The publishing industry has been seen as one of little innovation over the past century with the typically lengthy process of an author hoping to get their book published.

Once a manuscript was deemed merit-worthy, publishers would have the expense of printing a certain amount of copies of that book and the expense of marketing it to book shops as well as consumers. Book shops would have to buy the books at a price that was profitable to the publishing house, carry the expense of storing the books in their warehouses and stores (as well as other costs) and finally selling it to the consumers at a higher price that was profitable for themselves.

The problem, for the author, was (and still is) that printing houses don’t print every piece of work that is available. As a company, they wish to make profit by investing in work that they believe is saleable. Once they have found a suitable piece of work, they buy the ‘copyright rights’ (the ownership) of the work for a set agreed fee and pay royalties (similar to dividends) to the author out of the profits that are made from the work. This allows the company to direct a strategy and resources towards each piece of work to maximise profits from it, rather than scrambling for each sale. It’s quite to an entrepreneur approaching a venture capitalist for capital but with the VC running the business and paying dividends to the entrepreneur for the business idea.

With the ever increasing presence of the internet, it was inevitable that the book industry would in some shape or form become electronic. The innovations of the eBook is that form. Now, with the use of just one eBook reader, thousands of eBook’s can be read whilst taking up minimal space. And with companies such as Amazon, Nookpress and Lulu, self publishing has become accessible to a lot more authors than previously seen. Authors can bypass publishing houses, hire their own editors, create their own marketing campaign and cover and publish their book straight to websites that sell eBook’s in high volume. This, if done correctly, can cut the expense of publishing through a publishing house and selling through a book shop.

Is it a good thing for authors?

Some authors who have taken the leap have certainly reaped the rewards. 50 Shades of Grey, is undoubtedly recognised by many and was originally self published as an eBook before it’s rights were sold to Vintage Books. It has sold more than 125 million copies and is deemed ‘the biggest selling book of all time’. Whilst publishing houses are expensive (if they accept your work), they organise all the formatting and marketing of the book, which for someone who may not have experience in such matters, can be quite daunting and struggle to compete with the work of publishing houses. This article amply compares 50 Shades of Grey to another self published book ‘The Soaring Kiwi and the Sauerkraut’.

To publish or to self publish, that is the question.

Either way, eBook’s are certainly the way forward with unit sales increasing by at least double digit percentage points every year of this decade so far with Kobo estimating the market to be worth $14.5bn at the end of 2014. Publishers, such as Penguin, publish both as print and eBook format according to their sales strategy so it is entirely the choice of the author which way they wish to publish. The printed book market has been in decline in recent years as people shift from hard copies to eBook’s which would suggest authors, like readers, should make this shift too.

Whilst the eBook market is growing and expected to grow in the short-to-medium term, growth will at some point subside and new revenue streams will be needed to continue this tale as a success story. Such revenue streams could arise from placing adverts on eBook readers, quite similar to that of Facebook and Google, which would pay royalties to the manufacturer of the eBook reader. The concern for this is that reader’s (the devices) aren’t required to have Wi-Fi on all the time, only to update. However, this could be combated should this revenue stream be rolled out.

Sidebars could be used so that adverts are there but not disturbing the flow of the writing. However, sidebars on every page could be a nuisance and make the page count much larger than it needs to be. Also, whilst authors receive royalties for the work, would they be entitled to a portion of the revenue from adverts? These concerns would need to be considered before adopting this strategy.

Another way of making money from this advert, similar to ITV with the iPlayer, could be to charge a little extra (say 20 or 50p) per book to have a ‘premium’ copy of the book which wouldn’t include the adverts for readers that would rather avoid them. A way of integrating some marketing with other apps could be to advertise eBook’s on newspaper apps. Newspaper’s are available for eBook readers so an advert, similar to the Amazon affiliation adverts, could be placed on newspaper articles on their apps for tablets and smartphones to increase integration between these two media markets.

The eBook market is currently somewhere between a ‘problem child’ and a ‘star’ on the Boston Matrix, with continued high market growth and opportunities for diversification. It will be interesting to watch where this market heads and to see if any new products/technology develops as a result.