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

 

The three star death knell

Chichester Cathedral

It's difficult, isn't? Here in the UK we're not given to praising something we consider good but unexceptional. We reserve our praise for the truly great, exceptional things that occur only occasionally. I had experience of this difference way back in the eighties when I went to Maine as a Summer Camp Counsellor and was astonished to hear a US counsellor praising a child to the skies for something sporty that I thought was pretty mediocre. Not that I would have told the child it was mediocre, you understand; but I wouldn’t have praised it, thereby letting it know that there was (lots of!) room for improvement.

We got to talking about it later, and I discovered that the US had a system of praising everything in the belief that all a kid needed was confidence, and given enough it would blossom and turn into a prize sportsperson if not overnight, then very soon. In the UK, I explained, a child would have its shortcomings pointed out and be told where it could improve. Ah, those American Counsellors said, that's hard on the kid. But then, it's hard to know which system works best in the long run - constructive criticism versus praise-no-matter-what. Perhaps it's a case of each to its own culture.

But I’ve discovered there are metaphorical playing fields where both sets of players meet head on, and that's the internet where writers, readers and book reviews are concerned. I read last night that Amazon algorithms give any reviewer the power to support writers - or to send them on the slippery slope to obscurity. Reviews of 4 stars or more are rated as good by Amazon. (Authors think they're good, too.) A three star review slips below Amazon's radar, and will penalise a book in the Amazon rating system; it may very well deter sales and therefore destroy any potential income the author would otherwise have received.

I don't know an author who doesn't read their reviews, nor would I believe them if they claimed never to look at them. I'm not saying a reviewer should lie, far from it; there are books that really don't appeal to certain readers, but....in such a case, perhaps it's better to simply accept that in this case you didn't hit lucky, and not review it. After all, there may be many people out there who did like the book. If you decide you must write a review, tell what you liked about the book and where you think it could be improved, but don't give a mere three stars if you wish to read more from that author!

Read more: http://www.epublishabook.com/2012/07/20/amazon-book-reviews-10-cardinal-rules-of-using-reviewing-power/#ixzz24g1cHV9f

Almost as an afterthought, I should point out that until 1st September, DARK POOL, my book about Vikings and Christians in eleventh century Dublin, is available on Amazon Kindle at a special low price of £2.30/$3.61 from 26th August for one week. Check it out -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Pool-Banners-Alba-Sequel-ebook/dp/B004SREKJI