Recognize any of these publishing trends?

What’s happening in the publishing world in 2022 and what does that mean for indie authors and small publishers? I found this interesting article about what to expect in the future.

Written Word Media, a book marketing business, listed the following trends. While I’m not promoting their services, I think they make some great observations! Maybe you already know about some of them.

• Direct sales for authors will continue to grow. This helps authors make more money and have direct connection with the people who buy their books. That means specific contact information and a good newsletter email list potential.
• Indie authors will embrace next generation technology. They’re talking about NFTs (which I don’t entirely understand), AI narration for audiobooks and using AI for writing tools. I love technology so I think this is pretty cool!
• BookTok is mainstream. Who’s on BookTok? I haven’t ventured there yet, but I’m interested. I’m mostly concerned about spreading myself too thin, as a book blogger, that is!
• Book prices will increase. That’s for print and digital. This article says that promotional discounts will become more attractive to buyers.
• More success for small presses. The divide between traditional publishing and indie publishing is getting bigger. In addition to being more collaborative, indie and self-published authors are more adaptive and forward-thinking. That’s good news for sales. They note that “traditional publishers aren’t adapting to the growth of audio and eBook formats and instead are struggling with supply chain issues. Smaller publishers are going to fill the void.”
• Advertising will become more inclusive. They’re talking marketing graphics with more visuals and colors. Everyone seems to be getting better at designing their own graphics, too, although be careful if you use Canva. I know there are stipulations about whether you’re using your design for profit. Ad tracking has been reined in, but social media platforms are out there for anyone to use.
• Digital ads will be more expensive and difficult to track. They note, “In addition to increased cost to run ads online, the tracking and targeting options that had made digital ads so effective are slowly going away.” What is your experience with paid advertising? Do you recognize this trend? Do you recommend paid advertising?
• Audiobook market continues to evolve. Spotify just bought a company named Findaway and they’re going to focus more and more on narratives, in addition to music and podcasts.
• More authors will try publishing serializations via reading apps. Wow this sounds interesting! Have any of you tried that?

Have you noticed any of these trends? Leave a comment below!

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