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Saturday 31 December 2011

2011 - the year publishing changed

What a year 2011 has been for publishing. A time of accelerating change and radically differing opinions, it started well for me with Remix mentioned on 1st January 2011 in an article in The Times. Things I blogged about over the past year:
  • Some indie writers, like Amanda Hocking, making it mega big with millions of fans and sales and offers from traditional publishers
  • Realization dawning (a bit late in some quarters) that ebooks, not paperbacks, are going to be the most popular form of book very, very, soon.
  • The mysterious non-launch of Pottermore
  • Publishers like Penguin and Harper Collins trying to monetize the slush pile - all those keen and naive authors, surely some profit there somewhere...
  • Prognostications of doom about the future of publishing
  • The totally unsurprising  rise of ebook piracy, encouraged by the determination of publishers to keep ebook prices as high as possible
  • Spats between unpublished writers and self-published writers, fuelled by the near-impossibility of getting a contract, and the irritating success of some indies
  • Some agents attempting to become publishers, with mixed results
So what does 2012 hold? Amazon recently launched the Kindle Touch, the Kindle Fire and the affordable Kindle 4, and reported selling over a million a week in December. Post-Christmas, their charts exploded as all those new owners stocked up their Kindles. So that's a tricky question which I may save for a later post. Meanwhile,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

10 comments:

  1. Happy New Year Lexi!!!

    Here's to an even more exciting 2012 for all things writerly! I think what's certain is how Amazon now rules ok! LOL!

    Take care
    x

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  2. Same to you, Kitty :o)

    So will Amazon be a wise and beneficent despot, or a tyrant?

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  3. Happy New Year!

    I hope you have an even better year than you did this year!

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  4. Great post, Lexi. Glad to see Remix doing so well!

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  5. Thanks, Catherine. You've reminded me to pop back to Slush Pile Reader and see what's happening these days.

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  6. No doubt 2012 will be a fascinating and possibly pivotal year for the entire publishing world.

    What interesting times we live in, eh?

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  7. Interesting - and rewarding for those of us ready to pivot on small coin of choice :o)

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  8. Lexi

    Yes, it's been a time of great change.

    And more to come in 2012. Book lending and exclusivity are likely to be the hot issues, imho. Especailly since Apple is now planning to do something very similar in for to KDP Select.

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  9. Hi Seb!

    I read today a quote from 2008: Steve Jobs saying he couldn't see the Kindle catching on, as people weren't reading any more :o)

    So it'll be a total volte face for Apple if they really do want to compete on the ebook front.

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