Pasadena Foundation Blog

h1Selling Books is Big Business/h1
pNovels are being published annually.nbsp; nbsp;Bowker reported that the total book output for the United States in 2007 was 411,422 books. This would not include thousands of books that do not nbsp;bother with obtaining an ISBN from Bowker. A large number of published books came from self-publishers and small publishers, whose collective sales in 2005 were over $14 billion dollars. The statistics show that not even 20,000 of the books published every year make it into the bookstores. Millions of books are now sold online, through internet sales pages, or Amazon, or through specialized shops and outlets. a title=Bargain Books href=http://brevia.com/bargainbooks.html target=_blankBargain nbsp;books/a have become ordinary, with cheap books accounting for tens of millions of dollars. Industry estimates for total books sales calculate that the number is somewhere around $30 billion dollars.New book sales for 2009 have dropped, though e-book sales are rising. Book sales for the Kindle, Amazons reader for e-booksnbsp; has nbsp;awakened other publishers to the potential for the e-book,nbsp; as other book sellers and companies have rushed to manufacture their own ebook reader. It remains to be seen how large an impact ebooks will have on the industry. The internet has already impacted newspapers, and some predict conventional publishing will one day be a dinosaur./p
h2Historical Romance Novels are Still Hot/h2
pAs a sub-genre, a title=historical romance novel href=http://westernfiction.com/historical-romance-novels/ target=_blankhistorical romance /anovels have always fared well. The sales for those books keeps rising, as does the sales for romance novels as a broad genre. Mystery novels also continue to bring revenue to the publishers.nbsp; Western fiction novels have not fared very well over the decade. Interest in the western as a novel has diminished. a title=Louis LAmour Books href=http://westernfiction.com/lamour.html target=_blankLouis Lrsquo;Amour/a was the major draw for the western reader, and since his death there have been no newcomers on the western fiction scene to replace the man some call emThe Dean of Western Fiction./em/p
h3Self-publishing is Big Business/h3
pSelf publishing has arrived. However, the statistics tell a troubling story.nbsp;Well over 90% of self-published books sell less than 100 copies. However, nbsp;tens of thousands of these self-published books are printed annually. Thus, there are untold thousands of boxes filled with unsold books,nbsp; sitting in thousands of garages around the nation. Every author who wants to venture into self-publishing should do some homework. There are manynbsp; companies out there quite ready to take a writers hard-earned money, and will nbsp;go to great efforts innbsp; printing a book for that money. nbsp;Unfortunately, what is not told to most authors is the fact that they are the ones who has the biggest responsibilitynbsp; for marketing their book. So, the author who self-publishes could easily become the largest purchaser for the book./p
pbr /nbsp;Interestingly, even if an author gets published in a traditional publishing house, the main marketing job still belongs to the author. The author is the person who should be actively involved in generating publicity. Frankly, in the book selling market of today,nbsp; a writer would be well advised to hire a good publicity agent. It would be a good investment in his or herself./p
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