Daniel Dekker identifies “10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing.” They are:
1. The number of books being published in the U.S. has exploded.
2. Book industry sales are declining, despite the explosion of books published.
3. Average book sales are shockingly small, and falling fast.
4. A book has less than a 1% chance of being stocked in an average bookstore.
5. It is getting harder and harder every year to sell books.
6. Most books today are selling only to the authors’ and publishers’ communities.
7. Most book marketing today is done by authors, not by publishers.
8. No other industry has so many new product introductions.
9. The digital revolution is expanding the number of products and sales channels but not increasing book sales.
10. The book publishing world is in a never-ending state of turmoil.
Dekker then offers some ways of responding to these “awful truths”. Here is my summation:
1.There is a huge market in “pass-along sales.” This is basically people buying books and passing them along to someone else.
2. Do events and speaking engagements
3. Build a platform for your ideas
4. Branding. Develop a reputation for yourself, your book, and your ideas.
5. Be creative in finding new marketing channels for your book.
6. Say what everyone else is saying in a new way.
7. Keep books short.
There is a good discussion going on about this over at Jesus Creed.
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