Can Authors Dream in Digital? Ebook Secrets Revealed

As writers, we’ve all fantasized about swanky lunches with agents, book deals offered by publishers headquartered in Manhattan, huge advance checks, round-the-block lines at book signings, charming cottage retreats to escape the flashbulbs of the paparazzi, and steady streams of royalties.

*Sigh*

Alas, ever since writers have been cast adrift by the tidal wave of online technology, publishing has changed forever, and the book author’s fantasy of sipping martinis at the Algonquin while deciding whether to sign with Simon & Schuster or HarperCollins has become a virtually impossible dream.

Even though traditional publishing has dwindled to only five increasingly unreachable big publishing houses, some writers still attract agents, land book deals, and bask in the glory of literary representation. In fact, several attendees of NSNC’s 2017 Conference are now being represented by agents they met while giving pitches during our Literary Agents Program. And due to popular demand, we will offer another Literary Agents Panel and Pitch Session Program at our 2018 Conference in Cincinnati. Register here.

However, in today’s ultra-competitive industry, most authors turn to self-publishing, which has been legitimized from the stigma of its “vanity press” days, and represents a greater percentage of bestselling books every year.

Since both digital and print-format books are sold mostly online today, authors must consider: print, ebook, audiobook, or all of the above? Aspiring authors envision holding their own creation in their hands, slotting it onto bookshelves alongside Hemingway and Faulkner, and scribbling their signature across crisp pages for adoring fans.

Sorry folks, the Digital Age will not be ignored. Ebooks exploded onto the market ten years ago, beating print book sales every year between 2012 and 2016. Consumers loved the convenience of online instant purchasing and lower pricing.

Then in 2017, data showed a drop in ebook sales and a 4% increase in print sales. Analysts concluded that consumers were suffering from “digital fatigue,” but new figures from AuthorEarnings.com  revealed that those statistics were misleading because they did not include self-published ebooks and Amazon Kindle ebooks.

The number-crunchers at AuthorEarnings.com argued that the true data shows that self-publishers have been capturing part of the traditional publisher’s ebook market. The report, published February 2017, concluded that “the rise of ebook sales in general, and indie publishing in particular, are not limited to the US nor to a single retailer (Amazon); they are international, industry-wide phenomena.”

In order to provide NSNC members with information to consider ebook publishing, I recently reached out to Jim Azevedo, marketing director of Smashwords, and 2018 NSNC Conference speaker.