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A market research company estimates the global book publishers market to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.6% from $84.54 billion in 2021 to $89.25 billion in 2022. It projects the industry size as $105.27 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 4.2%.
The two key factors that have contributed to this growth include:
The primary growth has come from academic publishers, which are intrinsically linked with the educational system, catering to the need of academic institutions such as schools, colleges, universities, and so on.
The publishing business is undergoing many changes, thanks to the digital revolution which has enabled creating more efficient workflows. The digital platforms also provide the consumers, the readers, with a wider choice of formats to choose from—traditional books, e-books, audio-books, and so on. Therefore, publishers need to be able to catch the pulse of the readers and plan their budgets based on the likely demand. Here too, digital technologies such as data analytics play a role.
Based on our understanding of the market, we present to you some of the leading trends in the publishing industry.
Print-on-Demand (POD): The POD model is not new but gaining popularity fast as it empowers publishers to manage their printing and inventory costs better. The POD model involves a book being printed only after an order is confirmed. This helps publishers contain their publishing costs. An order can be executed within 2 hours of being confirmed, making it efficient too.
Catering to Reader Interests: A customer-centric approach leveraging digital technologies such as analytics and AI/ML is sweeping all industries. This is so for the publishing industry as well. Digital publishers are tapping into insights regarding their reading preferences and delivering content that is more engaging and improves reading experiences.
Mobile-Ready Content: Mobile optimization has become an integral part of the digital world. Reportedly, there are 6.64 billion smartphones in the market and half of all internet usage happens from the mobile phone. While shopping and watching videos are probably primary activities, publishers cannot ignore this trend. Creating mobile-friendly interfaces that are highly responsive and provide a better reading experience are essential for survival and growth. It will also involve using push notifications to engage the audience.
Self-Publishing on the Rise: Self-publishing of books has become popular since 2010, ISBNs being assigned to self-published books increasing from around 1,53,000 to 1.6 million books by 2018. Since the pandemic, e-books have further spurred the growth of self-publishing. This empowers authors to take control of the process right from design, printing, to marketing.
Frictionless Payments: Digital publishers provide the option for digital subscriptions. But the process can be intimidating and time consuming, leading to many discontinuing the registration process mid-way. This has led to publishers opting for frictionless payments that enable quick checkout make it easy for the seller and the buyer to purchase.
Digital Marketing: Reaching out to the readers through digital marketing. While email marketing is more popular and produces better results, social media is also becoming a great way to engage with the readers and arouse their interest.
Automating Publishing Workflows: The rapid changes in customer expectations and the availability of digital technologies have compelled publishers to reconsider their approach to publishing. Automating production workflows help publishers publish in more formats with minimum interventions. They can accelerate the speed of production, thereby publishing more books. The workflow management becomes more efficient, with most mechanical tasks being automated and freeing editors to focus on improving the quality of the content. It also helps with file management and version control. All the while, the greater efficiency is contributing to controlling costs.
Increasing digitization and automation of the publishing process will help publishers with a single view of all their book-related data. This will help with:
To know more about how publishing workflow automation can make our process more time and cost-effective, contact PageMajik now.
