Welcome to the Silvercat and Silver Threads blog
Becoming a published author is like becoming President–anyone can do it. Unlike being President, however, almost everyone is doing it.
R.R. Bowker, the company that oversees the ISBN system, reported that approximately 194,000 books were published in the year 2004. This represented an increase of about 15% over the previous year. Even that is a conservative guess about the growth of publishing, because it counts only those books with new ISBNs.
It’s anyone’s guess about how many books were published without ISBNs. Chances are, as many as a half million books were actually published last year in the United States alone. It’s a fair guess that over a million books were published throughout the world last year.
Gabriel Zaid (Too Many Books) made a fun observation. You can read a book an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and you’ll still fall behind the mounting body of wisdom and insight published every year. It’s almost as if every book that is published makes us that much more ignorant!
These book numbers are both encouraging and discouraging. Only a few years ago, the barrier to becoming a published author was in production. You had to interest a publisher in your book, which has always been a challenge. Or you had to become a publisher yourself and invest many hours and dollars in layout, prepress, printing, and other infernal details of the business.
Today, almost every author has a computer with at least a rudimentary layout program. Becoming a publisher has never been easier. And those who prefer someone else to be the publisher can spend a few hundred dollars to hire anyone off a long list of on-line, “Publish on Demand” publishers. In either case, authors can see their books published within a few measly months–or less.
The barrier to a successful book, however, has not been battered down. Instead it has moved from production to marketing and distribution. It is now relatively easy to get your book published. It is quite a bit more difficult to get your book onto bookstore shelves.
How many bookstores have you seen that have shelf space for 194,000 books? Bookstores and chains have to find some way of selecting books to occupy their valuable real estate. One of the many things they look at, especially when they are considering books by unknown authors, is the commitment of the author or publisher to marketing the book.
Welcome to the Silvercat and Silver Threads blog. We’ll speculate and pontificate on these and other publishing issues as the blog gets longer. We’ll add a few guest opinions and a few comments on book content and design, too. And we might even throw in a personal comment or two. I hope you enjoy it!
R.R. Bowker, the company that oversees the ISBN system, reported that approximately 194,000 books were published in the year 2004. This represented an increase of about 15% over the previous year. Even that is a conservative guess about the growth of publishing, because it counts only those books with new ISBNs.
It’s anyone’s guess about how many books were published without ISBNs. Chances are, as many as a half million books were actually published last year in the United States alone. It’s a fair guess that over a million books were published throughout the world last year.
Gabriel Zaid (Too Many Books) made a fun observation. You can read a book an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and you’ll still fall behind the mounting body of wisdom and insight published every year. It’s almost as if every book that is published makes us that much more ignorant!
These book numbers are both encouraging and discouraging. Only a few years ago, the barrier to becoming a published author was in production. You had to interest a publisher in your book, which has always been a challenge. Or you had to become a publisher yourself and invest many hours and dollars in layout, prepress, printing, and other infernal details of the business.
Today, almost every author has a computer with at least a rudimentary layout program. Becoming a publisher has never been easier. And those who prefer someone else to be the publisher can spend a few hundred dollars to hire anyone off a long list of on-line, “Publish on Demand” publishers. In either case, authors can see their books published within a few measly months–or less.
The barrier to a successful book, however, has not been battered down. Instead it has moved from production to marketing and distribution. It is now relatively easy to get your book published. It is quite a bit more difficult to get your book onto bookstore shelves.
How many bookstores have you seen that have shelf space for 194,000 books? Bookstores and chains have to find some way of selecting books to occupy their valuable real estate. One of the many things they look at, especially when they are considering books by unknown authors, is the commitment of the author or publisher to marketing the book.
Welcome to the Silvercat and Silver Threads blog. We’ll speculate and pontificate on these and other publishing issues as the blog gets longer. We’ll add a few guest opinions and a few comments on book content and design, too. And we might even throw in a personal comment or two. I hope you enjoy it!
