Current publishing in the UK

Elvet Bridge - the other side

Here are the current stats for  UK book sales, comparing Jan-June 2012 with the same period 2011. The UK Publishers Association states that the value of total sales of books (all formats) has increased by 7.1%

Sales of digital fiction increased by 188% in value terms

Overall digital sales (fiction, non-fiction and children’s books) increased to £84m against £30m last year; 12.9% of the total value of sales, up from 7.2%

CEO of the Publishers’ Association thinks these figures indicate that publishing in the UK continues to perform well in spite of the recession and that digital sales demonstrate that readers and publishers are embracing e-book reading.
I think this is good news, too! Looking at Sales Reports for  Self-Published Kindle books - which is fascinating and can soon become addictive! - it is astonishing to see the difference in UK sales and US sales. Of course, the populations are so very different, something like 62 million against 220 million (the last time I looked), very nearly 4 times larger. Heaven knows I may not be typical, but my US sales are between 2 and 3 times greater than my UK sales.
Everyone is waiting to see what impact India will have, since the US reports now include sales in that country, which has another huge population. Given that there may only be a small percentage of Indian residents who can afford to buy a Kindle and books through it, there may not be a great difference. It is also said that India has a very good range of books at very low prices, and that most book publishers prices will be way too high to compete. We shall see!

This is the link to the original report: http://www.thebookseller.com/trackback/177906

 

India and M & B

Mills and Boon - which has nearly three-quarters of the romantic market in its home country of the UK - is now launching in India. Their books are already popular in the country because they have been unofficially introduced from abroad.

However much critics and reviewers slate and revile Mills & Boon, the company happily goes on selling. Personally I think the critics do M&B a favour - all publicity is good publicity! A woman will read what she wants to read, not what the critics tell her. Women like the happy endings. It is reassuring in these days of violence to know that however difficult the route may be, true love always prevails in the end.

Modern Indian women say they want the M&B heroes to be modern Indian men - they're not looking for Maharajahs. A combination of Bollywood actors Hrithik Roshan and Shahrukh Khan, businessman Anil Ambani and industrialist Sunil Mittal would do nicely!

If you want to read the article, click here