blended total has continued to climb steadily by a few per cent each year ever since 2012, masking the rapid cannibalisation of bricks- and-mortar bookshop sales, which, aside from a statistically insignificant bright spot at small independents, have been decimated during that time. Overall, annual print sales in the US have continued to grow by single digits only because Amazon’s online US print sales are growing by double digits each year. We’ve recently begun tracking the UK online print market as well, so it’ll be interest- ing to compare and contrast how it differs from, or is similar to, US online print sales. In many aspects, the UK’s online market resembles the US market two or three years ago. Audio, in particular, bears close watching. But there are some very significant differences, especially in e-book prices and relative market shares, that appear to reflect a key structural difference.
Audio adds a further dimension: what are the main differences between the e-book market and audio download space? A professional-qualit audiobook is far more expensive to produce than an equally profes- sional e-book. Self-published audiobooks also have far less control over their retail pricing than e-books, because audiobook prices are largely governed by the distribution platform. Both of these factors make the lucrative audiobook space far more defensible for tradi- tional publishers. Only the most successful self-published titles are likely to be released in audio. Consequently, the roughly half-million audiobook titles available today represent a far less crowded marketplace than today’s
publishers. Does this mean you’ve switched your perspective on who has most to gain from the changing marketplace? The launch of Bookstat’s UK service, which provides daily title-level tracking of UK e-book, audio and online print sales, is a fairly recent development. But in the US, where we first launched, over the past two years Bookstat’s customer base has been expanding steadily, and now includes some of the largest publishers in the industry, three of the top 10 in audio, and a growing number of non-publisher customers like retailers and subscription platforms.
ABBASSI SAYS THAT ‘BOOKSHELF-BUILDING’ GENRES ARE PROPELLING THE RESURGENCE OF PRINT
six million-title e-book market, which helps with discovery. And audio revenue, at a strong double-digit year-on-year pace, is still growing far faster than audio title count. But audio sales are also highly concentrated through a single distribution platform, whose own audio publishing imprints also compete directly with publishers to acquire audio rights. These in-house publishing imprints today account for roughly a fiſth of all digital audio units sold, while self-published audio- book sales still only make up a single digit percentage of the audio market: a marked contrast to these two cohorts’ relative shares in the e-book marketplace.
With the launch of Bookstat, you’ve now begun selling your services to traditional
In working closely with large traditional publishers, we’ve found them to be the players best positioned to take advantage of the changing market. They already have the backlist catalogue depth and a steady stream of new books in the pipeline, the in-house marketing resources, the pricing and merchandising expertise, and knowledgeable editors and analysts who are already working with other data and can immediately put ours to use. They’re able to leverage the beter real- time market visibilit provided by Bookstat right away, to optimise their businesses. Our feature set has evolved over time to mainly serve the needs of large publishers, driven by the the feedback they provide.
Paul Abbassi will address delegates at the FutureBook Conference at 10.05 a.m., delivering a talk based on the theme Take Smarter Risks. He will also appear on the panel Generation headphone: who is consuming audio and what are they listening to? at 11 a.m., alongside speak- ers from Acast and Harris Interactive.
Five questions for Akua
Agyemfrabea.London founder & director
01 How did you become involved
with the #Merky and #MerkyBooks projects? I look after Stormzy and #Merky branding, so have been involved with the process since its inception!
02 What do you hope to achieve with
#MerkyBooks? That no matter the format, the platform or the delivery, young black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people feel like reading and writing is for them.
03 What has surprised you
about the book trade?
TheBookseller.com
The pace at which a lot of things move...
04 And disappointed you about it?
The pace at which a lot of things move!
05 What is the best tip you would give
a publisher looking to engage with new and/ or younger audiences? Don’t sit in meetings or in offices speaking about young people when you don’t know or engage with any young people. Go and speak to them and find out what they want!
Agyemfra will take to the stage at 9.45 a.m. to deliver a keynote address.
07
Don’t sit in meetings or in offices speaking about young people when you don’t know or engage with any young people. Go and speak to them!
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