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Book Crowdfunder PubSlush to Close

CROWDFUNDER PUBSLUSH IS CLOSING IT’S VIRTUAL DOORS

Pubslush, the popular online community the specialized in connecting writers with potential funding and reading audiences, is closing down next Friday, August 21st .

“We want to thank you for your constant support of Pubslush through the years and we wish you the best of luck in your business,” said the Pubslush Team in an email sent out to the community. The reason for the closing isn’t made clear, but any writers who have relied on the website might want to find another avenue.

THE BRITISH ARE COMING! “KINDLEPREUNERS” FROM ACROSS THE POND

Fed up with the slow-moving process of traditional publishing, many British authors have also turned to self-publishing on Kindle- and had huge success. A recent article in the Telegraph features interviews with several of these “Kindlepreuners”.

Louise Ross, for example, left her career in law to pursue her dream of becoming an author. Publishing her crime novel in January of this year, the book has since sold 70,000 copies and hit number 1 on the Kindle bestseller list. Another advantage is that she’s making a living off of this new career. Other authors, such as Tracy Bloom, Rachel Abbott, and Amanda Hocking are all success stories of self-published authors who are writing bestsellers. They’re making good money, gaining a huge readership, and they have complete control over creative decisions.

The only downside? British indies also haven’t found much in the way of critical merit. “The DIY sector,” writes Sturgis, no matter how many hundreds of thousands of ebooks get sold, rarely receives mainstream media attention or plaudits thanks to years of being thought of as either vanity publishing or low quality. Those going into it do so largely for cash over credibility, and the priceless opportunity of an audience, rather than a Pulitzer Prize.” And the readers seem to be disagreeing with the critics and the mainstream media, if the wildly successful sales of these books is any sign. For many authors, giving up fame is worth it to get the kind of readership Kindle offers and the kind of control self-publishing allows. “Massive commercial success doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves,” says self-pubbed author Tracy Bloom. “There is value in being able to entertain the masses.”

A FLAT MARKET MEANS DIFFICULTY FOR (TRAD) PUBLISHERS

It appears that the market for traditionally published books in 2015 is not doing well. The recent stats released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) revealed that combined sales of adult and children’s/YA books through April were down 1.4% compared to those sales in 2014. It’s speculated that at least for Hachette and Simon & Schuster, this is because publishers can’t match the big bestsellers released in early 2014, such as I Am Malala and the Duck Dynasty books (yes, people, those worthy titles were traditionally pubbed), and now publishers are facing the pressure to catch up.

Other big publishers are citing other reasons as the explanation for the decline in sales. HBG and Lagardere claim the drop in e-book sales, due to circumstances such as the agreement with Amazon, has affected overall book sales. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, however, had an increase in sales, but has raised promotional costs and salaries, leading to a drop in earnings. Simon & Schuster faced the opposite issue, suffering from a decline in sales but an increase in profits due to lower production and distribution costs. CEO Carolyn Reidy mentioned that although e-book sales were down, digital audio sales were up.

After suffering a sales decline in the first half of 2015, publishers are going to be looking to publish big hits in the second half. Let’s see if they do any better this time around.

THIS WEEK’S LIST WHERE INDIES COUNT

This week’s “The List Where Indies Count”, featuring the top ten list as of August 10th, features a mostly steamy list of titles for your vacation reading pleasure during these last hot days of summer.

Titles are compiled on Sunday for Monday’s post, culled from The New York Times, USA Today and Amazon best-seller lists.

Happy Indie reading!

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