The number of books for sale every year grows exponentially. Add to that, the books previously published don’t vanish. With digital and print-on-demand technology, books remain available for sale in the cloud indefinitely.
Consider these numbers of books published independently from just four years:
- 2016: 786,935 books
- 2015: 727,125 books
- 2014: 599,721 books
- 2013: 460,064 books
This means that each year about a half-million books get added to the existing books available for sale. So, this year, there will be another half-million more books competing for readers’ attention.
Since the reading rate in America is holding steady (and has been since 2012), while the number of books is growing exponentially, this means that the ability to attract any given reader’s attention with your title diminishes exponentially each year.
Any time competition heats up, the cost to compete increases also. For example, it is becoming more expensive to reach readers with both Facebook Ads and Amazon Ads as these ads have gained in popularity. Again, thousands of Indie authors, along with traditional publishers, are using these ads and competing for readers’ attention.
The folks over at Written Word Media put it this way:
“The upshot of this increased competition is that authors will have to spend significantly more time on marketing to maintain the results they saw in 2017.”
The CMO of Reedsy, Ricardo Fayet, predicts that as Indie publishing becomes more competitive and requires more and more business and marketing skills, many Indie authors will experience marketing burnout.
I believe that it is more important than ever for Indie authors to be connected to an association or group that provides them support in their efforts. Staying on top of trends and making smart use of your marketing dollars is a must moving forward.
If you are an Independent author or small publisher producing Christian books, Christian Small Publishers Association (CSPA) is a resource for you. Membership is just $90 for the calendar year and provides you great return value including:
- Cutting-edge information and training on marketing your books.
- Cooperative marketing opportunities to save you money.
- Discounts on advertising and other services.
- Free title uploads and revisions for IngramSpark.
Here is the deal. If you are publishing a book via IngramSpark, the cost to upload your title (print and ebook) is $49. If you find mistakes and upload two revisions, that cost is another $50. So, the cost to print and distribute your book via IngramSpark ends up costing you a total of $99.
Instead, you can double the return for that money by joining Christian Small Publishers Association (CSPA). With your membership, you will get your book printed and distributed via IngramSpark for free plus get all the other great benefits of membership with CSPA.
It’s better than a two-for-one deal. Don’t miss out. Join CSPA today at http://www.christianpublishers.net.
Related Posts:
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Your Book: A Needle in a Haystack
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This post first appeared on Marketing Christian Books | A Personal Guide To This Unique Market, please read the originial post: here
