Publishing Business Books Ranked on Amazon
Amazon category lists are a very useful way to see how competing books within a category stack up. While they can be flaky over the short run and don't automatically include all titles that really belong in a category, they offer one stop shopping for looking the market leaders. Today I thought I'd take a public look at a category that I've been following for the last couple years, the Publishing&Books > General category. As of today, the top book is the 5th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, which has become the default standard reference for writing academic papers. Not something that interests me at all. The next book in line is The Chicago Manual of Style. I gave my copy to my editor around four years ago and never looked back. Neither of these books has anything to do with the business of publishing.
The next three books are all Writers Digest books from the 2006 series, Writers Market, Guide to Literary Agents and Children's Writers and illustrators Market. These are true evergreen titles, as long as Writers Digest doesn't drop the ball, they'll keep earning for decades. In 6th place is a New Yorker cartoons book that shouldn't really be on the list, and in 7th place is another book for writers, Comedy Writing Secrets by Mel Helitzer. The interesting thing about this listing is the wrong edition is included. This is a frequent and annoying feature of Amazon lists, while they tend to maintain the proper order of books according to average sales ranks of the latest editions, they often show an older edition on the list. In some cases, this might the edition that had the greatest sales in its lifetime, in other cases, it could just be an error. The eight spot today is another Writers Digest book, the 2006 Novel and Short Story Writers Market.
Finally, in the ninth spot, we get to the first publishing business book, the classic Self Publishing by Dan Poynter. The list shows the 13th edition, even though the 15th edition just came out last week and is selling like hotcakes. Next in tenth place is Aaron Shepard's The Business of Writing for Children, another classic book that offers writers a reality check about the publishing business. Nearly all of the remaining books ranked in the top 20 are writer's guides, with the exception of Real World Color Management in 16th place.
The ranks from 20 on up feature a higher proportion of publishing business titles, starting with the Ross's 4th edition of The Complete Guide to Self Publishing in 24th place. My own Print-on-Demand Book Publishing slipped in at 27th place today. The number of titles about marketing and promotion for writers proliferate in this region, six of the 20 book listed are about how to get book sales, as opposed to the how to get published titles that crowd the lower ranks.
The main thing I've learned from watching this list is how writers prioritize their work. Ignoring the style references for editors and academics, the main priority for writers is finding places to mail their manuscripts. Next comes a whole slew of books about how to get the editors and agents to actually look at the manuscript, rather than chucking it in the slush pile. A few publishing business titles are sprinkled in for writers who decide they'll be better of publishing themselves, or simply give up on finding a traditional publisher. The lowest priority appears to be generating sales for books once they get published. I guess a lot of authors either just want to see their name on a book cover, or are too exhausted by the process when they get there to worry about sales. It could also be that most authors still believe that once a book is published, it will generate sales on its own through word of mouth or some passive means. Good luck!
The next three books are all Writers Digest books from the 2006 series, Writers Market, Guide to Literary Agents and Children's Writers and illustrators Market. These are true evergreen titles, as long as Writers Digest doesn't drop the ball, they'll keep earning for decades. In 6th place is a New Yorker cartoons book that shouldn't really be on the list, and in 7th place is another book for writers, Comedy Writing Secrets by Mel Helitzer. The interesting thing about this listing is the wrong edition is included. This is a frequent and annoying feature of Amazon lists, while they tend to maintain the proper order of books according to average sales ranks of the latest editions, they often show an older edition on the list. In some cases, this might the edition that had the greatest sales in its lifetime, in other cases, it could just be an error. The eight spot today is another Writers Digest book, the 2006 Novel and Short Story Writers Market.
Finally, in the ninth spot, we get to the first publishing business book, the classic Self Publishing by Dan Poynter. The list shows the 13th edition, even though the 15th edition just came out last week and is selling like hotcakes. Next in tenth place is Aaron Shepard's The Business of Writing for Children, another classic book that offers writers a reality check about the publishing business. Nearly all of the remaining books ranked in the top 20 are writer's guides, with the exception of Real World Color Management in 16th place.
The ranks from 20 on up feature a higher proportion of publishing business titles, starting with the Ross's 4th edition of The Complete Guide to Self Publishing in 24th place. My own Print-on-Demand Book Publishing slipped in at 27th place today. The number of titles about marketing and promotion for writers proliferate in this region, six of the 20 book listed are about how to get book sales, as opposed to the how to get published titles that crowd the lower ranks.
The main thing I've learned from watching this list is how writers prioritize their work. Ignoring the style references for editors and academics, the main priority for writers is finding places to mail their manuscripts. Next comes a whole slew of books about how to get the editors and agents to actually look at the manuscript, rather than chucking it in the slush pile. A few publishing business titles are sprinkled in for writers who decide they'll be better of publishing themselves, or simply give up on finding a traditional publisher. The lowest priority appears to be generating sales for books once they get published. I guess a lot of authors either just want to see their name on a book cover, or are too exhausted by the process when they get there to worry about sales. It could also be that most authors still believe that once a book is published, it will generate sales on its own through word of mouth or some passive means. Good luck!
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