The Future of Books

The writing and book industry has shifted within the past few years. For readers, there’s way more content to read and take in. There are so many platforms and places to get access to eBooks and even paperbacks. Book publication companies have also had to adjust to the market and the landscape of grabbing the attention of the reader. There’s also the shift in how writers and authors distribute their content. That’s honestly the elephant in the room but before I delve into that, let’s talk about the readers' side of things, then I’ll shift into authors and finally finish with book publication companies. 

 

Readers have every option in the book currently and it’s a beautiful thing. There’s so many websites, promotion websites where you get a newsletter daily on new books to buy, the options are endless. With so many genres and subgenres, readers understand that their favorite types of books are readily available on most of the major platforms.

While Amazon has become the #1 place to go for books and content, there’s a shift happening with that on the author’s side. Authors are starting to shift from publishing their books on the Amazon platform (yes I’m one of them). Granted Amazon controls 80% of the market, their business practices and how they hinder an author’s success along with shutting down an author’s platform at a moment’s notice without any clarification has become a major concern. 

 

Authors are taking back their platforms and realizing that they can use other platforms like Draft2digital, Bookbaby, Publisherdrive and plenty of others to publish their content. Some authors are even going to Gumroad and Payhip to get their books noticed and have found success. 

 

With book publishing companies, the big names are great when you’re well-known or have a platform established already. There are writers who are still going down the agent and book publishing company route but it’s slowly declining. Authors can self-publish their own books, find a creator on Fiverr to make a book cover at a reasonable price or create their own book covers on Canva. Authors can also find people to edit and format their books at a good price and not spend a ton of money. 

 

The control of their own content and platform has become the way to go these days. Does that mean book publishing companies will fade off into the sunset in the coming years? It’s a possibility but the big ones will always be around. Authors like me who knew there were going to be 60 books published, I knew I had to learn everything on my own to save money and costs in the long run. 

 

It’s great to have the book deal but you end up having to recoup the advance money you may have received or you may have to market yourself still even with the backing of a company. Budgets are different for these companies in today’s world and if you’re not a guaranteed hit where you’re making them money, there’s no guarantee you’re getting another book deal. 

 

Artificial intelligence has now entered the mainstream of books and it’s becoming a concern though. People are taking advantage of this and not authentically writing books, creating something, publishing it and making money off of it. This is where concern comes in but also, there has to be diligence on book publishing platforms to make sure that this doesn’t become a major problem now and in the near future. 

 

The future of books is bright, especially with authors controlling their own platforms and knowing that sky’s the limit in how much they can accomplish. While the average amount of books published by an author is 3-4, that can turn into a lifetime of income for generations to come. 

 

Thank you as always for reading my blog, be good and go accomplish your goals!

 

Jamell Crouthers

Aquarianmind