Books and Spikes

If you want a detailed report on how UK publishers are doing, then check out "Review of 2014" by Philip Jones in the Bookseller 20 January, 2015.

Here's a swift gloss -

"e-book sales outpaced print sales during the year."

Domestic e-book sales for Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan totalled 49m units in 2014, a 15.3% rise on 2013. There was an 18% rise in 2012, and a huge 105% gain in 2012 (on 2011).

There are and probably always will be, spikes. The e-book market rate of growth was exaggerated in 2012 by the Fifty Shades trilogy, Spikes like this can play havoc with a companies figures, skew general trends and drive analysts crazy.

Independently published titles are growing, but no one has a way of tracking the rate of growth.

HarperCollins UK chief executive Charlie Redmayne says the traditional Christmas sales spike has "all but" disappeared. Waterstones m.d. James Daunt said virtually the same thing two weeks ago.

The other thing of interest is what everyone is calling the "print renaissance." The book trade has "rekindled its love affair with the physical book." 

Has digital helped revive and reinvent print?

The shift to tablet reading and the rise of subscription services, will likely change the narrative again. As Kindle's Russ Grandinetti suggested at Digital Book World last week, nothing is stable. Let's hope the book business is doing better than we all thought.

VAT Clarity and Reviews

This statement from the Bookseller clarifies my last post -  The new European-wide VAT law causing digital products - including e-books and apps - to be taxed in the European member state in which the consumer is located, as opposed to the country from which the product is sold will be introduced in January.
The change will stop multinational online corporations such as Amazon and Google from diverting their European sales through low-VAT countries, but small companies fear that the new rules will also hurt sales of their digital products.

So the petition I've signed is an attempt to prevent small companies - read authors as well as publishers - from suffering from this attempt to stop giant companies avoiding tax. Everyone wants Amazon to pay taxes as it should, but this seems an unhappy way to achieve it. Surely the business brains could think of another way? The thought of having to be VAT registered and send in returns is enough to make me consider pulling out of this writing lark.

On another topic I am very happy with the first two reviews I've received for Abduction of the Scots Queen. (Check them out here ) If anyone has the time, energy and inclination to review it for me, please get in touch! The pic is present day Stirling Castle, where Matho has many of his adventures

Dated blogs

This article in the Bookseller is aimed at website owners, but many of the pointers apply equally well to bloggers. Bookseller Thankfully it recommends photographs, and mentions that awards and reviews are a good thing to include. It also recommends a Buy Button as everyone is buying things online these days. Sadly, it recommends Twitter and Facebook links.

(Even me. My beloved laptop cracked a hinge during our last days in France, which made it vulnerable to complete extinction. DH has just told me he has found new hinges for my particluar model (after three days of searching on the web) and do I want him to order them? I leap to accept his offer. £20 seems OK to have my VA10 back in action.)

Returning to my original subject, I don't think I've ever got to grips with either of those social networks. I'm there, I'm registered, but often stare at the screen and wonder what in my life is worth putting on the page. That I had an egg for breakfast or will have roast duck for dinner is hardly going to set the world alight, yet that's what some people put out there for everyone to read. Stalkers must be delighted!
Still, the article in the Bookseller
is worth reading, and it is making me feel that perhaps it's time I looked at my dear old blog with a re-vamp in mind.

The pic is the cinema in Bergerac.
Fear not, I still have lots of French pics to load!