, AuthorHouse, Balboa Press, Inspir- ing Voices, iUniverse, Palibrio, Trafford, and Westbow Press, A BookStub is a wallet-sized plastic and the company’s DIY e-book publish- card featuring an image of the author’s ing platform, Booktango. book cover on one side, and an indi- Additionally, Author Solutions is cur- vidual product code, QR code, and rently developing www.bookstub download instructions on the other. .com—a site where potential readers will According to Author Solutions— be able to register to get free BookStubs which has published more than 150,000 authors and 190,000 and participate in online book signing events, according to titles—authors can use BookStubs like business cards, carry- Ogorek. ing promotional copies of their e-books with them at all And when that launches, Ogorek says, BookStubs may be times and distributing them to potential readers or book available to all authors, regardless of their publishing com- reviewers. Each BookStub can then be redeemed for one free pany. “We don’t see any reason why this wouldn’t be available e-book via the publisher’s online bookstore. to traditional publishers and other self-publishers,” Ogorek “Authors still have a great desire to connect with readers says. “The technology that we have and the ability for us to and promote their books,” says Keith Ogorek, senior v-p of create BookStubs is something that any publisher could take marketing at Author Solutions, noting that while this sort advantage of. And we expect that will happen in due time.” of marketing is possible at book signings of print editions, —Adam Boretz 2 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JULY 2, 2012 SELFPUBLISHING A Book Industry Couple Tries Self-Publishing It took self-publishing to get a book Publishing publishing veteran a conventional deal family (l. to r.) Adrian, B C R daughter Mia, and Ku. Despite 18 years in book publishing and a spouse as well-connected in the industry as herself, Adrian W. Liang, a romance novelist as well as associate publisher at Seattle book packager Becker & Mayer, found that it was self-publishing that enabled her to be published and helped her land a conventional book deal. iang, who writes under the pen name of Adrianne als—pointed to the “self-published e-book phenomenon,” and Wood, also happens to be married to Kuo-Yu encouraged her to give it a try. Liang, v-p, sales and marketing, at Diamond Book The results of self-publishing were immediate. After releasing Distributors; together the couple can boast of more two western romance e-books—Unruly Hearts on the Nook and than 30 years working in book publishing. Kindle platforms in late 2011, and Badlands Bride as a Nook exclu- LDespite what an amateur might think, it turns out that even sive published in January 2012—Wood was able to land a two- a hyperconnected book industry power couple can hit a wall book deal with S&S’s Pocket Books imprint to republish Badlands when it comes to finding an agent and publisher for a debut Bride in a new, mass market paperback edition in November, as publishing deal. Wood, who has worked for Random House and well as an untitled sequel, to be released in November 2013. Penguin, writes in the western and contemporary romance Unruly Hearts was a self-pub learner. Wood says the cover was genres. While her book publishing experience opened doors, bad—she designed it herself—and despite getting good reviews Wood says it didn’t get her any closer to a book deal or even an and being noted on GoodReads, the novel sold less than 200 agent, and after 15 years, multiple unpublished novels and copies. For her next e-book, Badlands Bride, she got an art mounting frustration, she decided to self-publish her novels as designer friend to do the cover art and offered the book as an e-books. exclusive on the Nook. The book was highlighted on the In fact her “agent”—that would be her husband, Kuo-Yu, BN.com site and took off; selling “several thousand copies” in universally known as Ku—says, “When we started, I thought, four days, it was the #1 bestseller on BN.com across all plat- ‘I know all the book buyers and editors, this will be easy. I’ll just forms. In turn, Badlands Bride helped the sales of Unruly Hearts call them up.’ But I got an education about publishing.” Ku, and eventually helped swing the book deal with Pocket.