Bowker

If a woman writing fiction needs "money and a room of her own", as Virginia Woolf suggested, writers at the beginning of the 21st century should perhaps insist the room comes with an internet connection, after a new study has found that the proportion of self-published bestsellers written by women is almost twice as large as in traditional publishing.

The DIY sector of the books market is currently booming, both in terms of numbers of books created, and numbers bought. In 2013, Nielsen Book found that 18m self-published books were purchased by UK readers

Bill Kasdorf of  Apex Content Solutions has been awarded BISG's The Industry Champion Award.  Kasdorf was recognized for his work as Chair of the Content Structure Committee and his  broader efforts to improve standards throughout the industry.

BISG announced the recipients of its 2014 Industry Awards today at its Annual Meeting of Members in New York City. Awards in four categories recognize the wide range of BISG and industry achievements that help smooth the processes that bring content to readers and help move a transforming industry forward.

Time to brush the dust off of this blog and share my first ever experience of BookExpo America. Not only are my feet sore from traipsing across the massive conference, but my mind is bursting with new ideas and insights about this constantly changing book landscape.

The tide of retail is turning digital, and the book publishing industry, like most others, is being swept along. Research shows that consumers are increasingly turning to online sources to purchase books. In 2012, online book retail accounted for 44% of consumer books sales in the U.S., up from 39% in 2011, according to Bowker Market Research.

The digital revolution has written a nail-biting new chapter for book publishers. E-books are overtaking their paper-bound counterparts as bookstores vanish and Amazon.com inflicts unrelenting price pressure on a time-honored trade.

For all the upheaval, however, little has changed at Milwaukee-based Henschel HAUS Publishing Inc.

"Regardless whether it's an e-book, a print book or an audiobook, it still needs to be edited, it still needs formatting, it still needs a compelling cover," said Kira Henschel, the one-woman founder, owner, agent, editor and writing coach of the 12-year-old publishing house.

Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) have announced early details of the conference program for the upcoming IDPF Digital Book 2014.

Tuesday, March 4th, 2014, New York, NY: Leading ebook technology company Vook today launched Author Control, a daily market intelligence dashboard that allows authors to track the sales and unit downloads of their books in Amazon, Amazon KDP, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Nook Press, Kobo Writing Life, CreateSpace, Smashwords, Google, and Samsung, and display their results in a secure, easy-to-use online and mobile-accessible dashboard. Learn more about the new service at http://vook.com.

On behalf of all employees at Smashwords, I want to start by thanking every Smashwords author, publisher and agent that publishes and distributes with Smashwords.  We serve at your pleasure and we appreciate your trust, partnership and support. 

I also want to thank the retailers and library aggregators that comprise the Smashwords distribution network.  Every day, you work tirelessly and often without adequate recognition for the amazing service you provide our authors and publishers.  You receive, ingest and merchandise our books to your customers.

As many as a quarter of the top 100 Kindle books on Amazon.com are from indie publishers, according to data revealed at a trade presentation by the retailer. A chart detailing the 25 top-selling indie titles in 2012 was passed on by an audience member via Twitter. Though the term indie is broad, covering everything from self-published authors to publishing houses that fall outside the big six, the news has been interpreted as a victory for the go-it-alone author.