Sorry for the sparse posting here. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks deep in preparation for a comic con over this last weekend, and then the time since fighting through my stacked-up email, and putting in some extra hours on the day job. Regular posting will resume soon.
I just kinda figured the hopper was empty; there’s been a bit of a slowdown in the indie books market recently for some reason, so we might not be seeing as much traffic through here in the next few months as we’ve had the last few years.
Just a judgement call or do you know a good source for numbers on the indie market?
Anecdotal evidence, mainly; I’ve lately been seeing more forum threads like this one on Amazon with indie authors complaining about slumping sales, and over on Underground Book Reviews, where all the forums rarely went a day without somebody posting something on them last year, the most recent threads haven’t had new posts from any of the indie authors there for weeks and even months. Something seems to be happening to the market right now.
Granted, these might not be the most representative samples, but Amazon does the majority of the indie book market’s selling, and a lot of the authors we’ve critiqued on here have ended up promoting their books (for better or worse) on Underground Book Reviews. If the authors posting on these sites aren’t doing so well, I’d say it’s a fairly safe to extrapolate from them that the indie author “community” in general is not in the best shape right now either.
Man…you can’t tell it by the incoming inquiries in my office, nor in the offices of the other higher-quality conversion houses that I know.
I would add, though, that the books we’re all seeing are largely not typical self-pubbed genre fiction. We’re seeing scads of VERY complex books, books that are in PDF format, made with every kind of bizarro-world book production tool, and in the last months, I have had the largest pile of seriously non-tecchie clients I’ve ever seen in a quarter-year period.
It’s…wild and woolly. The lightweights aren’t going to make it. It’s too damned hard. Almost every book is pulling teeth now, jogging through molasses. I’ve got clients that–I’m not kidding–cannot, CANNOT click a link and watch a Vimeo video. They can’t download ebooks (or anything else) from a browser. They can’t figure out how to download a PDF from Dropbox.
There are still books to be made…but every single one is an uphill slog. Every. single. one.
I didn’t realize you were in the industry. Do I judge right that you provide ebook and/or print formatting services for self-publishers?
@KristopherGrows:
Yes. We do. My business, Booknook.biz, is one of 9 companies, in the world, vetted/approved to be on the Amazon Professional Conversion Services List: http://amzn.to/29pWZSg . In short, it means that we’re authorized to make eBooks for Amazon, itself. We’ve done ~3300 books since late 2009, 2010.
Thanks for asking. Did you have a specific question?
Mostly general interest,I know jack about publishing and learning things is basically all I do. It also lends a more specialized authority to what you post on the site.
I did find it useful to know that overly complex format choices in the client submission could be so troublesome. Should my own works end up adequate enough to justify investment in 3rd party polish that knowledge will smooth the process. I also know of a provider now for whom I have first hand evidence of competence, that makes even poor scientists much happier. When I had my map drawn I had to shoot blind. A search for an artist for improved cover graphics (finances permitting) is much the same story, but at least there I can study their portfolios. I dread possibly looking into editors. It’s extremely valuable, but expensive and damn near impossible to judge.
I took a look BTW, prices where you are seem pretty good once everything gets to that stage.
I do have a suggestion, the catalogue of titles on your site has grown large enough that the ability to filter the list, by genre for example, may be useful to prospective clients vetting the service.
(Apologies to anyone objecting to this digression. Though not about covers it is still intended as publishing shop talk, not sales.)
Hi:
Well, thanks–between you and me, that catalogue is VERY old. We only have about 6-700 files there, and we’ve done over 3K. when I started doing that, I never envisioned that we’d one day be so busy that we couldn’t keep up with it…but it’s been that way for at least 4 years now. I probably should remove it, but…you never know. It’s a form of “social proof,” I guess. 🙂
Really, here on CC.Com, I’m mostly hanging out with “my peeps.” Because of our various lines of work, those of us in aspects of publishing don’t have a way to really vent, or hang out. So, we tend to congregate in spots like this. This one is arguably the best, because we’re donating time to help self-pubs and cover designers to reach higher and succeed in their designs. I know that sounds slightly fatuous, but I mean it. We all see spots where we see dreadful covers, or interiors, eBooks, editing, etc., but it’s nice to be able to hang out together and try to do some good, without charging folks.
If I can ever be of use–you have questions, etc.,–just reach out to me. Doesn’t have to be a job. If I can help, I will.
Good luck to you in your publishing endeavors, no matter where you go, or with whom you work.
Thanks to all who frequent this place, donating your time critiquing covers. I get a little peek into the other side.
Thanks, but really…it’s good for us, too. 🙂 Plus, we get to “hang.” In a day and age in which our peeps are spread all over the planet, don’t get that opportunity very much.