Tuesday, August 9, 2011

CRUCIBLE and Some Good News

My efforts to put my backlist up as e-books continues. This is the latest, the sequel to CROSSFIRE. In the previous book, Jake Holman and friends managed to avoid having their human colony, Greentrees, wiped out when it got caught in the crossfire of a war between two alien races. Both sets of aliens are far more technologically advanced than humans. But Jake's previous maneuvers only bought him some time, and the war continues.

Apparently all of us writer's efforts -- e-pubbing, writing new books, even traditional publishing -- are not going to waste. This morning's NEW YORK TIMES included a very optimistic report on publishing, the result of a joint survey by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Group. 1,963 publishers were surveyed, including the Big Six. Among the findings:

In all categories, publishers' net revenues for 2010 were up 5.6 % over 2008.

In all formats, publishers sold 4.1 % more books in 2010 than in 2008. This was not divided equally among formats, by any means: mass-market paperbacks declined 16%. Hardcover sales were relatively flat. E-books were 6.4% of the total market (including textbooks), whereas two ye
ars earlier they had been only .6 %. Figures for e-book sales in 2011 are expected to be significantly even higher.

Sales of adult fiction in all formats increased 8.8% over three years. Sales of juvenile fiction (which includes both children's lit and YA) increased 6.6%.


Given the rest of the economic news, these are welcome statistics. So -- write! Read! Buy!





4 comments:

José Iriarte said...

*blink*

Are those X-Wing Fighters?

O_O

Nancy Kress said...

I hope not. I was told this cover art is in the public domain.

Captain Zillion said...

They are definitely X-Wing fighters. It's fan art.

Google image search made short work of finding that image:

http://www.animebay.net/wallpaper/XWing-In-Star-Wars-.html

Personally, I prefer the ARC-170, at least in Lego sets.

EA Hirsch said...

Thanks for posting that last bit, Nancy. After hearing all the dire reports during CW and beyond about the abysmal state of publishing and reading, getting something positive is a refreshing change.

Congratulations on your backlist epubs, too!