2012 To Be A Banner Year For E-Books, Independent Authors

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) December 29, 2011 -- If 2011 was a great year for e-book sales and independent authors, 2012 promises to be even better. Figures released by the publishing industry point to an increasing rate of sales for electronic editions of books and the readers used to read them.

“It's 2012 and the revolution in publishing continues,” says Rick Cook, technology journalist, fiction author and futurist. Sales of e-books and e-book readers are growing even faster as more and more savvy authors and publishers shift to this new low-cost, low-risk method of self-publishing.

Cook is also the author of “Shift Happens: The New E-Publishing Paradigm And What It Means For Writers”, available for $2.99 from Amazon, which details the changes in publishing and how it benefits independent authors.

Cook has been tracking the phenomenon of e-book publishing for nearly a decade now and he says the pattern has been consistent over that time. “E-publishing is on the classic hockey-stick curve,” Cook says. “Until early last year it was on the 'blade' of the curve, where growth is slow but steady. Then about January 2011 it zoomed upward on the high-growth shaft area. E-books are still zooming and the rate of increase for 2012 is increasing.”

The Big Six publishers, including Random House, are estimating that 20 percent of their sales are now electronic editions. “That's especially significant considering most of the big conventional publishers are fighting a rear-guard action against e-books by fixing prices well above the typical market value of an e-book,” Cook says. “And they're still selling a ton of e-books.”

Overall the e-book market for 2010 (the last year figures are available) is 6.4 percent, up from 0.6 percent in 2008. The figures for e-book readers are also increasing by similar percentages. He notes that Amazon announced in mid-December 2011 that Kindle e-book reader was selling at the rate of a million copies a week and that it has sold 3 million between Thanksgiving and Dec. 15.

Cook warns, however, that e-book publishing is not a get-rich-quick proposition for independent authors. “In the world of e-books sales relate directly to marketing effort,” he says. “You've got to be willing to regularly and heavily promote your e-book to make money at it.”

Still, Cook says, “Now is a great time for authors to get into e-publishing. The market is expanding rapidly and the number of e-book readers available is exploding, meaning more opportunities for authors to get their books out there.

Editors:
Contact Rick Cook at
602-973-6012

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