Many novice Christian writers are spending thousands of dollars to have “vanity” books printed by Westbow, Xulon and other pay-to-publish companies. Most Christian writers would be better served if they created a cost-free Kindle e-book to see if there is an audience for their writing before they enter into expensive contracts with such publishers. Recent publishing industry statistics support this strategy.
Amazon now has 950,000 Kindle titles available. Christian writers need to understand the impact of that if distribution and sales are more important to them than just saying they have a printed book.
Net sales of printed books in the U.S. during May 2011 fell 7.9 percent to $662.1 million, as reported by 93 publishers to the Association of American Publishers.
E-books continued to grow, up 146.9 percent in the month from the same month in 2010, to $73.4 million, representing 11.1 percent of all books sold on a dollar basis. In 2010, with sales of $29.7 million, e-books accounted for only 4.1 percent of May sales.
This May, the core parts of traditional publishing declined in most categories, and particularly mass market, down 39.4 percent, and adult hardcover, off 38.2 percent. On the other hand, in its second quarter report, Amazon.com said it has more than 950,000 books available for Kindle owners in the U.S., 800,000 of which are priced at $9.99 or less. The company also offers millions of free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books. Sales worldwide of media, which includes books, rose 27 percent to $3.7 billion.
Books are easier to write than they are to sell. E-books can save you thousands of dollars over using a vanity service like Westbow or Xulon. Test the waters, and your marketing skills, with an e-book before lining the pockets of the Christian vanity publishers.
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