I was reading through a (full-size!) Sydney Morning Herald article from January. Interesting to see that the number and value of books sold in Aust. in 2012 decreased (56.6 million sold – a fall of 6.3% from 2011). The top 6 bestsellers were the Fifty shades series and The Hunger Games series. Without the Fifty shades series, the decrease would have been 11.2%. However, Dymocks stated that their 74 shops sold 500 000 more books than previous years – but the average price was down from $23 to $15.60. They noted that the tablet and e-reader have taken over. (Steger, J. 2013, ‘Readers hunger for two trilogies”, SMH, 5-6 Jan, p. 6.).
In the US, many writers are now turning their backs on traditional publishing and each week self-published authors make the ebook bestseller lists, as well as lists by the New York Times, Wall St Journal, USA Today etc. A year ago this was rare.
Self-publishing platforms include:
CreateSpace (Amazon offshoot)
Smashwords
Bookpal (Aust. company begun 2002)
http://blog.smashwords.com/2012/12/mark-cokers-2013-book-publishing.html
Some ideas for high school fiction collections:
Wool by Hugh Howey
In a dystopian future, a community exists in an underground silo. Their lives are full of rules and regulations, secrets and lies. The dangerous ones are those that hope and dream – their punishment is being allowed outside.
This post-apocalyptic sci-fi bestseller began in 2011 as a “self-pubbed” digital “novelette” that grew into a novel after thousands of online rave reviews. Howey finally agreed to sell the print rights in Dec. 2012 whilst retaining electronic rights and profits – a first in the industry. The print version hits US bookstores 12 March. Available as 8 books & omnibus. Film rights have been sold to Ridley Scott. Howey’s Molly Fyde series also sounds good for young adult sci-fi fans.
Wool series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wool_(series)
Book review: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/review-wool-by-hugh-howey-8458669.html
Amanda Hocking
US writer of paranormal romance young adult fiction. In April 2010 Hocking self-published 9 novels as ebooks. By March 2011 she had sold over 1 million copies and earned $2 million in sales – previously unheard of for self-published authors. In March 2011 she signed a $2 million publishing contract for 4 print books in the Watersong paranormal series. Other series: My blood approves (vampire romance); Trylle trilogy (urban fantasy); Hollowland (zombie fiction).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Hocking
http://amandahocking.blogspot.com.au/