Through Joel Friedlander, over at thebookdesigner.com, I have discovered an interesting new blog called ”Passive Income Author”, written by a blogger called Skellie.
She’s posted a number of short and insightful pieces, including one where she asks:
Are you marketing your books to your target market, or are you networking?
Here’s a page with all of her posts so far. Neat stuff…
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This was undoubtedly a breakthrough year for e-publishing. But 2012 might be even better because:
1. Sales of the Kindle Fire have thus far been explosive, becoming the second most popular tablet after the iPad. Yet despite appearances, the Kindle Fire is all about reading.
2. More KFs will be sold at Christmas, leading to more readers in desperate search for good ebooks, including yours.
3. There will be a rapid rise in the sale of other Kindles and e-readers (Kobo, Nook, etc.) as the price of each continues to drop precipitously. This will bring even more readers. Some of them to be yours. Hopefully many.
4. Analysts predict that the price of full function colour tablets will continue to fall across the board, leading to a 30% rise in sales. Some of them these might be used for reading. Some of the readers will search out and find your books (and then yearn for more of them).
5. The iPad 3 is coming out at some point in winter or early spring — with its much anticipated “Retina display” (doubling the current resolution of the iPad 2 to a whopping 264 pixels per inch). This will have huge consequences for e-reading among the largest single market for tablets and ereaders. A lot more people will be reading ebooks. You can bet on it. Think of a crowded Starbucks in every major city, with everyone reading your book on their new iPad.
6. Amazon’s KDP Select has offered a new and potentially powerful set of promotional tools, including the addition of self-pubbed works in its lending library, and the use of its new “Promotions Manager” for free books.
7. The roll-out of the new Kindle Format 8 will give all e-publishers greater control over layout, fonts, and the general appearance of their ebooks, to make for a much more compelling presentation. If you don’t think fonts and layout can help sell books, think again.
8. “E-Ink”, the makers of the “pearl” screen in all the current Kindles and other e-readers, has hinted that an update may come in 2012. This could surface in a refresh of the Kindle DX or other readers —leading to a better experience and fuelling further adoption.
9. The first tablet to feature a “Mirasol” display has finally appeared in Korea this month, heralding what could become a more widely adopted standard technology for readers — a kind of cross between a colour backlit screen and e-ink — in this case, a brighter 5.7” screen, with 223 pixels per inch. This could be another key technological benchmark that leads to a quantum leap in the quality of e-reading, adding yet further fuel to the fire.
10. The rise of Wattpad and other promotional platforms will offer more ways to connect with readers.
11. The anti-trust investigation into Apple and ebook pricing could lead to a radical shift in approach. Lower prices among larger publishers would certainly make the field more competitive. But it would also fuel further adoption. And some of those readers would be bound to come your way.
12. The continuing, rapid demise of big-box brick and mortar retail will send still more readers online, eagerly in search of your latest work in POD or ebook format.
Together, these trends will add even more momentum to the feverish pace of change we saw in 2011. The readers are coming. Are you ready?
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