A Reason For Why Authors Are Not Finding Success In Publishing

I wanted to call this a theory but I think I will stick to a hypothesis. Still, I do think there is a lot of merit for what I am about to say.

I recently read an article (again) and the decline in the publishing industry for authors. More and more "authors" (NOTE: I am using Authors in quotes because they call themselves this, not that they are authors) are struggling and more and more are finding that breaking into the business is, in their words, "nearly impossible." These authors go on and on about the business strategies of the publishers, the stupidity of the book sellers and the fact that agents are supposedly only the "gate-keepers" to this privileged world of publishing." While these ideas might have a couple of examples, I do not think that is the real issue.

I have written here that one factor I do argue about the sales decline stems from the lack of readership and the rise of binge watching on Netflix, Hulu and the sort. People just don't want to read. But that is not something that, I believe, is getting in the way of authors not making it into the business.

So what is it you ask?

Sorry to say this, but I do believe the intelligence of the author population is seriously declining.

Don't take this the wrong way. I do believe authors have a lot of great intentions, but the submissions I see (and other agents and editors are seeing) tend to show a serious lack of education in the business, the writing craft, or the basic skills of research and knowing how to submit projects.

Over the weekend, I played serious catch up of submissions and found that nearly 70%+ of the submissions were for projects that A) were not what I acquired; B) the premise would never even sell if self-published, or C) the proposals/stories/queries were far from market ready. We literally have a population of "authors" who have absolutely no clue what they are doing?

It seems that so many "authors" are just sitting down typing what they call a novel and attempt to sell it. And yet, these same authors find failure at every turn. Eventually, they think that the secret to publishing might be to join a writing group. Good start, but now they are with other authors who have found the same lack of success and proceed to share their "conspiracy theories" justifying why their brilliant stories were rejected. (Note: These stories were labeled "brilliant" by their families and best friends).

I have said this before and I will say it again. Being an author is a job. It is a business. It is just like any other career. Before we enter any career, we go to school, we become educated, we get a degree or two, we have internships, we apprentice, we take classes from "accredited" schools. The key is, we become educated BEFORE we dive into a career.

And I am sorry to say this, but the vast majority of "authors" will continue to find a lack of success until they choose the path of education.

Barnes and Noble

I read an article yesterday about Barnes and Noble and the education side of their company. As I read this, the problems they are facing are VERY clear and something that needs to be addressed, but interestingly enough, probably not on the Barnes and Noble side of things. 

The article noted:

Barnes and Noble Education reported results for their fiscal first quarter, a seasonally "low activity" period. Sales keep falling -- at $319.7 million, down $18.2 million from a year ago, or 5.4 percent lower. They registered declines across all three business segments: College stores, the textbook wholesale business, and their digital student solutions. The announcement celebrates that general merchandise sales comps rose 4.9 percent (gaining $5.9 million) -- yet course material sales fell 11 percent (down $13.7 million) and trade book sales declined 11.8 percent (falling $1.2 million). There you have the essential problem of this entire enterprise. (Publishers Lunch)

Here is the big problem with schools and education today. It is all about funding. Due to the way the U.S. Funds schools, money is becoming an increasingly large issue. K-12 schools are stuck with left-over funding, bonds and levies to keep things flowing. Still, teachers and administrators are finding every way they can to cut costs. 

What do we see? Schools cutting textbooks entirely and moving to Open Source texts because these are "free." 

Teachers, in an effort to "save money" and "cut costs" are putting together custom books that are loose leave and run through the school copy centers. 

And why is that? The publishers have realized that they have the schools in a bind.

• Schools need books
• Publishers have the only source
• They can charge outrageous prices.

I have two kids in college and both just dropped roughly $300 each for a semester worth of books. This is just for 3-5 classes each. 

So now, what are kids doing? A) running to used books; or B) renting books.

While these ideas certainly sound like great alternatives, there are huge drawbacks. The first is the impact on the publisher. There is no money being made here. I have talked about this before when we talk about book sales. Used book stores are great but the money only stays at the store and never makes it back to the publishers or authors. Because of this, they have to find ways to make that money in other ways, and, unfortunately, it is raising the price of the books they know they have control over. In this case - textbooks.

The other drawback is for the student. Used books run the risk of really being "too used" which make studying hard. Rentals limit what you can do. Essentially, not marking the books up. 

To put it bluntly, publishers have jacked the prices so high that they are running themselves out of the market.

A similar thing is happening at Disney right now. Crowds are just not there at Disneyland and the thought is, they finally hit the threshold of what people can truly afford.

Look, I fully get making money requires spending money. I get publishers have to charge something. But when it comes down to it, books costing $80, $90 and up to $200 might be pushing it. 

Just a thought. 

The Changing Face of Publishing

As we all know, the publishing industry is always changing. We see shifts in style and voice all of the time. But in recent years, I have seen significant other changes that make it a frustrating business for any author out there. I do believe this is also a huge reason why so many authors have "left traditional publishing" hoping to find success in the "self-publishing" arena. It is unfortunate, but many of these authors probably will not find that success.

So, what is happening?

I have to say, the underlying problem is not in the publishing community, but in the consumers that the publishing world needs to survive. In simple terms, people are not reading any more. This is not something that we need quantitative data to demonstrate. Just look around you. Just watch the advertising for the latest technology. We talk about binge watching shows. We talk about the latest "series" we watched on Hulu, Netflix and so forth.

When the e-publishing industry really kicked in, the industry launched all of these great devices to allow readers to "take their books with them." Kindles, Kobo's Sony E-Readers were all there to change the face of the industry. But publishers realized that people were not buying "their" e-reader so they had to amp up the device. They started adding the movie apps. They added the music apps. They added the wi-fi technology and access to the internet. The funny part here is that everyone was struggling to sell their devices. I would argue that it was not the issue of the competition, but the simple fact that people were just not reading.

So, when books don't sell, the publishers had to make changes. This is a business and they had to find a way to make adjustments to compensate for losses. Lines were cut. The number of new authors declined. They reduced where their books were available to people. But one of the biggest was a shift to reduce the number of books they had in warehouses. Remember that when we did everything with "real books" we published huge numbers and then had to find the readers. A lot of these books ended up sitting and not being sold. Many were simply returned to the publishers unsold. Going digital reduces that surplus.

While this sounds great approach, we are still missing a key component. People are not using those devices to "read" but to watch movies and to just talk to one another around the world.

Even the US school system is doing the same thing. Many schools are moving toward one-to-one technology models giving all of these kids technology to improve their education. The unfortunate things is that people are not reading.

If this is all happening, how is this changing the face of publishing? Publishers are sticking with the authors they know will sell. I saw recently at a local store their book shelf and it was startling. On the 5 shelves I looked at, there were only 6 authors with their books. The diversity was not there. They were simply promoting those authors who, in the past,m have proven successful. Had that author really written 5 different books in the recent months? No. they were re-releasing titles.

And now we are left with all of these authors who are trying desperately to " make it" and finding nothing but roadblocks. Publishers have raised the bar too high. They want the "best seller" immediately. It is simply not going to be there.

What can be done? The first thing is to get people reading again. This holiday season, quit buying the tech just to watch a new show. Buy a book. If you have connections to schools, get them to buy books. Get those kids reading again.

And publishers too can take some risks. Acquire new authors. You don't have to do huge print runs like you did in the past. Keep it smaller. But produce books.

I know this might seem pretty simple, but it will work. It just takes someone to take that chance. 

Changing Lines or Publishers Is Not A Simple Change

Every publisher out there and every individual line within a publishing house has a unique voice and style. This is something I have spoken about a lot here on the blog. It is unfortunate, though, that so many authors think if a publisher wants a contemporary romance (or any gene for that matter) that their stories will fit with everyone. This is far from the case.

For published authors, this becomes an even bigger challenge. If you have been writing with one line for a period of time, you have trained your brain to think like that line (or publisher). You have received editorial feedback that has shaped your writing in a specific direction. But now, you are interested in expanding your horizons and want to try some new things, so you look to the other publishers. Now what?

The first thing you need to do is take the time to read how that line writes and what the voice sounds like. Please be aware that if you are used to reading Author X in one line and she writes for another line, the voice will be different. This is not just a different word count or an increase or decrease in sensuality. The voice does change. If you look to a different publisher, the voice will be even more of a drastic change.

It is also important to note that changing publishers will require an added commitment on your part. While you might have been used to submitting new projects on proposal, those new publishers will want to likely see a full project. Yes, there are people who can shift publishers on proposal only, but the odds are, these authors have more than a few books under their belts and have sales figures that are incredible.

Finally, if you are thinking of continuing your work with the first publisher and also work with the second publisher, now it is a matter of juggling schedules. Please understand that each of the publishers have their own calendars. Even though, while you were with one publisher, you could sort of set your own schedule, with two, that flexibility is gone.

There are certainly a lot of benefits for being with two lines or two publishers, but be aware that the changes will take a lot of getting used to and may not be as easy as you think.

The Changing Face of Publishing

For anyone in this business, they clearly see that the publishing world of today is far from the publishing world of the past (or even the last several years). Some of these changes are for the good and clearly, some are not heading in the right direction (IMHO).

I know that there are many authors out there frustrated with the new face of publishing and, for that reason, they are off to the self-publishing and independent publishing opportunities. I fully understand their decisions, and, those who are making it, I fully applaud and support. Unfortunately, I do believe it is this move that is also leading to many of the problems we are seeing out there in publishing now - It all comes down to supply and demand.

There are simply far too many authors out there to support the declining reading population. Let's talk about these for a minute, and I want to start with the second element.

I have mentioned this before on the blog, but people are simply not reading anymore, and the scary part is that it is extending all of the way down to the K-12 system of our education here in North America. Think back to your earlier days in school. The odds are, you read a lot more, either through independent reading opportunities, or even the novels the class read. During my first years of teaching, my classes read anywhere between 5-8 novels a year, as well as independent reading. My two daughters who are currently in 11th and 7th grade AP and Honors classes are reading far less than that. My 11th grader has read 1 novel in the last 2 years of Pre-AP and AP classes. When she hits the 12th Grade AP class, they will be assigned 3 novels, but (here is the catch), they don't even read the whole novel, but just sections the teacher felt important. My 7th grade will read 2 novels this year and 2 next year (and also just the sections the teacher felt important).

Getting out of the education community, we are really seeing far less with readers. All of those digital devices we now carry around with us are used only to steam the latest shows we're binge watching. We also use it for all of your social media needs, but reading? I don't think so.

So, how does this connect to publishing? If people are not reading, then publishers are not selling. If publishers don't sell, then book stores close. Add in the fact that people are inherently becoming lazy and realize it is just easier to "buy things online" and that creates more and more of the stores closing.

But, we are still back to the number of authors. As I have said in the past, self-publishing opportunities have created the image that everyone can be a published author. As much as I do believe everyone out there can write, I do no, nor will I ever believe everyone can reach that "published author" level. Yes, their books my be published, but I view many of these people as simply having their books printed. If the writing is bad, the crafting is not there, or the story is simply not something anyone other than close friends would want to read, then I would not classify that writer as moving into that next level of writing.

And yet, the market is flooded with these authors.

So we are back to the publishers again and their stance when it comes to reviewing new works coming in, or marketing those books they currently have. We are turning away a lot more authors today than we did in the past. The quality of the writing is simply not there. There are also publishers who find that, with no major bookstores to sell to, have turned to that digital model more and more. While the initial money spent to put the book into that final form is the same, the cost of doing massive print runs just decreased significantly with digital only books. No paper. No ink. No storage. No shipping.

Do I know where this industry is heading? No. I really wish I did. What I do see, however, is a move away from literacy, and that scares me. I can only hope and pray that things change for the better.

Thoughts on the industry in 2018

2017 is coming to a close. As I look into 2018, I am a bit concerned, unless authors, agents, and publishers come together. Do I think we will completely lose publishing? No! Do I think there will be major changes that have to happen? Yes! But I am afraid it might be too late for many.

What is my concern? It is the push here in North America for "going all digital". No, this is not the idea that e-books are going to make a comeback. It is the idea that the North American population is so obsessed with the idea of everything going digital, that we are pushing the idea of reading out of our brains. Consider...

More and more companies are pushing for their TV and movies to go digital. Consider all of these shows you now watch through services such as Netflix and Hulu. OK, I get that seeing those digitally are great in terms of space and potentially the cost of production and so forth, but the issue comes from where we are watching these things. Those phones, E-READERS (Yes, I put that in bold for a reason) are now strictly becoming a mobile movie theatre. The space we had on those phones for books is just not there.

This is not just happening with the general public. Look around you and consider what is going on in the school and colleges. More and more of our educational institutions are pushing heavily for "going digital" and "open source curriculum." Now, while this might seem a great way to make education a bit more affordable, it is taking over too much. It is becoming an obsession.

One school near me has gone 100% digital. All the kids in the entire district have iPads. They live off of APP-versions of programs. To save money, they use a Learning Management System called CANVAS which many colleges use (I should note, this is not that bad). But, to really push that saving, they encourage EVERYTHING to be turned in digitally. Now, here is the kicker. The only programs they have access to for that word processing is PAGES (the Apple version of MS Word) and Google Docs. But wait, there's more. The App version of Pages and trying to type on an iPad touch screen has limited keyboard availability. This particular school only has 2 class sets of keyboards that have to be connected.

Testing, textbooks and so forth have gone entirely digital. But, the books they need to read cannot be accessed on the iPads because "buying" those Kindle Books, is "too expensive. The end result here... kids are not reading, but using the iPads to play games.

Now, as people quit buying those books because they need to binge watch a TV series, publishers have to make harsh decisions about who they sign, what they sign, what lines they run and who will write the books. I have seen a lot of these things happening during the last year. Publishers are not signing on a ton of new authors, but sticking with those that have been around and already have a following. Even new digital lines that launch as independents tend to stick with authors who already had a following.

Just a note here. The things happening now happened back in 2008 with the housing bubble. The difference is that it is a different external industry driving this.

I have spoken about this in the past as well, but for many authors, going digital just does not make the money they thought it would. Readers cannot find the books, and as we can see, readers are choosing House of Cards over the latest Steve Berry book.

Have I found myself making adjustments? Yes! I too am now passing on more and more books simply because the quality of the book is not there and I need to have things that would really make an impact and would make a publisher stand up and take notice. It has to be AMAZING to get the publishers to look beyond their established stable of authors.

Changes are going to need to be made. We need to get "books" back out there for people. We have to make books affordable. We have to get those bookstores that we all loved back open again. Make these book stores. Quit selling everything else in those stores. We don't need ski equipment and toys. Go for the books.

If the North American market wants to get going with publishing it will take some risks. The European market is still buying books, and we can too.

No, I do not think this is a situation where the North American publishing market is now sitting in a hospice care waiting to die. There is hope. But it cannot be the direction we are going now.

Why 100% Digital Does Not Work

I started thinking about this yesterday after my wife came home from work. Let me give you the background here.

She is a department chair for her college and she was in doing an observation for one of her instructors. This guy was using a gaming app called Kahoot for a review activity. This is a great app but here is where the problem lies. If people don't have the technology, they are now locked out of the activity.

Here is another example. I fully understand the music industry is advancing quickly in terms of their technology. We have really come a long way from those 8-Track tapes! But when we have gone 100% digital, if people do not have the technology to listen to the music, (or to watch the shows such as Hulu, Netflix and the like), you have cut off part of the population that may have contributed to your income.

But how does this relate to publishing? The answer is simple. When you limit your readership to only those with the digital capabilities, you have lost a huge section of your population. Not everyone has the technology to read your books digitally. Not everyone has a large tablet, Kindle or something to read your books. Not everyone enjoys reading books on technology. There are still a lot of people out there who love the smell and feel of a book.

The large publishers did figure this out quickly when the digital book movement began. When they released books, they did so both in print and in e-book format. This is actually one of the big reasons why we saw such a spike in e-books at the beginning. It was not that authors who were going 100% digital were out-pacing the print sales. It was that the print people were doing BOTH and that contributed to the sales.

For you new authors out there, I fully understand the allure of grabbing those self-publishing opportunities that are primarily digital. You are now published! But remember there are a lot of people out there who might really enjoy your writing but will never see it if they are not using the digital outlets.

I am not someone who is going to say digital is bad, but I have to remind a lot of people, that, although the technology may be out there, not everyone has access to it, or enjoys using it. If you want to increase your sales, you have to create those multiple platforms for your readers.

There Are No Shortcuts in Publishing

This last week, I noticed a huge rise in advertising on Facebook for fantastic programs to get that book published. In all of the ads, the sponsors noted how easy writing that novel would be. One, in particular was a program that plotted out your entire novel for you. Just click on character types, settings and so forth and BAM!, your story was plotted. Others proclaimed the ease of getting that finished book of yours to millions of people.

And I am sorry to say, but writing and publishing simply doesn't work that way. There are no short-cuts. Writing that novel, marketing it to editors and agents, editing, publishing that book, and even marketing it to readers for sales takes time, effort and hard work. This is not an industry where you push a button and you are suddenly on the New York Times Best Seller List!

I even get invitations from online writing forums to participate in pitch sessions. No, these are not sessions where we sit down face to face and talk about stories. These are places where writers simply throw their pitch on a discussion board and hope that some random editor or agent will buy their book and make them millions of dollars. While this might sound like it is efficient, it is not a successful way to get your career moving.

 Services such as these are very similar to the magic elixirs sold by those traveling salesmen in the wild west. Buy this product, or invest in this service and your are promised great things. In reality, the only thing I can promise you is that you will be out time that you could have been spending writing. You will also likely find yourself even more discouraged with this business. You might even be out money that you will simply not get back again.

Look, there are ways to get your writing potentially in front of editors and agents, but even then, understand that taking the regular approach will always be more productive. There are contests out there where, IF your story gets it out of the preliminary rounds, there is a chance that editor or agent you want will read the story. No promises though. There are also campaigns by publishers when they are looking for a specific genre of writing. But even then, there are no promises.

Programs like this are always out there, especially with the rise of self-publishing opportunities. Those companies offering the self-pub service have tried so hard to convince people that their approach is easy, fast, productive and certainly going to make you a ton of cash. Those people making it in that industry (or I should simply say in all of the publishing world) are doing well because they are working their butts off. They are also successful because they have a product worth selling.

Promoting Reading Will Save Publishing

There isn't a day that goes by when we don't read about a new approach a publisher, agent or writer is taking to increase sales, They are trying everything: New Marketing plans; new "models", new styles of covers; new cross-over genres. And yet, with every attempt, it seems that sales are just not there. From this, however, leads to a constant blaming of the other people as to why sales are not there. But, in the end, they are completely missing one major factor - the book buyer, the consumer, the reader.

The biggest problem we have is that people simply are not reading any more. 

Now, this is where we can really start to try and find the root of the problem. Well of course they aren't buying books because we don't have bookstores. Well of course they aren't buying books because they cost too much. We can probably go on and on with this, and yes these might be the factors, but the reality is that the problem is more of a cultural issue and not so much with the publishing world. 

When I taught in the Tacoma School District, I worked with a program called FUTURE PROBLEM SOLVING. The program involved students working in a team of 4 and, during a short period of time, they would look at a situation, figure out what the real problem was and create a solution. I bring this up, because the first issue the students had to come up with was what FPS called the "UNDERLYING PROBLEM." They were to determine what really was the issue here. And this is not what we are doing.  

You see, for most people, when they look a problem and come up with solutions, they are only looking at issues that are more of symptoms and not the problem. When we have a runny nose, we get things that take care of the runny nose, but don't fix the allergies that cause the problem. In the case of publishing, we aren't looking at what is really causing the problem with book sales. We are only looking at the symptoms. 

To see the underlying problem we have to go much earlier. If you have kids in the K-12 system, I want you to consider how much emphasis they place on reading. Now consider how much of an emphasis they place on testing and the new "Common Core" standards. As someone who has taught in this system, working reading into the curriculum is tough. You only have 180 days to get through all of the material. Add in assemblies, field trips, half-days, other curriculum, student absences, early release days, and the simple fact that the first and last 1-2 weeks of school are not for teaching, there isn't much time left.

Now consider what they are being asked to read. The standardized texts, are often designed to meet other standards and not really picked because it is "good literature". In the Puyallup School District, they have picked a book for 9th grade students because it "teaches about life in the Mid-East." Although this sounds noble, the purpose is not for English, but to get students ready to take a standardized test in 9th Grade World History. Not a great focus. 

For some schools, they try to get kids to read using a program called Accelerated Reader. In simple terms, kids can read a book and then take a test on it. It is computerized and many schools use this as a tool for grading. By the end of the quarter a student must earn X amount of points. The argument for it is that students can read whatever they want. But here is the problem. Students are A) required to read books only in their reading level so they are controlled by what they can and cannot read; and B) if there is no test for it, they cannot read it. 

IN simple terms, the K-12 system is not promoting reading.

But that same lack of promotion of reading extends to the culture in general. Those iPads and other tablets that first came out to promote digital reading are now portable televisions for binge watching the latest episode of THE GOOD WIFE or BREAKING BAD. Take a look today at how many people use that technology (including cell phones) to do things other than reading. We use these to check email, take selfies, review social media, watch videos, listen to music, but... God Forbid we even think about reading a book. 

Again, if you have kids or know of families around you that have kids, how much "real promotion" of reading takes place in the house. I am sure the number is not that high. Oh, yes, we can come up with a lot of reasons why we don't read in the evening"

• Parent = "Oh, I spent all day reading legal briefs so I am exhausted. I just want to unwind."
• Parent = "I would love to read but I have the house to pick up because I was gone all day with errands."
• Kids = "I have homework."
• Kids = "I don't have time with youth group and soccer/"
• Parents = "I want the kids outside exercising and not sitting on their butts in the house."

Although all of these sound justifiable, these are nothing more than excuses. 

So, now when we ask why bookstores closed, it was not so much of a mismanagement by the executives, we can see that most of this is the loss of consumers. That loss led to them trying band-aid solutions for their symptoms which potentially led to the mismanagement. 

When we ask as authors why the royalties are down, the simple fact is no one is reading your book. It isn't necessarily that it is because of the quality of the book. If people don't read it, you don't get the money. Yes, we can scream about the availability, of the book, but if Walmart sells more video games than books, they will take away that shelf space for the books to make room for more versions of Death Race 22. 

I think back to when I was growing up (back when I walked back and forth to school in snow uphill), I had a joy of going to the library. I would come home with a ton of books. In the 3rd grade, I raced to get the latest Hardy Boys Book. When I wanted a new book that came out, my parents "bought" me that book. When we went on road trips, we didn't turn on the videos attached to the back seat or the roof of the car. - we read.

Maybe if quit making excuses and promote reading again, then sales will again rise. Until then, I guess you can continue to blame others for a lack of sales or try to put another band aid on the problem. 

What Does The Ending Of Samhain Tell Us?

As many of you have heard, Samhain Publishing is calling it quits. Christina Brashear has done a great job with the company and I know a lot of people did really well with them. But when you read the letter they sent out to their authors, it becomes clear that the issue is not with the company but with the system.

Samhain was one of the best when it came to digital sales so if they are struggling, what does this tell
us. According to their letter they stated "the recent sales numbers are not providing any hope for recovery and none of our efforts have been successful. For the last two years we have tried many and varied types of campaigns to promote your titles and have had no success in reaching the new customers we need to thrive. Each month that goes by our sales continue to shrink..." The simple truth is that when readers don't buy books, no one makes money.

This company was aggressive when it came to promotion. Their authors were some of the best when it came to getting their titles out there to readers, and yet, they struggled to get those new readers. It is a later comment that really brings to light the issue this company had, as well as far too many authors out there. Samhain noted "We’ve tried to renegotiate terms with Amazon in order to buy better placement within their site and perhaps regain some of the lost traction from the early days but have been met with silence. Other retail sites are trying, but the sales have never risen to the level of Amazon and are declining as well." At first glance, it would seem the problem is with Amazon, but that is not the case. The issue is partially with "placement" but in a larger part "the lack of readers."

I have written about this in the past but finding new authors, or for that matter, any book has become a challenge with the demise of the brick and mortar stores. To find a book, we can't simply browse but we have to actually turn on that computer and type in the name of the book and the author we want. If you are a new author, or you have a new book out there, people will have no way of finding you. When they are talking about placement in the Amazon line, they are trying anyway to get their titles essentially out there on that table you used to see with "New Releases" at the book store.

But I do personally believe, and this is really disturbing for someone who is also in education, but we have a population of people who simply do not read. All of these tablets that were once the central element of the digital publishing market are now being used for binge watching of House of Cards, Outlander the TV Series and Breaking Bad. We have a population that would rather "wait for the movie" than read the actual novel.

It can be easy to start throwing stones and claiming mismanagement or screaming that Amazon is the problem, but the real point is twofold: A) readers are not buying books: and B) digital marketing is not efficient enough to make those sales work.

I hate to see when a company collapses. I personally want to wish all of those at Samhain the best of luck with new ventures. For the authors, I want to also wish you all of the best. This might be a small bump in the road, but this business will go on and you will land on your feet!

Why People Don't Read Any More

I have pushed here on this blog that one of the biggest reasons for sales to be down for authors lately is the lack of readers. People simply aren't reading books any more. I do think we can pinpoint a lot of reasons why this is happening and, if we really want to get those readers back, maybe we need to change how we are doing things.

Let's consider some of the reasons:

1. READING IS A FORCED ACTIVITY IN SCHOOLS I really don't want to get into a "back in my day" approach to this, but sometimes there is no way around it. We are so eager to "get test scores up" that we are making reading a forced activity in schools. When I was in school, going to the library to get a great new book to read was a highlight for the week. We loved going in and finding something "we wanted to read." Sure we did book reports and maybe we did weekly reading times, but we got to read what we wanted to read! But now, we have programs such as ACCELERATED READER which limits kids to the books they are supposed to read. If the book is not in the computer for testing after they finish reading, the students are encouraged not to read the book. Instead of giving the kids the chance to read for fun, it is now ranked up there with tests quizzes and passing on to the next grade.
2. THE ANTHOLOGIES WE GIVE KIDS TO READ IN SCHOOLS IS GARBAGE I have sat on countless committees assessing new curriculum for literacy programs in schools. We are given stacks of pre-selected books that some member of the board of directors selected and we are told to select from "these books only." What is frustrating is the quality. It seems that many of these larger publishers are making such an effort to create "student friendly books" or "books with a wide range of choices to showcase diversity" that they have forgotten the quality of the story within it. We give kids the "Readers Digest" version of stories that really miss the mark. The anthologies are "dumbed down" to meet the needs of the given grade. 
3. STUDENTS ARE TOLD WHAT TO READ AND NOT GIVEN THE CHANCE TO SELF-SELECT - this one goes back to the forced activities in school argument. We now tell kids they need to read books that are "in their grade level." God forbid they read something in a range higher than where they tested at with the standardized testing methods! School librarians herd kids to sections of the library and tell them "this is what you should read." Now don't get me wrong. I do believe in exposing kids to different genres, but when we get to the point we are telling kids they can't read a given book, maybe we are missing something. 
4. TECHNOLOGY DISTRACTS US FROM READING Look, don't get me wrong. I think technology is great, but when we get into a situation where people are making a decision as to what to do, they turn to their phones, their tablets, their X-boxes and Playstations. Even the ads for these new devices put the ability to read your favorite book below everything else. Take a look at the ad for the Kindle Fire Phone. What are we hyping on the phone? Movies and TV! The phone doesn't even say anything about the ability to be used as a phone. 
   
    Take a look at the ad for the Kindle Fire. Remember that Amazon really tried to create these for e-reading, but look now. Get the idea. We are hyping up everything but reading.
   
   Oh sure, there is a link for a magazine but do you notice where the kindle app is at? It's hidden. Even the description of the kindle shows you what they are emphasizing: 

   Our most affordable Kindle Fire—now with a stunning HD display, faster processor, and longer battery life

   Experience movies, TV, and games, and more on a stunning HD display (216 ppi / 1280x800) Fast 1.5GHz dual-core processor—apps launch quickly, games and videos play smoothly Create profiles and set time limits for children with Kindle FreeTime. Easy-to-use parental controls let everyone enjoy, worry-free Ultra-fast web browsing over built-in Wi-Fi, plus updated e-mail and calendar support for Gmail, Outlook, and more Instant access to over 100,000 apps and games in the Amazon Appstore, including a new paid app for free every day

   Reading? What reading?  
5. PARENTS DON'T DEMONSTRATE STRONG READING HABITS BUT TELL KIDS TO READ - Kids follow the lead of their parents. They watch and they learn from the adults. But in all honesty, if the parents aren't reading and they are spending their entire time watching movies, turning on Netflix and never reading, why should they kids do their reading. 
6. YES, THE AVAILABILITY OF BOOKS IS STILL AN ISSUE I am putting this one down at the bottom because I do believe it is the result of much of the stuff going on in 1-5. Bookstores shut down because the consumers weren't buying the products. To get books any more is really a chore. Even within the schools, due to budget cuts, librarians don't even have their doors open all of the time. Our lack of buying books has forced us into situations we are now not liking. 

Maybe it is time to rethink what we are doing. Yes, I understand this was a bit of a rant, but we have to see that maybe the state of the publishing industry was because of what we have done in the past and what we continue to do now. I guess the simple question is, do we want to do anything about it, or are we going to just continue to whine, moan, complain and place blame on other things?

Books Are Not Dead

At least once a month, Facebook suddenly has a post that goes viral about some famous actor who mysteriously dies in some freak accident. Of course, after everyone and their brother SHARES the link with their friends with lines such as "RIP..." or "Wow, I am totally bummed..." we then get a post that says it was some dork out there making up the story. All I can say is "Ha, ha, ha, that is soooo, funny" (did you sense the sarcasm there).

In publishing, we are seeing the same thing. We are all seeing posts proclaiming "the death of the publishing industry." The death is a result of:

• self-publishing taking over
• Amazon taking over the world with their drones
• traditional publishing not willing to change
• the CIA with the help of aliens at Area 51 are taking over

Sure enough, with each of these articles, the authors are showing clear evidence with numbers and data to show why we are reaching the publishing apocalypse. Of course when I see these articles, I am often reminded of those people we see on the street telling us the end is near.

But we know that often know that these rumors are often exaggerated and unfounded.

The truth is that this business right now is in a state of change. We're not talking about death, but simply a metamorphosis into a different version of what we have seen so far. Who knows what that change will be, but it is going to be around in the future.

People do like to read, but since the economic crunch, people had to make a decision as to whether they would buy milk or buy a book. People have become fixated on all of this great technology of tablets and the ability to connect with each other in social media. Yes, they can read on these devices, but the immediate fascination is on the flash of the other media. In many ways, think of Christmas day and opening packages. We are drawn to the flash and not necessarily the books.

We have to be cautious of responding irrationally to all of these publishing death rumors. Sure, sales might not be strong right now but that doesn't mean things won't pick up. In fact, I have seen sales numbers slowly moving in a positive direction. It might not be at the rate we all want, but things are improving. Like everything else in this business, things take time to change. Don't expect to see a change this week or even next week. It may take months to get us back to full steam again.

I am confident, however, the end is not near at all! Besides, if it was the end, why on earth would I still be asking for submissions?

Current Publishing Struggles Are Not The Fault Of Just One Side

The publishing struggles currently going on at all levels of this business really are a "chicken before the egg" type of problem and frankly, writers, publishers, book buyers and many others really do need to stop and consider what they say before they even start placing the blame on the others in this struggle. Book sales are not soaring like they did before the economic crunch hit 5-6 years ago and the fault cannot lay at the feet of one single group in this publishing business.

In an April, 2013 article in Publisher's Weekly by Jim Milliot, he highlighted a few numbers that can certainly be a starting point to work with.

• Total book sales rose 1.0% in 2013 over 2012, to $15.05 billion
• Adult e-book sales rose 3.8%, to $1.30 billion
• Hardcover sales increased 9.7%, to $1.52 billion
• Trade paperback sales fell 9.3%, to $1.36 billion
• Mass market paperback segment sales fell 7.7%, to $373.1 million
• Downloaded audio had a good year with sales up 18.6%, to $131.6 million, while physical audio sales were basically flat at $78.4 million

Now look, I understand we can take a look at these numbers, and like a great baseball statistician, we can manipulate those numbers any number of ways we want to make our own personal claim. There are some who will try to claim that decreases in one area are the direct result of the increases in another area. Unfortunately, these are conclusions that simply cannot be drawn from that data. What we can say is that numbers are simply not where we want them to be, and this goes for everyone in this business - the agents, editors, writers (self-pub, traditional, independent, e-pub and the like), the publishers and the book sellers.

In an editorial for Publishing Perspectives, from a guest writer, Tanja Tuma, director of a Slovenian Publishing House, Zalozba Tuma (forgive the spelling of the publishing house. I can't figure out this AM how to get the computer to get the special characters for Slovenian), she noted several things that demonstrate this placing of the blame and missing things that I would consider falling in the "big picture" element of the argument:. She notes "brick-and-mortar bookshops are important cultural centers. On their shelves, they foster literary and popular literature under the wing of the famous. It’s a mixed calculation. Without this, the literary tastes of the readers being offered only the most popular and highly ranked writings cannot personally grow. They run the risk of becoming shallow, maybe so shallow that they don’t want to bother with reading any books or texts whatsoever."

I fully agree that the brick-and mortar bookshops are "important cultural centers" but extending the argument to claiming the limited offerings are preventing any personal growth or that readers will not want to "bother with reading any books or texts whatsoever" is a bit too extreme.

She does try to justify this with a comment drawn fro the now infamous "Open Letter to KDP Authors" that these bookstores " It is particularly painful that the brick-and-mortar bookshops claim that because of physical and material reasons." Let's think logically about this, shall we? A store has so many square feet. There are currently more authors (of all ranges of ability and quality) out there than shelf space. Sorry but this is true.

And this is happening not just with the brick-and-mortar bookstores, but for any place that had, in the past, provided book space. The Walmarts, grocery stores and so forth are now replacing the book shelves with things that are selling. Remember, they too are businesses attempting to make money and if the space is being taken up with something not being sold, what better solution than to remove the non-selling product and replace it with something that does sell. Don't we do this with our garages? We get rid of things that haven't been used and are "just taking up shelf space"?

Now, with that said, I have always believed that many of those brick-and-mortar stores did take up that coveted "book space" with things that probably had a better place. Even today, walk into a Barnes and Noble and consider how much floor space is being taken up by the display and the staffing to sell their Nook devices? Just something to consider.

Tuma, like many others in this battle are also trying to argue that this is still that traditional vs self-pub battle. She also noted in her article, "the traditional publishers and booksellers neglect the newest trends and completely ignore the self-published market of electronic and paper books."

There are several things to consider here. Again, if we think about the retail community in any business, we don't represent and sell everything. If you open a store that sells, let's say lingerie, what will you sell in your store? The odds are there will not be shelf-space devoted to hammers and nails, or for that matter, milk, eggs and bread. Why? Well, according to Tuma and others like her, it is because you as a store owner are neglecting newer trends and ignoring the hardware and nutrition markets. 

I do know, however, that many of the traditional publishing markets are far from ignoring these markets. They, like everyone else in this business today, are looking at ways to increase those sales of books. This does include incorporating e-publishing models, working with independent publishers and even trying different formats of books. To add to this, as many in the e-pub world know, they are also buying up many authors who started on their own and then guiding them to even greater successes.

I really don't want to come across as just another person placing blame. I also do not want to make it sound like Tanja Tuma and other writers are 100% off the mark. They too are expressing concerns that I think we all share. This market is struggling right now. It really doesn't matter which side of the argument you sit on, things are tough. 

Personally for me, I think we might be missing the biggest contributing factor - the readers. We are the producers and they are the consumers. If they don't buy (for whatever reason) then we don't make money. I don't care what type of pretty package we put our books in, or if we end up attempting to sell our books from a hot air balloon, if the readers aren't buying, then we don't make money.

Maybe, just maybe, if we stop trying to place the blame and look for "real solutions" we might be able to get out of this. But also consider this. It took a while to get into this and the solution, I can guarantee, will not be one that happens overnight. Like everything else in the publishing business, it will take time.

A Cautionary Tale of Basic Economics and Publishing

One of the first things we learn in basic economics classes is the principle of supply and demand. You remember the concept. Supply and demand balance out and that is what creates the price of the product you are selling. Heck, I learned this in 7th grade from an amazing textbook, where we learned about Mucho Dinero living on this island. Surprisingly, it was really good and I do remember so much of these basic concepts.

I am afraid, however, that publishing in general, and this includes editors, agents, and certainly writers, are forgetting this basic principle. At this point, the market is so flooded with authors, it is hard for the equation of supply and demand to balance out. Add in the rise in so many self-publishing, e-publishing, POD, and small independent presses, that we are so over the top and the industry is just not going to be able to handle it if we continue at status quo.

Yes, I know we see numbers of increases in readership in some companies vs others. I know we are constantly throwing numbers out of the difference between e-pub and hardback sales, but the one thing that has not changed, and in fact, we have seen a decline in it, is the readership. Here are some numbers to consider. According to one study:

1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. 

42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college. 

80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year. 

70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years. 

57 percent of new books are not read to completion. 

70 percent of books published do not earn back their advance. 

70 percent of the books published do not make a profit. (Source: Publishers Weekly) 

Yes, I also know we can find a lot of numbers that probably say some other things as well. The point though is that although we have drastically increased these opportunities for authors, the number of readers out there really aren't changing. They might be shifting from print to digital or they might shift from a traditional publisher to a self-pub author, but that is it.

I think a great comparison to look at here would be the television industry. We now have more than enough channels to watch. Heck, we could never watch every channel currently in our cable package. For our family we have close to 300 channels to pick from. But here is the kicker. I want you to think about which shows and particularly, which stations you watch. The number is pretty limited. My bet is also that you are not spending your time watching those small "independent" channels or for that matter the "local access channels." These smaller channels come and go all the time as someone thinks they have a great idea as another one disappears due to lack of funding.

Now relate this back to trying to find a "new author" on your Kindle, Nook or other reading devices. If you scan through all the titles in your genre, you have 100,000+ titles. So we sort by cost (which is what we do with those cable packages to reduce from 800 channels to 300), but even then, we still end up with far too many to look for. In a recent search I did, just to see how many authors were "selling" their books for $0.00, I ended up giving up after finding 700+ for that price (and no, I did not "buy" any book). There were just too many.

But what do we do? We go to the names we know. We go to the bigger publishing companies that have produced for us in the past. We do the same thing with our TV as we return to ABC, HBO, ESPN, and so forth.

In no way am I saying that we need to limit the number of authors out there. I want people to write. I believe in the power of creative writing and our right to share our thoughts, dreams and emotions. We are going to have to find a solution to this one way or another. I am not sure if I know what that answer is right now, but I do remember the problems Mucho Dinero and his friends had when supply exceeded demand. That is where we are at now.

Buying Trends Of Readers

I was sitting with the dance moms at my daughter's recital this last weekend and we were talking about books. Again, I heard the same comments I continue to hear time and time again:

• "I love the feel of a book in my hands when I read."
• "Sure, I'll get a book for my iPad but I really hate reading on the thing."
• "I really wish bookstores were back, I used to read so much more."
• "I can't even figure out the darn reading apps."

I am always hearing comments like this. And yet, daily we are bombarded here on the Internet with articles and blog posts showing "supposedly" more people wanting to move to a digital books. We hear publishing professionals proclaim in business meetings, write articles for magazine and sit on conference panels that "readers really do want to see more things digitally."

But on the streets, I keep hearing otherwise.

I even hear from writers who will tell me they love books in the traditional format.

Yes, we know brick and mortar stores disappeared, and now, it seems much of the reason for this shift was not so much the book buying trends but the bad business models some of the stores used. Many of these stores forgot they were a book seller and attempted to do much more.

So I thought I would try something. I will tell you, this will only work if we get some feedback from you.

What I am asking is to do a little survey for me. At the same time, ask all those around you what book format they really prefer. Take out the cost factor. Take out the fact that they might be forced to use Amazon because their bookstore shut down. Let's just focus on the book buying trends.

I also have a 4 questions survey you can take that would help us out! Forward this link to your friends. As we all know, the more numbers we get, the more accurate the results will be.

SURVEY LINK! (Now that the survey is done, I have removed the link! Thank you to those who responded!)

Honestly, I would love to know this. 

Giving Money To Bookstores Is Not The Solution, But Thank You Anyway

This morning, as I was listening to NPR, I heard the story that James Patterson would be giving a huge sum of money to independent bookstores article on this fantastic donation, it got me thinking.

While I do love the fact that Mr. Patterson is giving back to a business and an industry that has really helped him get to where he is now, I think those of us in the industry need to be aware that we were part of that problem. We cannot blame the business models of bookstores. We cannot blame the government or other groups for the struggles bookstores are having. We have to look to our own habits. Think about it.

Although we scream and yell about how the big mean and scary monster of Amazon is picking on the industry, go and examine the links you as authors put on your webpages to promote books. I think you will find that many are linking those titles to the organization we are afraid of. In this case, it is very similar to complaining about the Canadian Geese doing their business all across our parks, and yet we sit out there and feed the pretty birdies.

Although we scream and yell about how we cannot find bookstores any more, think of the number of authors and publishers who are now moving to an entirely digital format for their books.

I know authors justify their actions by saying things such as, "I just want to promote sales and I am not getting paid enough from the publishers!" That might be true, but we have to ask, where do the publishers get the money from to pay the author? From book sales and yes, print books are going to bring in more revenue for you... but we are steering the readers away.

And now we are faced with bookstores closing because of those decreased sales. For myself, I have to drive 30-45 minutes to get to the nearest Barnes and Noble (my Borders that was 8 minutes from my house closed in the first round). If I want a book, I am simply stuck.

I am sorry to say this, but many readers are also part of this equation. I have said this before, but I will say it again. If you like a particular author, you need to support that author and that author's publisher by buying that book in a retail store. Sure, used bookstores are fun, but the only one who makes the profit is that store owner. No money is making it to the publisher or the author. And yes, the same goes for those great "lending libraries" we see in gyms and lunchrooms.

Maybe this is a chicken before the egg issue. I don't know? I do applaud Mr. Patterson for making this move, however, I think this is simply a band-aid. We are not really addressing the issue.

It is now the end of February. I challenge all of us involved in the publishing industry to start to promote getting those books back into the hands of the readers. We can do it!

Stop Learning How To Market Your Book...Please!

I am asking. No, I am begging authors to please stop with learning how to market your book to the public. In fact, I am going to add to this list. Quit taking classes or reading up on how to self-publish, how to navigate the e-publishing realm, how to get readers quicker, how to use social media to get readers, how to write "the query letter that will sell your book"....

And conference coordinators, please do me a favor and back off on all of those sessions I am telling the writers to quit taking.

In all honesty, I think so many writers are forgetting one big thing. They are ignoring the one and only thing that will get editors and agents to pay attention and readers to buy your books.

Learn how to write! Please!

Now that we have gotten through the first month of submissions for 2014, I have decided that I want to make my big push for the year working with writers about the basics of writing. I'm going back to the foundation here and, in truth, I think we need to! What we have today are writers who know everything about digital format, e-pubs, self-pubs, marketing techniques and all of those great gimmicks to sell books; however, the products we see going out are simply not there!

So what are those basics? Character, Setting, Theme, Plot, Dialogue, and yes, Grammar.

What are we seeing now?

• Characters in romance novels that would never go together in the real world.
• Characters that are simply 2-dimensional cartoon caricatures who do things and say things for no reason.
• Descriptions of settings and world building that give the reader absolutely nothing to work on. 
• Stories with no point. There is no driving force for the story.
• Plots that ramble on and are repetitive because the writer has run out of things to say but wants to get to a single title word count.
• Dialogue that just has the characters talking. We don't learn anything new. We don't advance the plot. We just hear talking. 
• And yes, we have writers that are forgetting that grammar is essential in basic written communication. I'm not talking about dangling participles here, but the basics of business letter format, fragments, run-on's, subject-verb agreement and those basics.

Look, I get that we need to navigate this new world of publishing, but if we don't have quality products to market, (and this goes for writers in both the traditional and self-publishing realms) , then what is the point.

What Are You Going To Do About Your Book

I was scanning a couple of articles this morning before settling in to some work and stumbled across an article by Aneya Fernando about NYT Best-Selling author Dave Ramsey and some of his thoughts on self-publishing. He made a comment that I do think resonates with all authors through, and not just those in non-fiction like Ramsey is, or in self-publishing.

So publishers are looking for an author that has a willingness to hustle and has a platform of some kind. How are you going to leverage things you’ve done in the past? How are you going to leverage your PR appearances, your knowledge, your Twitter base, your fan base on Facebook?

I think this idea is even more important in today's market as we see things shifting back and forth so much in terms of sales, distribution and so forth. This is not so much an issue of the market moving from traditional to digital, but an issue of the readership changing. We have a public, our consumers, that are now looking at reading in a new light. The lure of the other funky gadgets on their phones and tablets, television shows that draw us in for a full season at a time, and certainly our busy lifestyles, have created a new climate of reader and one that doesn't do as much.

Still, there are readers out there.

Now authors need to start thinking of new ways to get their name and their brand out there to the public. I find it very frustrating when I see authors complaining their sales are going down and yet seem to do nothing about it, other than to continue what they do. They blogged about their books in the past and they seem to think that doing more will create sales. Sure, it might do some, but that is not what we need.

I do believe, despite what some authors seem to think, that publishers are out there trying to think of a new way to get those readers back. We see bold moves by publishers all around the world to find a new solution. Why? They are in a business of making money, just like authors are. They want to succeed!

I do think the days of just sitting around and waiting for something to happen in publishing are gone (at least maybe for a while). If you, as an author, want to increase sales, what are you going to do about it. I will say, doing the same thing you have been doing isn't going to work. Along the same lines, just running from the problem and blaming others for decreases in sales is not going to work either. It takes critical thinking skills to make this work.

In all honesty, I do believe, if authors and publishers would get back to working "as a team" and not as two groups thinking the other is "out to screw the other" we might see those sales increase.

Return to the Basics

Greg Statell wrote a great piece for Forbes magazine called HOW PUBLISHERS CAN SAVE THEMSELVES. Although, for the most part, he is speaking of the news/journalism side of things, I do believe his arguments extend well into the book publishing business. I would also argue that, while he is speaking about publishers, many authors can learn a thing or two as they consider their own business side of their writing.

I love his one of his first comments, "Ironically, the way forward isn’t technological wizardry or even innovative business models—neither of which seem to be a major factor in successful operators—but in rediscovering publishing itself." I have said this frequently here on the blog. Writers need to stop and consider what they entered the business for in the first place There was a joy and an excitement about creating characters and placing them into situations that required an artist to get them out of. I do believe that many in publishing, and this includes authors, agents and certainly the editorial side, are obsessing over the models and the distribution and potentially forgetting about the thing that is said time and time again on those editor and agent panels. When asked what we want in a story, the answer is always the same, "We want a story that is amazing." Unfortunately, it seems we have potentially lost sight of that as we obsess over the models.

When Statell also mentions the comment by Peter Drucker that "purpose of a business is to create a customer " he is also driving a point home, especially with the whole print vs. digital argument. To create a customer means that we have to give them something they want. We have to give them those exciting stories, but we also have to make those stories available to them. I am  not going to argue that we are moving to a more digital age, but let's face it. We are also living in a society that is inherently lazy and finding those digital books online is a nightmarish task. We don't have the patience to go and look for those new and innovative authors. That is why we loved those bookstores. We discovered new authors and new loves. I do believe this is why we have seen a rise in so many people watching TV (either on their computers or TV) so much. It is so much easier to just push the power button and watch then to go on a search. In other words, the publishing business is not making it easy to build the customers.

That laziness side of the public is also the factor that leads us into the idea of immediate gratification, which is also something working against those of us in publishing. We want things now! We don't want to wait for it. But, Statell does point out something that is very true, "Yet it is creative output which achieves the core mission, not fancy technology platforms or big ad deals.  Strong creative people take years to develop and it takes years more to build creative teams that can collaborate effectively. ". Yet, if we examine what those in the book publishing business are doing, we see that it is the rush for the now and not the building for the future. Publishers are sticking with their known names because they know they will sell now. Agents are looking more and more for authors that have a product that is ready now, instead of finding someone they can craft and build. And yes, I do to. I remember earlier in this business, we would find an author that had "potential" and then spend a year building that person. That opportunity is gone now.

Writers too are doing the same thing. They write a book and want to see it published now. Hearing that it might take a while to see it out there is something they don't want to hear. It is this reason we have seen such a huge influx in the self-publishing approach. They can get that book out there within a month (and shorter in some cases). What many have forgotten is that the successful authors have taken years to get to where they are today.

I do think I can go on and on about this, but I do think you can see where I am going to with this. With the start of 2014, it might be time for everyone to reconsider and rediscover publishing. This mess we have gotten ourselves into did not happen overnight and certainly will not be fixed overnight. Still, it might be an easier fix than we think"

1. Let's write the best book out there and forget about selling it now.
2. Let's remember our customers are readers and for all of us to succeed means we have to get the books into their hands.
3. We have to remember that things will take time.
4. We have to be willing to take a few risks. Let me say on this though, taking a risk does not mean taking everything. Yes, sometimes we will have to say no.
5. We have to increase communication between all in publishing so we can produce those great products.
6. and most importantly, we have to remember why we are in this business. We love stories and storytelling.

E-books vs. Printed Books - A look at the numbers

In an August 8, 2013 article by Neil Irwin in the Washington Post, he discussed the recent trend in book sales, specifically those dealing with e-book sales. As he notes, the book sales for e-books were leveling off this year and he explains why.

It seems that he is noting what many people have been saying for some time...""We may be discovering that e-books are well suited to some types of books (like genre fiction)  but not well suited to other types (like nonfiction and literary fiction) and are well suited to certain reading situations (plane trips) but less well suited to others (lying on the couch at home). The e-book may turn out to be more a complement to the printed book, as audiobooks have long been, rather than an outright substitute."

But I do believe there is a bigger issue that we have all been missing out on. When we see articles talking about e-book sales outselling print books, or articles talking about the rising trend in e-readers and so forth, we aren't looking at the bigger picture. When we examine book sales, we need to look at the total number of books being bought, in ALL formats. Consider these ideas:

• e-books sales account for only 20% of the sales...therefore print books are making up the other 80%
• when we consider e-book reader sales, we are including all type of tablets but not explaining what people are doing with these devices.
• if e-book sales are plateauing, then the odds are print books are doing the same thing.

I do think Irwin makes a great comment at the very end of his article. "what matters most is not the competition between e-books and traditional books. What matters is how much of people's total time they are willing to devote to reading, as opposed to the overabundance of other entertainment options that the world offers." In other words, we need to get people to return to reading instead of all of these other vices that are out there.

If writers are finding it harder and harder to sell books and make a business out of this, regardless of the format they are working in (e-book or print) then we need to find a way to get the readership back up. In the end, this is a simple issue of supply and demand. Our supply (the authors and books) are up but the demand (the readers) is down. This means we need to make some changes.

I would argue several different things might help:

• Authors need to focus more on the quality of the book and not the sales. As an agent, I have honestly seen a decrease in the number of books that are really strong. Most read like templates or lack that depth necessary to suck a reader in.
• The supply needs to balance. We have flooded the market with so many books out there with the rise of self-publishing and e-publishing avenues (and this includes the traditional publishers adding into the mix their own "digital first" lines) that it is becoming difficult to wade through everything. Readers do not have the patience to go digging for a book.
• We have to encourage more "book stores." If you ask around, readers (mostly those who write) are constantly moaning about the loss of book stores. This is where they A) stumbled across new authors; and B) often bought more books than planned when they went into the story. Maybe the problem was that stores had gotten too big. In anthropology we call this gigantism, which, in the case of dinosaurs is a theory for their extinction. They became too big to survive.
• As writers, we have to promote reading. 
• Schools need to promote reading for reading. Yes, we all hated reading time when we were in school, but when we were given the chance to pick what we want, and not forced to read for a grade only, we loved it.

Look, reading is not going to go away. It is on a huge decline right now, but it will not disappear. I do believe those of us in publishing have the chance to really make a proactive move here to help build the industry. We have the control to fix this. The question is, are we willing to do so?