Are readers better off because of easy self-publishing?

Being a college student I’m often forced to take classes I don’t like and do projects that I have no interest in. Which I assume is strange because no one else who has ever attended college would experience that same feeling toward college . . . right?

Well, one particular class the final one that I needed to round out my minor in economics focused on economic conditions that affect the entertainment community. The final project in that class was an economic topic of my choice related to the entertainment industry. Naturally I gravitated toward the publishing industry because I like to learn more about both writing and the dirty side of the industry, publishing.

The big question that I sought to answer—pardon the economics speech, I’ll limit it from here on out—was “Has the advent of easy self publishing increased or decreased the utility of readers or authors?” In otherwords, who is better off?

If you have any questions about my data, follow this link to a small page with my data and original presentation. There you will also find all my sources.

Are readers better off because of easy self-publishing?

I broke down the industry into basic producers and consumers and assumed publishing companies and everyone else in the industry to be intermediaries. I also covered the time period of 2002 to 2014, and used 2007 ‘ish as my mark of self-publishing, although the groundwork had been laid years prior. Below is a list of ways that I defined how a reader is better off:

Has there been an increase in the number of choices?

Has there been an increase in the quality of choices?

Has there been a decrease in the cost per book?

Has there been a decrease in the cost to acquire those books?

The Authors are categorized by the type of organization that they publish with, either Big Five, Small or Medium publisher, Indie published, or single-author publishers.

Has there been an increase in the number of choices?

In 2002 there were approximately 1,137 new books available through Amazon. In 2014 there were 28,129, which is an increase of 2374%. If that doesn’t very simply answer the question about the number of new books on the market then I don’t know what does.

Has there been an increase in the quality of choices?

The five-star rating allows readers to determine quality that is the basis of my analysis. Using some very basic statistical analysis techniques I dug into the average review scores that new titles are receiving. What I found is that there has been no significan increase or decrease over time of the reviews, they stayed around the overall average of 4.34 stars (People tend to review everything positively).

The other thing I found was an overall convergence of rankings between the various types of publishers. In 2002 Single-Author publishers had the highest average rankings at 4.57 and Big Five publishers had the lowest at 4.21. Bias toward being polite toward smaller authors and being harder on major authors may be to blame. In 2014 those numbers had converged at 4.37 and 4.41, Big Five and Single-Author publishers, respectively. This could be caused by a number of things, bias or a real change in quality.

Has there been a decrease in the cost per book?

Using a weighted average cost to determine the price per book I found that the average title in 2002 cost about $7. That price decreased to $5.39 in 2014. What is significant is that Big Five publishers increased their price from $4.30 in 2002 to $9.77 in 2014. Everyone else decreased the price of their books, while the Big Five increased theirs. There are many reasons for this, the least of which is an increase in production costs, Print On Demand and all. With the incredible increase in the number of titles available to the readers, the increase in price would be an easily identifiable method for Big Five publishers to send a message of quality. Which is visible when we look at the amount a consumer is willing to pay per star. Only Big Five publishers have been able to see an increase in the amount that readers will pay per star that they rate the book.

Has there been a decrease in the cost to acquire a book?

I didn’t seek to quantify this because it is more obvious. If a reader wants a new book, they only need to jump onto their computer and it will be delivered to them. This can be done either instantly via e-reader download or shipped. This is a significant improvement on the time and money spent driving to a bookstore and perusing the aisles. Another improvement that we take for granted is the amount of information being fed directly to readers about new and old book titles. Algorithms on major book distributors will offer books to a reader based on previous purchases, decreasing the amount of time that they would spend seeking out a new title to read. Always remember that readers invest both time and money into a book.

Based on this readers are most definitely better off for the advent of self-publishing, they have definitely benefited. Books cost less, there are more choices, at similar quality, and the price to acquire those books has decreased. The next question is, have authors benefited?

If you want more to see my work, check my sources or anything like that check out this link.

#reader #author #selfpublishing #economics #utility