The big disruption opportunity in book publishing

Apple says it has written $ 6.5 billion in royalty checks to iOS apps developers in the last few years. While my book had a section which shows the distribution of those checks is uneven, and this NY Times article in its series on the iEconomy confirms “A quarter of the respondents said they had made less than $200 in lifetime revenue from Apple. A quarter had made more than $30,000, and 4 percent had made over $1 million.”, the total payout is pretty impressive especially when you consider so many of the apps are free or at price points under $ 2.

It made me think about how much the more established book industry pays out in author royalties at its much higher product price points (from $ 5 to 40). Actually it made me even more curious why so many authors have told me “You don’t make money writing books”. Or why so many publishers encourage authors to think there is no money in books “You will make more from speaking revenues, additional consulting etc”. Part of me accepts the bell curve that few make it big like J.K. Rowling or Tom Clancy. But part of me also wonders how THEY, the publishers, stay fairly healthy in business if there is no money in the book itself.

Apple’s model allows for some benchmarking.

Apple takes 30% of the apps revenue. In contrast, the average book publisher takes 80 to 90% of the net book revenues. For its smaller take, Apple still manages to provide plenty of marketing at the store level, commerce functionality to the developer (so insulation from credit card/bank charges), and certainly, to a selected few a high level (TV, highlighted web) of individual marketing exposure.

Read more: http://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/56912/the-big-disruption-opportunity-in-book-publishing/