E-Book Sales Growth and its Future

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We at Savas Beatie saw the move into digital fairly early as far as smaller independent publishers are concerned.

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(Funny, a reader on another blog questioned my use of the word "independent"--more on that in another post).

I sat by and watched many smaller publisher rend their garments and throw salt over their left shoulder as if the end was near and demons had sprouted amongst us. Many sat on their hands, as if doing nothing would put the toothpaste back into the tube. The genie is out of the bottle, I told several in the business, and if you sit and watch long enough, that wave you can see in the distance with binoculars is one day going to drown you. Sadly, many did not listen. Even some of the big boys waited longer than was prudent.

We jumped feet first in the e-world back in late 2009, and I am pleased to say that today ebooks make up a healthy share of our overall gross income. Nearly every title we have in print is also available as an e-book in all formats. Many of our authors are quite pleased with this result, too.

I am also pleased to inform readers that in our history niche, e-sales generally speaking are not cannibalizing print sales and in some instances are increasing print sales. (More on that in another post).

The explosive growth in e-book sales, however, is rapidly slowing. Why?

According to The Association of American Publishers, in the first quarter of 2013, American trade market e-book sales expanded by about five percent (5%) when compared to the same period last year (2012). Note that the sales increased, but the volcanic growth we have witnessed over the last three years has dramatically slowed down.

Expressed as a percentage of the overall market of total book sales, e-books represent roughly twenty-five percent (25 %). That’s one in four books now sold, folks. In many respects that is eyebrow-raising impressive, but it is in no way a threat to the existence of print--yet. The genre that is most impacted is fiction, which is much more suitable (in my view and the view of others) to e-readers. Nonfiction can be read on e-readers, of course, but it is more work to incorporate the maps, images, charts, notes, and harder to fully grasp the full impact of the scholarship on a Kindle or an iPad than it is to understand a Stephen King plot. Still, we have plenty of readers who take the Kindle or iPad into the field, where they can take immediate photos, put comments into the ebook, and so forth, and leave their hardcovers in the car or hotel or at home. I get that. It makes good sense. (Hence part of the reason e-books help some of our print titles.)

One blogger postulated that the decline in the growth of e-book sales is the result of the tablet. I think his thesis has merit. "Is the possible link between the decline in dedicated e-readers (as multitasking tablets take over) and the softening of e-book sales because tablets less conducive to book buying and reading than e-readers were?"

With dedicated readers, he continued, "pretty much the only thing you can do is buy and read books." With tablets you can do many other things just like a normal PC. He puts it another way: "On an e-reader, the e-reading app is always running. On a tablet, it isn’t."

Thoughts?

--tps

First Annual Savas Beatie Authors' Conclave in the Books. In a Word--Wonderful.

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We finished our three days at Gettysburg, Antietam, and Ball's Bluff, where as many as 15 Savas Beatie (and soon-to-be) authors joined us and dozens of customers on a series of micro-tours of select slices of these engagements. Friend us on Facebook (Savas Beatie) and read about it, see some of your favorite writers in action, and go to our home page on the website at www.savasbeatie.com and sign up for our free e-letter to stay abreast of all the exciting thing happening here. 

And as always, thanks for your support. We deeply appreciate it.

At the Bloody Angle. (Left to right: Mike Priest, Matt Lively, Scott Patchan, Dave Powell, Brian Jordan, Dave Shultz, Ted Savas, J.D. Petruzzi, and guide/speaker/author George Newton. We finished a good long first day on the field and headed to O'Rourke's to drink and break bread. Lots of photos from there on Facebook.

General John Bell Hood and Drive-By Blogging

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I was and continue to be pleased by the response and interest our two new "revisionist" titles are generating within the Civil War community.

The advance publicity and dust jacket (and book trailer) for John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General, by Stephen Hood (a distant relative) promises quite a bit. Click HERE to see the book on our website or jump to Amazon and read about the book for yourself. 

Or, just ask Kevin Levin, who blogs widely on a variety of subjects. Way back in February he took the time to create a post entitled "Your Book Better Deliver On Its Promises." The post implicitly challenges the author and publisher (me) to put up or shut up. Many challenged him on his post (as well as one of his comments, which I found rather silly and a direct shot against me and my company), and eventually Kevin essentially shut down the conversation by writing that he was simply too busy and was unlikely to ever read the book. Pardon me, but . . . huh? 

I guess to him it is fair game to take the time to pull the trigger on a drive-by post, and then, well, close your laptop. The least he could do is comment on all the reviews, which thus far have been very favorable. (I just returned from our Savas Beatie Author Conclave in Gettysburg, where one customer told me he bought the book after reading Levin's blog post (and author Hood's reply) and came away completely convinced by its premise; he looked up everything the author wrote--OR cites, secondary sources, etc. and was "flabbergasted"--his word--by the lies and deceits written by so many for so long.) Amazon reviews are also strong. 

Still, because this book challenges establishment writers (not all of whom are professional historians), I am expecting blow back from the elites who look down on independent publishing and authors who don't hold a Ph.D. (Spoiler alert: Generally speaking, many who hold doctorates can't write to save their lives, but they do have damn good editors who make them read like Faulkner. Some day I will post about that.)

Kevin, what about a post asking your followers who have read the book whether it "Delivers On Its Promises"? You know, fair and balanced coverage. Just a thought.

Frank Varney's General Grant and the Rewriting of History: How the Destruction of General William S. Rosecrans Influenced Our Understanding of the Civil War, is a similar book (click HERE to read about it). But that will have to await another post. A good cigar is calling my name.

Onward.

tps

The First Annual Savas Beatie Author Conclave--An Opening Salvo in an Exciting New Campaign.

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As the managing director of a niche publishing company, it is my job to make sure we continue to generate the revenue to produce the quality books that our customers have come to demand and expect (and enjoy) from Savas Beatie. It is no easy task, especially given the economy of the last five or so years and how that has also affected other aspects that have had a direct impact on operations. But, I have always refused to participate in a recession.
 
Still,  . . . Borders has shuttered its doors. Barnes and Noble is struggling, mightily. It might be the next major casualty within a few years. There are many different outlets available that, in one way or another, compete with our old fashioned books (truly one of our favorite loves), including the Internet, social media, streaming movies, and so forth. In the end, this hurts all of use, including authors. Today, it is more important than ever that authors take an active role in the success of their book.

As Sarah Keeney, our marketing director mentioned the other day on Facebook (Savas Beatie LLC), we are fairly well known within our industry for good solid marketing. We have never been the company that  pretends it is marketing well by throwing a few dollars into a display ad, sending out a PR, and then moving on to the next book. We have always been dedicated to the proposition that authors deserve our support, and there are many ways to promote and sell books (the worst of which is in a traditional bookstore--grist for another post).

To that end, with the problems stacking up against our industry as noted above, I decided to add "muscle" to our marketing arm by doing more to help "market and brand" our authors. To that end, we have created an entirely new position by hiring an Author Liaison Specialist, someone gifted in communications and marketing whose sole task is to “market and brand” our authors. That’s all she will do. "Michele" begins with us on August 5, a few days after the conclusion of the First Annual Savas Beatie Author Conclave. She will work closely with our authors on all related matters--blogs and content, article placement, signings, radio and TV, help develop content for marketing, and much much more.

Pulling back the curtain a bit more . . . the First Annual Savas Beatie Author Conclave is the opening shot in this new and exciting campaign. Sarah (marketing manager), Helene (accounts manager), and your humble correspondent (chief custodian) will be explaining this to our authors and a few others next week in Gettysburg. It promises to be interesting. Stay tuned.

Have a great weekend.

tps

Back to Work. Finally.

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Hello friends,


I know it has been a long, long while since I posted. I won't bore you with the details, but I fell ill near the end of last year, and it threw me for a loop and lasted for several months. And then again, same thing, this March-April. Needless to say, it left me with a mountain of other work, at home and in the office, that required my attention and the one thing that I could put on hold was the blog.

But . . . that is behind me and it is time to get back to writing again.

We have so many books, projects, and exciting new developments here at Savas Beatie, and I am excited to share them with you.

Thanks for staying patient and for all your queries and best wishes.

Ted

Finding Authors, Developing Projects

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"Can you tell me how you find manuscripts to publish?" That's a common question in this business.

Last week I had an interesting conversation with an non-fiction acquisitions editor who works for a sizable house on the East coast. She voiced concern about a lack of good material. "It's flooding in," she explained, "but by and large it is so poorly written I can't stand to read it, or it has been published a hundred times before." I acknowledged her pain, we conversed a bit longer, and I hung up.

Where do we get our manuscripts? The material keeps coming in, but where does it come from? How does it end up on the accepted/contracted list?

In the vast majority of cases, manuscripts that make the accepted/contracted list follow one of four avenues. Here is how I view this process from inside Savas Beatie:

1) UNSOLICITED: Complete manuscripts, partial manuscripts, or query letters arrive via email at editorial@savasbeatie.com, or reach us through snail mail;

2) DEVELOPED: We see a need in a particular space, and seek out material through a variety of means.

3) FOLLOW-UP: We work with an author, enjoy the process, publish a book, and develop new material with him/her.

4) NETWORKED: One of our authors recommends a friend's / acquaintance's work, and either we follow up or we ask the author to follow up on our behalf.

If you are a writer and desire to publish a book, ideally you want to find yourself sitting at either Number 3 or Number 4. The former is the four-lane freeway to publication with Savas Beatie, and it moves at 75 mph; the latter is a two-lane sidestreet that moves a bit faster than normal traffic patterns.

The first option is the congested on-ramp leading to the freeway. There are at least three accidents along that glide path, emergency vehicles blocking the way, a flooded water main, and bumper-to-bumper traffic. Regardless of the difficulties facing you along that route, nearly everyone has to find a way to avoid and overcome those obstacles at some point in their writing career/avocation just to get a glimpse of the four-lane freeway ahead--which is moving fast with a lot of traffic.

Number two is a unique animal unto itself. (More on that later.)

As I have expressed before on this blog, authors who do not follow guidelines for submission or come across distastefully to the person most likely to accept their work will find it sleeping with the fishes.

My next several posts will discuss each of these options, and how we work them. I think potential authors will find it interesting, and hopefully useful.

--tps

The Manuscript Process (Part 3)

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A small detour in our ongoing discussion. . . As the managing director and acquisitions editor for Savas Beatie, I do my best to evaluate both content and author. Both are important. Sometimes an evaluation tool I use is how authors respond to my suggestions via a rejection letter.

For example, occasionally we get manuscripts we can't use, but I know agents or other editors/houses who might want to see them. So when I reject the query/manuscript, I pass along a suggestion to the author to consider posting comments on our blogs (and others) pertinent to the post topic of the day, and discuss their own situation and manuscript. I also always offer a tip or suggestion that might help them.

Why do I do this? Because you never know who is watching. And as I tell them, agents, other bloggers, other publishers, other editors, et. al., track my blog.

I like to see which authors even take the time to say " thank you" or acknowledge this with a reply (about one-third do, which means the other two-thirds are essentially brain dead when it comes to manners and seeing past square one), and which authors take the time to post a pertinent comment that might help them.

Question: What does this tell me?

Answer: That I likely made the right decision to turn down their manuscript and reject them as authors.

If an author can't follow simply suggestions that will help him or her potentially get published, why would I want them as a Savas Beatie author? There is a reason for everything we do here--even in rejection-suggestions.

Another quick example: We had a full length manuscript biography of a Civil War general cross our desk (I requested to see it). I sent it out to a reader, paid a few bucks to have it read, and he evaluated it pretty carefully. Generally he liked it as a first cut, but had some very straight-up criticism for the author on how it had to be improved before we should accept it (more tactical battle detail, more analysis, and so forth). Tough, fair, and honest. No BS. And we know the market.

I took the time to put all this into an email and send it to the author. It was a long, careful, email.

Guess what? The author did not take the time to even reply. Obviously it was not what he wanted to hear, so he handled it by  . . . not handling it. And by doing so, he told me much about what it would be like to deal with him after the contract is signed.I saw the book a few months later being announced by another publisher who takes almost everything, edits almost nothing, prices their books sky high, and markets into a very narrow niche. What a mistake.

Authors take heed: There is a reason for everything we do here (and this is true in most credible publishing houses). How you handle your end may determine whether you get your work published. Publishing is a very, very small world.

Word travels fast.

--tps