Thursday, November 18, 2010

Market News for the Week

Happy Thursday, everyone! You know what happens tonight, don't you?! The first installment of the 7th Harry Potter movie is released! Woo hoo! As an extremely devoted Harry Potter fan, I cannot wait. You can bet I will be one of the first people in line for the midnight show--with my Gryfinndor scarf wrapped around my neck and my wand in hand!

But as exciting as the new release is today, I'd actually like to talk about something different: market news. There are a few things happening in publishing this week that I found rather interesting.

First and foremost is the news that dream agent and blogger extraordinare, Nathan Bransford, is going to be leaving publishing. According to his blog, he is leaving agenting to work at a tech news/ review site called CNET, where he will be helping coordinate social media strategy. However, before you launch yourself into a state of panic that one of the best known and friendliest agents in the business is leaving so therefore it must mean the publishing apocalypse is coming and all our books are going to explode into smithereens, let me remind you of something.

Just a few months ago publishing was sad to see well-known literary agent Colleen Lindsay leave the agenting business for a different publishing path as well. Like in any business, great professionals come and go, they're are opportunities to advance or new exciting paths to try. Agents and all publishing professionals are people to and people sometimes just need a change. So for those of you worrying, don't consider this news a reflection of the state of the entire industry. On the brighter side, Nathan Bransford is still going to continue to blog. Yay! For more information, check out his site by clicking this link:
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/11/transition.html Let's wish Nathan Bransford the best of luck in his new career path!

The second and REALLY big news of this week: The New York Times announced that they will now start ranking e-book bestsellers! How awesome is that? Their stats will be complied from weekly updates from publishers, chain bookstores, independent bookstores and online retailers, as well as other sources. According to their site, the system for tracking e-book sales has been in the works for the past two years--wow! Editor Janet Elder states:

“We’ve had our eye on e-book sales since e-books began. It was clear that e-books were taking a greater and greater share of total sales, and we wanted to be able to tell our readers which titles were selling and how they fit together with print sales.”

This is big news people. Unlike the previous news, this does reflect the state of publishing, but in a very positive way. This seems to be one of the major indicators that ebooks are here to stay. You might be wondering how a list of bestsellers will help the e-book business. Having the Times openly endorse the sales of e-books definitely legitimizes the e-book author.

Personally, what I'm really interested in seeing is whether some of the smaller e-book/POD publishers have works start showing up on this list or if the big 6 will still continue to dominate: small publishers like Belle Books, Wild Rose, Samhain, and Carina Press. I suppose now, we just have to wait and see what happens. For more information, please click the following link: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/books/11list.html?_r=1

Now, quick question before I leave you. Would any of you like to see weekly or perhaps bi-weekly market updates on the blog? Please give me some input so I can know what all of you think. This blog is as much about you as it is about what I'd like to say.

Also, I know that posting days have been a little off this week from my vacation, but rest assured that next week we will return to our regular Monday, Wednesday, and Friday posts. Til Saturday! ;-)

6 comments:

  1. Wow, big news! E-books aren't going away. It's great the TYT is taking note. I don't think books will ever go away; they's a place for everyone at the table.

    The market updates are great; please continue!

    And vacations are also great!

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  2. Thanks for the feedback, Kittie! I'll write down your vote. I have some more interesting industry posts coming up as well. Denise Little, a new literary agent at Ethan Ellenberg, just confirmed that she'd do an interview for Nocturnal Readings! How exciting!

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  3. I second the vote for market updates! I enjoy that feature Kaitlyn

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  4. BookGirl- Great! I'll write down your vote too.

    Would both of you prefer weekly or biweekly?

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  5. Your newest follower!

    Big Harry Potter fan as well, but I won't be able to see the new movie until next week. HUGE bummer.

    I love the updates, and think it's fantastic about the e-book bestsellers!

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  6. Music4Betty-- Welcome! Thanks for following! That's definitely a bummer that you can't see it until next week. It's a great movie though, so it's worth any wait. I'm glad you like the updates, so far that seems to be the general consensus. I'm happy to hear about the e-book bestsellers too =)

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