Meanwhile I'll pass along some news about trends from one of our distributors, www.allromancebooks.com / www.omnilit.com
Write Words, Inc. was one of the first e-book publishers to sign up with ARe back in 2006 and we have been steadily adding our titles in other genres since the inception of their Omnilit (all genres) web site.
Of all our many distributors it's true that ARe pays the highest percentage in royalties. For authors, that means that we both make more money when customers buy from ARe.
PRESS RELEASE FROM ARe/Omnilit
Some general highlights
# Romance publishers 2006 = 18
# Romance publishers 2009 = over 13000
# Total publishers in 2009 (AR & OmniLit Combined) = over 3000
# Romance titles in inventory 2006 = close to 2000
# Romance titles in inventory 2009 = over 30,000
# Total titles in inventory 2009 (AR & OmniLit Combined) = over 250,000
Growth in customer base 200 8 to 2009 = 250%
Some buyer highlights
We're continuing to experience triple digit growth in the U.S. and the bulk of our sales are to U.S. customers. We are currently selling in 210 countries.
Top ten markets: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Italy.
Top ten U.S. markets: California, New York, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio
Buyer demographics!Female = 90%
Male = 10%
Age = We're seeing growth in the over 60 demographic. Our biggest demographic is the 18-29 age group (40%).
Marital Status = Divorced 6%, Single 51%, in a relationship 43%
Some bookish highli ghts
Book length = the bulk of sales are on books between 30,000-69,999 words (39%)
Heat Rating = 97% of sales are on books rated 3 or higher
DRM v Non DRM = 97% of sales are on Non DRM titles
File formats = PDF is the best-selling format by far. Second place is a 3-way tie between LIT, PRC, and ePub. LIT and PRC have both lost market share in the past year. HTML is in 5th position. We've just added the eReader format.
Significant sub-genre trends we're seeing = The overall market share for straight contemporary is down quite a bit from 2008, 22%. Although still a popular genre, the overall market share for multiple partners is also down from 2008. Rubenesque, although a small piece of the pie, is showing promise for growth. Other significant growth markets, listed in order, include Paranormal, Vampire/Werewolves, Gay Fiction, and Erotica.
In terms of which sub-genres owned the biggest piece of the pie in 2009, the top 10 are = Gay Fiction, Erotica, Contemporary, Multiple Partners, BDSM, Interracial, Vampires/ Werewolves, Shape-shifter, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Paranormal/Horror.
NOTE: We realize that many books cross multiple sub-genres. What we based the above statistics on is the category the reader selected prior to the purchase point. If it's a M/M, Contemporary, Paranormal and they clicked on Contemporary prior to the purchase, then the sale goes to Contemporary.
An antidotal report to check out: We have heard from some publishers and authors that because of differences between our pricing practices and that of our competitors AND because of the differences between our commission/fee structure, a book sold on the All Romance site is netting them more—in some cases significantly more per sale.
If this is true for you and/or your authors, we encourage you to point it out to them. We know customers have many choices and many factors to consider when deciding where to shop for your books. We, or course, want them to choose to shop at ARe!
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