Almost half of all Hachette's UK trade sales is taking place online

writingnewbie · Sep 25, 2013

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/online-almost-half-hachette-uks-trade-sales.html

Hachette UK's e-book sales stand at over 25% of trade sales in 2013 so far, with e-books accounting for over 30% of fiction sales, and for some authors and genres of fiction, over 50%, c.e.o. Tim Hely Hutchinson has revealed. Meanwhile the combined total of print books sold by online booksellers and e-books now accounts for almost half of all Hachette's UK trade sales, he said.

Mike Shatzkin on the implication of this:

http://www.idealog.com/blog/an-innocent-story-with-dramatic-implications/

This is earthshaking. I am not sure enough people in our business are seeing it that way. Or maybe they don’t talk about it much because it’s scary and there’s not much they can do about it.

1. Amazon can pay double the royalties of a publisher on ebooks without breaking a sweat and, frankly, can do the same on print books they sell themselves. Do the math. That means they can often sign an author and deliver as much revenue from just the sales they deliver themselves as a publisher does with the whole UK market.

It's a scary implication because:

Ebook Royalties:

Trade: 25% of net (25% of 70% = 17.5%)
Amazon Publishing: 50% of net (50% of 70% = 35%) + their marketing power in selling ebook
Self-Publishing: 100% of net (100% of 70% = 70%)

Terie · Sep 25, 2013

You keep linking to Mike Shatzkin's articles. Are you Mike Shatzkin?

writingnewbie · Sep 25, 2013

Terie said:
You keep linking to Mike Shatzkin's articles. Are you Mike Shatzkin?

Lol. No, I'm not Mike Shatzkin.

As for why I link to his artilces, he's one of the most knowledgeable consultants/insiders in trade publishing. His articles reflect the changes that publishing is going through. It's helpful for authors to be kept up to date in the world of publishing.

And I believe this make for a good roundtable topic.

Old Hack · Sep 25, 2013

Are you an employee of Mike Shatzkin?

While he does write interesting articles, so do many other people. And yet you only link to his. This is looking increasingly spammy.

If you do have any connection with him, professional or otherwise, you should make that clear. Either in your threads, or privately, to me or one of the other moderators, or to MacAllister Stone, who owns AW.

writingnewbie · Sep 25, 2013

Old Hack said:
Are you an employee of Mike Shatzkin?

While he does write interesting articles, so do many other people. And yet you only link to his. This is looking increasingly spammy.

If you do have any connection with him, professional or otherwise, you should make that clear. Either in your threads, or privately, to me or one of the other moderators, or to MacAllister Stone, who owns AW.

I will make it clear to all the Moderators etc..so I won't get into any trouble:

I have no connection whatsoever with Mike Shatzkin. I ran into his blog because I am researching the changes in the world of publishing and thought his articles are insightful.

I will stop linking to his blog from now on. I apologize if my links are excessive biased toward Mike Shatzkin.

While he does write interesting articles, so do many other people. And yet you only link to his.

Not true. While I have linked to that blog 4 times, I link to a lot of other articles too. Here's are some examples (after looking at my post history)

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/bowker-self-published-e-books-12-sales.html

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2...gitalReader+(The+Digital+Reader)#.UilDpsa-YZC

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2...of-ebook-sales-im-not-so-sure/#comment-154870

Changing perception at RWA 2013
http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/beyondherbook/?p=8360

Authors that attended RWA 2013 and her view:
http://carolynjewel.com/wordpress/2013/07/22/post-rwa-post-the-state-of-publishing/

http://writerunboxed.com/2013/07/24/the-sea-change-of-self-publishing/

USA Today: New Adult Fiction is the hot new category in books

http://www.kboards.com/authors/
Best Selling Authors on Kindleboards

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11291165&postID=1099741302291060636

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/online-almost-half-hachette-uks-trade-sales.html

Tracey Garvis Graves Inks 7-Figure Deal

http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-news/releases/view?id=36610

BEST-SELLING AUTHOR JAMES PATTERSON REVEALS THAT HE WILL DONATE $1 MILLION TO INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES – ON “CBS THIS MORNING”

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2013/0317/The-novel-resurgence-of-independent-bookstores
The novel resurgence of independent bookstores

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/13/jonathan-franzen-wrong-modern-world

http://www.apub.com/books

http://news.investors.com/technolog...ng-business-challenges-traditional-rivals.htm

And a link to an interesting post on AW
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8362123&postcount=152

Sheryl Nantus · Sep 25, 2013

You might find it more interesting to read through the threads here before starting new ones.

Many of the topics you've brought up have already been discussed.

Just an observation.

Old Hack · Sep 25, 2013

writingnewbie, we're all capable of finding articles about publishing online, but if we don't have anything to say about them then there's little point in linking to them here.

Go and read some of the existing discussions. Take part in them, instead of telling us what's going on. I think you'll find it more useful, and more interesting.

I'm going to lock this now for the room-mods to review.

Almost half of all Hachette's UK trade sales is taking place online

writingnewbie

Terie

Writer is as Writer does

writingnewbie

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

writingnewbie

Sheryl Nantus

Holding out for a Superhero...

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman