Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Year 2016 According to Robb

Thought I’d take you back to Bradley Robb’s series, The History of Publishing 2010-2020. Today, we look at his “history” of book publishing in the year 2016.

Here are some snippets from his post:
By 2016, the number of micropublishers measured in the low thousands, with lines frequently blurring between publishers….

Independent authors who found moderate levels of success were frequently approached by micropubs. The deals offered were frequently the exact opposite of those of a decade earlier. The micropublisher frequently kept only 15% to 25% of revenue with the remainder going to the author….

In an interview, Jason Bellari, the CEO of Treescape, a micropublisher featuring elf-driven fantasy books explained the business plan. “We now what our readers want, and we provide it for them. Yeah, we might only make fifty cents on every Living Book we sell, but we gain a wealth of knowledge….

The specificity Bellari spoke of was a range of options: in person events, movies, and other media-cross-overs. But the standard example of a value-add option was the hardcover….

2016 can be looked at as a return to serial storytelling.
In Robb’s history of the future series, this seems to be the year authors come into some power. Click over and read the entire post.

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18 comments:

  1. Interesting thought...the idea of small publishers being that in tune with reader demand. Hmm.

    Elizabeth
    Mystery Writing is Murder
    Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen

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  2. Treescape, for all your elf-derived fiction needs...

    I could see that happening. I can actually see communities forming around this sort of micro-publisher if they treat their fans right.

    Very akin to the old pulp writing stables, you might have an "imprint" specializing not just in a particulat type of fiction but a particular setting or world, with various writers working within the house setting and history to produce stories about that particular world.

    Similar to the way Dungeons and Dragons, or Star Wars or Trek fiction works today, but much, much broader.

    Hmm. The rise of the genre ghetto.

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  3. Robb does present it as sort of an organic process. And, I'm with you, Carol, on the pay scale!

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  4. That's a big decline in small publishers!

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  5. Most interesting. I think I will click over and read the whole post.

    Marvin D Wilson

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  6. It'll be interesting to see how close he is to what actually happens.

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  7. Trade paperbacks have rejuvenated the market because more people can afford them. As a former small press owner, I know that hardcovers only cost $1-$2 more to produce (plus jackets, if used) so publishers' profits are much higher, although sales are considerably lower. Ebooks royalties, on the other hand, have paved the way for higher writer royalties. It's about time!

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  8. This is an interesting series. Now that i have time, I'm going to go back and reread this material.

    Stephen Tremp

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  9. As I've said before, I don't see print books disappearing totally, but I do see the rise of ebooks. And since the split on ebooks is better for writers, it's not a bad thing. You're right, Jean, it's about time (assuming Robb has his future right).

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  10. There is still hope for authors, after all!

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  11. Y'all are making me laugh. We're all so hopeful.

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  12. He sure paints an intersting picture of the future.

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  13. Everything sounded believable until he wrote "Yeah, we might only make fifty cents....but we gain a wealth of knowledge"....I'm guessing the profit motive or margin will drive him to want to gain more than knowledge.(ha!) But the rest of it is compelling, we live in interesting times.

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