Do Black Readers Read E-Books??
Current mood: inquisitive
Category: Writing and Poetry

This world of e-books is growing by leaps and bounds. The only problem is that I haven’t met a single soul who touts about how many e-books they have read.  With the digital craze, I was almost getting nervous about the idea of the old school book becoming obsolete. NOT. Or at least I can’t see it.

So, in search of the truth, I’m setting out to find out exactly who’s reading e-books and what people have to say about the whole idea.

Are you an e-book reader? Yes or No! Either way post your two cents on this subject!

8:41 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Karrine Steffans Gives Relationship Advice?

Have you checked out any of Karrine Steffans live interviews yet. She's offering tips on how to keep your man and how she makes her relationships work. What's up with that? How many of you think she's qualified to give such advise?

Holla back!

8:20 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Cracks in the Publishing Landscape
Current mood: curious
Category: Writing and Poetry

..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />         Industry reports and publications have cited sluggish book sales since the beginning of the fiscal year showing a continuous decline month after month. Recent estimates provided by the Census Bureau, reflect that sales were down 4.3% from January through April alone. Book retailers are shutting their doors due to the lack of sufficient business. Publishing houses have tightened the reigns on their finances and as a result some have become more reluctant to offer deals in record numbers as they have in recent years.

Yet despite this dismal outlook at the market, other reports indicate that there are more than 86,000 publishing companies on record including the handful of large traditional publishing houses, mid-sized publishers as well as small and self-publishers. According to the Book Industry Group, more than 3.1 billion books sold in 2005, up 5.9% from 2004, with revenues exceeding $34.6 billion. Last year, Target Market News reported an estimated spending of more than $267 million in books from black households alone. Para Publishing stated that any where from 8000-11,000 new publishing companies are established each year. Essentially, the book publishing remains to be a billion dollar industry.

This year, Book Expo ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />America, the largest event serving the book market world-wide, boasted the largest presence of black book publishers and industry professionals in history with more than 16% in attendance for 2007, representing a 4% increase over last year and an impressive 14% increase from 2004. The addition of the African American Pavilion, which was founded by Tony Rose, Publisher/CEO of Amber Communications Group and Adrienne Ingrum, of Adrienne Ingrum, LLC, has grown considerably since its inception in 2004, raising awareness for the African American book marketplace. Tony Rose, states "Establishing a presence at Book Expo American (BEA) was important because there was no presence before." Though the presence and roles in the black book marketing has gained considerable ground, sales remain unaccounted for among the traditional methods used for tracking by large companies. Yet this sector continues to realize healthy gains. 

The idea of more publishers producing more titles while fewer sales are being reported kind of begs the question, how accurate are these reports that track book sales? Based on traditional tracking methods and reporting retailers, the information appears to be pretty accurate, except one small problem. Who is tracking all those sales that are taking place outside of the scope of traditional radars? What about sales that are taking place through unconventional channels such as book fairs, events, the internet and direct sales to customers? These and many other non-traditional sales conduits represent a slice of the market that has yet to be measured and accounted for. With nearly 86,000 publishers nationwide, is it even possible to obtain accurate estimates?

The independent market, especially the self-published entrepreneurs have claimed a larger slice of the bookselling marketing place. Innovation and agility has allowed them to circumvent the traditional selling methods, allowing them to experience growth at a phenomenal rate. With bureaucracy removed from the mix, implementing out-of-the-box strategies and utilizing unconventional sales channels to reach their markets allows smaller publishers to turn higher profits in shorter periods of time. "Many of these large companies have African American editors but lack black presence in the areas of sales, marketing, promotions and publicity and as a result, they don't necessarily know the audience or understand how to reach them," said Tony Rose. Potentially new tracking methods may eventually help capture those sales that go undetected under traditional radars while diverse staffing can help larger houses capitalize on the burgeoning success of new market sectors.

Renee Daniel Flagler is the author of Mountain High Valley Low, Miss-Guided and the forthcoming In Her Mind and has written many articles about business. (www.reneedanielflagler.com)

8:21 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Should Self-Published Authors Stay Self Published
Current mood: curious
Category: Writing and Poetry

Over the past few weeks, I've had quite a few debates from people on both sides of the fence, about the issue of self-published authors and their desire for a great deal.

I've been hammered with the good the bad and the ugly. An agent argued that self-published authors often do more themselves than large publishers are willing to do for them anyway. Another industry insider said that the tides are turning towards the self-publised market anyway. And I've met one huge mainstream author who decided to self-publish her latest novel. Self-published authors have griped about lack of distribution support, media play and respect.

So what's the real deal, about publishing deals! Are they worth it for well established self-published authors?

7:53 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment