John B. Thompson - Book Wars

1 Cover

2 Title Page Book Wars The Digital Revolution in Publishing John B. Thompson polity

3 Copyright Page Copyright Page Copyright © John B. Thompson 2021 The right of John B. Thompson to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2021 by Polity Press Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Polity Press 101 Station Landing Suite 300 Medford, MA 02155, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4678-7 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NL The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition. For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

4 Preface

5 Introduction Notes

6 1 The Faltering Rise of the Ebook The origins and rise of the ebook The differentiated pattern of ebook sales: delving beneath the surface Explaining the variations Form vs format Beyond the US Notes

7 2 Re-inventing the Book The life and times of the digital short A radical experiment Ebooks as apps Re-inventing the book as app False dawn Notes

8 3 The Backlist Wars Opening salvo Bringing the greats back to life The limits of backlist-only ebook publishing Notes

9 4 Google Trouble The search engine wars Settlements come and go How big is a snippet? Whither Google Books? Notes

10 5 Amazon’s Ascent The rise of Amazon The DOJ weighs in Stand-off with Hachette Market power An uneasy truce Notes

11 6 Struggles for Visibility Visibility in the bricks-and-mortar world The morphing of mediated visibility The triumph of the algorithm Reaching out to readers Literature’s Switzerland Visibility through discounting Visibility in a digital age Notes

12 7 The Self-publishing Explosion From vanity to indie publishing Self-publishing in the ebook age A beautiful book of your own Amazon enters the self-publishing field A spectrum of publishing services The hidden continent Estimating the indies Parallel universes, multiple pathways Notes

13 8 Crowdfunding Books The rise of crowdfunding Crowdfunding as direct-to-consumer publishing Reader curation The pull of the mainstream Notes

14 9 Bookflix Scribd’s wager The rise and fall of Oyster Kindle Unlimited enters the scene Subscription in the ecosystem of books Notes

15 10 The New Orality The development of audiobooks The rise of Audible Audiobooks become routine The audiobook supply chain Producing audiobooks Performing the page Books in the audio-visual mix Notes

16 11 Storytelling in Social Media Building YouTube for stories Sharing stories for free From stories to studios From stories to books Notes

17 12 Old Media, New Media Digital disruption in the creative industries Data power Nurturing content, colonizing culture Publishing in the digital age Taking readers seriously Books in the digital age Notes

18 Conclusion: Worlds in FluxWorlds in flux

19 Appendix 1: Sales Data from a Large US Trade Publisher

20 Appendix 2: Note on Research Methods Notes

21 Index

22 End User License Agreement

1 Chapter 1 Table 1.1 US ebook revenue for trade books, $ millions, 2008–2012 Table 1.2 Ebook sales as a percentage of total revenues of major US trade publishers, 2006... Table 1.3 US ebook revenue for trade books and rate of growth of ebook sales, 2008–... Table 1.4 Print books and ebooks as percentages of total US trade sales Table 1.5 Ebooks as a percentage of total sales at Olympic, units and dollars Table 1.6 Ebooks as a percentage of total sales by broad category at Olympic, units and do... Table 1.7 Sales in percentages by format, units and dollars at Olympic, 2006–2016 Table 1.8 UK ebook revenue for trade books, 2008–2018 Table 1.9 UK ebook sales by category, 2008–2018 Table 1.10 Estimated ebook share of total trade revenue in selected European markets, 2016

2 Chapter 6Table 6.1 Forms of visibility

3 Chapter 7Table 7.1 ISBN output for US self-publishing platforms, 2010–2018: print booksTable 7.2 ISBN output for US self-publishing platforms, 2010–2018: ebooksTable 7.3 ISBN output for US self-publishing platforms, 2010–2018: ebooks and print...

4 Chapter 10Table 10.1 Audiobook title outputTable 10.2 Estimated consumer spending on audiobooks in US, 2003–2017 ($ mill...Table 10.3 Audiobook formats as percentage of total sales, 2003–2017

5 Chapter 12Table 12.1 Total sales, operating profit and margin for Simon & Schuster, 2008–2...

6 Appendix 1Table A.1 Ebooks as a percentage of total sales by subject at Olympic, net dollarsTable A.2 Ebooks as a percentage of total sales by subject at Olympic, net units

1 Introduction Figure 0.1 US recorded music revenues by format, 1998–2010

2 Chapter 1 Figure 1.1 US ebook revenue for trade books, 2008–2012 Figure 1.2 Ebook sales as a percentage of total revenues of major US trade publishers, 2006... Figure 1.3 US ebook revenue for trade books and rate of growth of ebook sales, 2008–... Figure 1.4 Print books and ebooks as percentages of total US trade sales Figure 1.5 Ebooks as percentage of total US trade sales, 2008–2018 Figure 1.6a Ebooks as a percentage of total sales at Olympic, units and dollars Figure 1.6b Ebooks as a percentage of total sales at Olympic, units and dollars Figure 1.7 Ebooks as a percentage of total sales by broad category at Olympic, units and do... Figure 1.8 Ebooks as a percentage of total sales by subject at Olympic, net dollars Figure 1.9 Ebooks as a percentage of total sales by subject at Olympic, net units Figure 1.10 The ebook uptake model Figure 1.11a Sales in percentages by format and units at Olympic, 2006–2016 Figure 1.11b Sales in percentages by format and dollars at Olympic, 2006–2016 Figure 1.12a UK ebook revenue for trade books, 2008–2018 Figure 1.12b Ebook revenue as a percentage of total trade sales in the UK Figure 1.12c Ebook revenue and rate of growth of ebook sales in the UK Figure 1.13 UK ebook sales as a percentage of total sales by category, 2008–2018 Figure 1.14 Ebooks as a percentage of total trade sales in Germany, 2010–2016

3 Chapter 2 Figure 2.1 Some experimental forms of the book

4 Chapter 4Figure 4.1 Google Library Project litigation

5 Chapter 5Figure 5.1 Estimated market shares of US retailers of paid ebook unit sales, 2016

6 Chapter 6Figure 6.1 Building a consumer database

7 Chapter 7Figure 7.1 The spectrum of publishing services (1)Figure 7.2 The spectrum of publishing services (2)Figure 7.3 The new ecology of publishing servicesFigure 7.4 Breakdown by category of top 200 bestsellers at SmashwordsFigure 7.5 Sales distribution curve for top 500 bestsellers at Smashwords, 1 May 2012...Figure 7.6 Number of titles in Amazon’s ebook besteller lists*Figure 7.7 Daily unit sales of ebook bestsellersFigure 7.8 Daily gross Amazon $ sales of ebook bestsellersFigure 7.9 Daily $ revenue to authors from ebook bestellersFigure 7.10 Market share of ebook unit sales by publisher type, 2014–2016Figure 7.11 Market share of ebook gross $ sales by publisher type, 2014–2016Figure 7.12 Market share of ebook $ author earnings by publisher type, 2014–20...Figure 7.13 Daily gross Amazon $ sales of ebook bestsellers by category, January 2016...Figure 7.14 Daily gross Amazon $ sales of ebook bestsellers by category, January 2016...