Never a dull moment

 Wondering this morning why Amazon has suddenly dropped off the Marketplace statistics on my KDP reports. The US always used to be the major player but as of this month it has fallen way behind. 

This has led me to checking as far as I can but I cannot see a reason for it. Unless it is because I charged a dollar more for my books? Would that do it?

Now that I am not writing - The Earl's Protection has been on sale for 12 days now - I have time to look at all these things. I really should have another go with Mailerlite and see if email lists really work or not. I have the feeling they may be just annoying to most people but the experts insist it is the way to go. Unless one chooses to go with a business venture that promises to "do it all for you - and sell thousands of titles!" There are a lot of them about on Facebook and Instagram these days. I also should look at TikTok, which so far has remained a mystery to me. Never a dull moment when you are a KDP author!

The gateway is Prudhoe Castle, built in early medieval days and still standing above the river Tyne in Northumberland

Quick round up of book sales

 

They say global sales of printed books by UK publishers dropped by 55m in the first six months of the year. But COVID has done well for the ebook. Sales of ebooks went down each year from 2014 but this year sales are up by 17% to £144m. UK publishers expect ebooks to enjoy their best year since 2015, when sales were just under £300m.

Sales of audiobooks surged 42% in the first half of the year– on track to beat the record set last year. The combined £199m first-half sales of the two formats has set UK publishers up for their best-ever year for digital sales and is expected to beat 2019’s record total of £336m.

OTOH, the printed book, which accounts for more than a 80% of the total £2bn market for books from UK publishers, is not doing so well.

In the UK, sales of all printed books fell 11%. Paperback fiction sales managed to stay level at £114.8m and hardback fiction has sales up 35% which shows that UK readers have turned to novels for entertainment, escapism and comfort during the pandemic.

Top five bestselling ebooks from UK publishers (Jan – June, 2020)

Normal People – Sally Rooney

The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides

Blood Orange – Harriet Tyce

The Flatshare – Beth O’Leary

Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

Top five bestselling fiction titles – print (Jan – June, 2020)

The Mirror and the Light, The Wolf Hall Trilogy – Hilary Mantel

Normal People – Sally Rooney

The Family Upstairs – Lisa Jewell

Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

Big Sky – Kate Atkinson

Sad to admit, but I have read none of them!

Digital readers like different books

Public Library data suggests print and digital readers like different books, claims Alison Flood in the Guardian.

Included for the first time in UK libraries’ annual tally of loans, Ebook lending 'indicates a slightly different reading demographic. ‘

The new figures cover the period between July 2018 and June 2019.

US thriller author James Patterson was the most borrowed print author from UK libraries for the 13th year running. Eight of the top ten titles were thrillers. Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novel The Midnight Line was the single most borrowed book.

Gail Honeyman’s novel Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine was the most borrowed ebook from UK libraries.

 The top 10 list of the most borrowed ebooks included Adam Kay’s This Is Going to Hurt, his memoir about life as a junior doctor in third place.

Madeline Miller’s Circe, a feminist retelling of the Greek mythological witch, came in fourth. 

JoJo Moyes’ Still Me, her second sequel to the bestselling Me Before You, comes in sixth.

Sally Rooney’s Normal People was eighth.

Do I agree with the premise? Thinking as a reader, I have to say I rarely buy print these days as digital is so much easier. 

No going out to the book shop, no paying high prices for something I may read only once. Instead I type in a title or an author and can decide from my chair what my purchase will be. Usually it is a good deal lower than the print equivalent. It is delivered to my ipad in seconds, and I can manipulate the type to suit my eyes and I can read it in bed without annoying my husband too much. 

I suppose what I've written above must say that I enjoy the reading experience rather than the physical feeling of a book in my hands or on my shelf. How one changes over the years! I have loads of print books in my home and have begun to weed them out and dispose of them. But then, when digital didn't exist, I could hardly buy it! My dog Tim yawns as if to say what does it matter as long as you read? How true.