Around the Word: Global e-Book Publishing Trends

By now we all know that the nature of traditional publishing is being revolutionized by technology, as the e-book industry continues to gain strength and force. And the dynamics of e-book publishing are also changing, given the advent of an increasingly globalized playing field. So what's going on in the international e-book marketplace? We're glad you asked.

Source: Digital Media Diet

The explosion of the e-book industry in the United States and the United Kingdom is expected to replicate itself the world over, especially in continental Europe, Brazil, Russia, and China. With the facilitation of free exchange of goods, services, and information per the World Trade Organization, a lot of the barriers to entry for accessing international readership has diminished. The dominant e-book retailers in the US and the UK—Amazon, Google, Apple, and Sony—have also localized their presence in diverse countries, from the Nordic region all the way to the Far East.

However, despite some developments, there is a lot of uncertainty with regards to the health of the overseas e-book industry. Here are some key facts, figures, and trends that highlight the challenges and opportunities of e-book retailing on a global scale.

o Regulatory Frameworks

In most countries around the world, printed books are viewed as goods, while e-books are considered services. Governments charge a value-added tax on distribution, raising the average price of the e-book even though there are no printing costs involved.

In France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Slovenia, the VAT on e-books is up to 20 percent. In some cases, a lesser VAT is charged on printed books as well. However, in some countries, such as Brazil, no VAT is charged on books, digital or otherwise.

Naturally, a higher VAT on e-books limits widespread digitization in publishing, and, consequently, the market share of e-books is as low as 1–2 percent. In the U.S., where there is no price regulation on either printed or e-books, the market share of e-books is as much as 6 percent.

o Cultural Attitude 

In most of continental Europe, there is a strong attachment to printed books because of their historic or cultural value. These countries also tend to be extremely protective of the literature produced by local authors. In France, for example, global e-book retailers like Amazon and Google do not have as much of a presence as local publishing authorities.

In Germany, almost 80 percent of people say they don’t want to read from a screen. Although people are becoming accustomed to book titles being published in various formats, print books remain the priority of the German publishing industry.

So while the scope of digital publishing gradually increases, English editions of texts are becoming more available, but not to the complete exclusion of local print publishing.

o Pricing Strategies

In most of continental Europe, publishers calculate e-book prices based on fixed rates, so strategies are not competitive or dependent on the market forces of supply and demand.

In general, in Germany, France, and Italy, print books are the most important factor affecting the price of e-books (at a discounted rate of approximately 20 percent).

o Future Projections 

In these noted emerging e-book markets, while the prospects for growth are increasing, the rate of such increase is staggering. There are still lots of barriers to entry with respect to e-book publishing, especially in English, in most continental European countries. The high taxation on e-books, as well as language and cultural barriers, further discourages publishers from offering them as a viable alternative format.

The international publishing landscape is becoming more complex, with differentiated patterns of growth and development despite the overall move towards global integration. The bullish nature of e-book publishing in the U.S. and the U.K. has not yet become an international phenomenon, either economically or demographically speaking.

According to Publisher’s Weekly, even in 2015: “Emerging e-book markets outside of the U.S. and the U.K. are all estimated to currently represent at best 1 percent of the overall book market, making projections of future dynamics of growth extremely difficult.”

For more detailed information on this topic, please click here.

Insider Stories from Ghostwriter Sari Botton

In a recent interview on the digital magazine Scratch, ghostwriter and GG pal Sari Botton talks at length about the joys and struggles of being a ghost in a today's unpredictable market.

Botton talks about the mix of good and bad deals she's landed over the years. She says, "Ghostwriting is a job—one I wouldn’t do if I didn’t need the money. Like any job, it has its pros and cons, its ups and downs—lots of freedom, the satisfaction of helping someone tell their own story; but also, frequently, having to handle intense personalities with kid gloves.” From being fired yet earning more than $100,000 in a year, to writing a New York Times bestseller for no royalties or credit and getting a lawsuit instead, Botton recounts some of her most memorably difficult projects.

Despite the trials, Botton refuses to quit. She writes, “For every bad client, there’s also an instance of grace—mostly people grateful for my ability to help them express themselves, even if their books haven’t been blockbusters…like helping an author’s daughter, who had severe learning disabilities, write an afterword that made her feel proud.”

In an associated community post on Scratch called "So, You Still Want to Be a Ghostwriter," Botton offers advice to fellow ghostwriters on how to protect yourself contractually, how to maintain realistic timeline expectations, and why to keep your agent your best hidden secret. Botton also acknowledges Gotham Ghostwriters as a great source for ghostwriting gigs. (Thanks, Sari!)

Read the full interview here.

Learning Off the Job by David Murray

This post originally appeared on Vital Speeches of the Day.

Just back from the Ragan Speechwriters and Executive Communicators Conference in Washington, where 180 full-time, part-time, or would-be speechwriters gathered to express indignation to one another and to the leading lights in the field, about how their speakers aren’t pulling their weight.

Oh, that’s not the only reason they came. They attended sessions and led bull sessions of their own, about the need for storytelling in speeches, the desirability of injecting authentic emotion and intellect into speeches, and they even called for their leaders to allow themselves to connect with audiences by being vulnerable.

But mostly, it was about their lack of access to the speaker and their speaker's unwillingness to participate in the speech-creation process. While everybody ought to have the right once a year to cry in their beer about how dumb the bosses are, this year—22 years after attending my first Ragan speechwriting show—I feel compelled to call bullshit.

Not that I disagree for a moment with speechwriters’ lament: that the CEOs, university presidents, and nonprofit directors who employ most speechwriters refuse to contribute more than a quarter of the thinking, work and time that would be required to create meaningful and memorable oral interactions with the audiences before they appear.

Speechwriters are dead right: Many leaders, as the warm, witty, and earnest former President Obama chief speechwriter Jon Favreau put it here, have no inkling about what they want to say—only an idea of the flattering light in which they want the audience to regard them afterward.

President Obama thinks it is worth his time to agonize over the ideas and the words in the speeches he gives, Favreau said. So if the leader of the free world feels that way, Favreau reasoned to this receptive crowd, then leaders of lesser institutions—the people he’s working for now as he runs his own firm, Fenway Strategies—should certainly deign to collaborate with their speechwriter too.

Here, young Favs betrayed the naivete he honestly earned by spending his whole twenties writing for a politician much more like himself than like any of the Fortune 500 CEOs and other public sector clients who are flocking to him now.

Why do CEOs want to hire Favreau? Is it because they remember those great speeches President Obama delivered after losing in New Hampshire, after winning in Chicago, on his historic trip to Cairo? And because they think that the wunderkind who wrote those persuasive speeches will help them convince their constituencies that yes, they also can?

Speechwriter, please.

These folks want Favreau because Favreau is—as I introduced him in my role as conference emcee—the Jennifer Lawrence of the speechwriting business.

A corporate leader who can abide a Democratic scribe and who wants everyone to know he or she has hired the best—this leader has only one choice in a speechwriter: Jon Favreau, the one and only It Boy.

I say none of this to disparage him. As I said on a conference call from the Mayflower, I think Jon Favreau is as fine a representative of this profession as I’ve ever met. He’s humble, he’s smart, he’s sincerely committed to the ideas his rhetoric has attempted to advance—and despite his young years, he’s probably as skilled a speechwriter as anyone else in the Mayflower Hotel ballroom last week.

It’s just that this isn’t why he’s got more clients than he wants—just as your professional skills and deficiencies have little to do with why your clients leave you to invent their ideas out of whole cloth, refuse to help you put their stamp on them and then read them for the first time in the Town Car on the way to the event. (Imagine the opposite scenario: Bill Maher telling his writers he doesn't have time to look at their jokes, he's sure they're fine, just plug 'em into the teleprompter and he'll read them when he walks out on stage.... No, you know he's all up in their faces all week long, rejecting this joke for being too obvious, rejecting that one for not being obvious enough, accepting this joke but honing it for half a day until his writers are ready to scream.)

It’s not that your leaders don’t believe in you. It’s that they don’t believe in speeches. Unlike politicians and comics, your leaders do not believe that words will help them achieve their goals.

Judging beliefs by actions, we must already know that our leaders believe their time and money is much better spent speaking with their lieutenants, mobilizing their lobbyists, and cultivating analysts and donors to raise money to grow their organizations and thus their power.

Speeches? By and large, they see these as symbolic events where they flatter the audience by showing up… where they sound intelligent and look confident… before returning home having taken one for the team and done nothing to undermine their real power: the size, the visibility and the prestige of the organization they lead.

Ideas? Stories? Authenticity? Vulnerability? These are things that speechwriters talk about (and talked about ad infinitum at the Ragan show). Power is the only thing that most leaders know.

So the challenge we face is bigger than we think. It’s not merely to convince our bosses that a speech will be improved by spending 15 minutes with you on the front end, exchanging a few emails with you during the writing, and rehearsing the speech once or twice before the audience hears it.

The challenge is to convince your leaders of something much more fundamental: that it is possible to find or to gather a group of human beings either so important or so large that telling them the truth as compellingly as possible can change the course of their organization—and their own career—for the better. (And without unduly risking the opposite result.)

Feverish speechwriter, chances are that whether you’re Joe Blow or Jon Favreau, your client doesn’t believe that right now.

How will you convince her?

I’ll be back with some ideas next week. But I’d like to read yours in the meantime. —DM

Announcing the first conference just for speechwriters!

We are excited to announce that we're joining with the newly formed Professional Speechwriters Association to sponsor the first dedicated conference for professional speechwriters.

The PSA's inaugural World Conference will be held on May 22–23 in New York and hosted by NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies Department of Strategic Communication, Media, and Management.

Working in partnership with our friends at Vital Speeches of the Day, we conceived this gathering to be a barn-raising for a professional home for people who call themselves speechwriters and leadership communicators.

We invite speech pros to learn about the conference and the PSA here: http://vsotd.com/psa-world-conference.

Or, if we had you at hello, you can go directly to the registration page.

We look forward to seeing you in May!

Book Spotlight: Where Are the Ghostwriting Jobs?

Our latest Book Spotlight focuses on a topic that's near to our hearts. Where Are the Ghostwriting Jobs? discusses more than 30 avenues for the novice or experienced ghost to pursue their next gig, whether you write books, blog posts, speeches, or tweets.

Before you click over to pick up your copy, check out our Q&A with the book's author, ghostwriter Graciela Sholander.

What’s your ghostwriting background? How did you land your first ghosting jobs?

I’ve been a freelance writer for over 20 years. This is a second career for me; I started as an engineer, but after my kids were born I left engineering to become an at-home mom, and that’s when my writing career began to emerge. To date I’ve ghostwritten 24 books. When I first started ghostwriting I was unfamiliar with the term. I was living in Albuquerque and had just completed an article about a local psychic for a regional women’s magazine. The psychic was impressed with my work and referred me to one of her clients, a recovering alcoholic who wanted her life story captured in a book she could share with other women struggling with addiction. That book ended up inspiring quite a few people, and the project was a rewarding one. I soon signed up with guru.com (which was in its early days) and landed my next ghostwriting jobs thanks to that site.

What attracts you to ghostwriting?

I love so many aspects of ghostwriting. It’s exciting to meet new people who are experts in their fields or have a compelling story to tell, and then help them get that story in writing. It’s fun to watch a book take shape, from maybe a handful of notes to a complete, full-length tome. I also enjoy capturing the client’s voice and crafting something that sounds like them. I really enjoy serving as the missing link, so to speak, a bridge between a brilliant person’s ideas and his or her audience.

What are some challenges an aspiring ghostwriter might face?

As with any field, the biggest question for newcomers is, “Where do I start?” While there are plenty of people who desperately need help with writing their books and articles, an aspiring ghostwriter may not know how to go about finding these potential clients. I always advise creating an online presence, as all writers benefit from having some form of online portfolio. Another challenge new ghostwriters might face is transitioning from writing short pieces, like articles and blog posts, to longer works, like books and ebooks. In this case, I recommend treating a book like a series of articles in order to get a handle on the project and estimate how long it will take and how much it will cost.

Were there any surprises during your research for this book?

I began writing Where Are the Ghostwriting Jobs? in 2011, and when I became busy with a number of other projects I put it aside. When I went back to complete it in late 2013, I was surprised by how many sites and businesses I was planning to include had disappeared. So the places listed in my guide are the ones with true staying power!

Do you see ghostwriting as an expanding market these days? 

I do. I’ve been watching this business for 20 years, and during that time it has grown by leaps and bounds. The beauty of ghostwriting is that there are so many sectors that utilize it; it’s not just about celebrity biographies. Businesses hire ghosts to create newsletters, website content, case studies, white papers, speeches, and more. Info marketers hire ghosts to write ebooks. Nowadays we even have ghost bloggers and tweeters! As the internet continues to create additional writing opportunities, ghostwriting will expand into these new arenas.

What are the most common kinds of ghostwriting work available?

Memoirs continue to be among the most popular, mainly because so many people of all ages have fascinating life stories they’d like to share with the world. A variation on the memoir is what I call the “expert book”: a doctor, an attorney, a movie industry insider, or an entrepreneur (to name a few examples) has developed a special technique or strategy and now wants to publish a book about it, so he or she seeks the services of a ghostwriter. I also often see people seeking a ghostwriter’s help with a first novel or screenplay. In addition, many information sites rely on ghostwriting. Years ago, I wrote medical articles for a health website. The site’s parent company assigned these articles with very specific instructions and had physicians review them for accuracy, but the writing was done by ghosts.

Can you reveal a tip or two from the book?

Absolutely! One tip is to take confidentiality requests very seriously. If your client does not want to reveal that his book was ghostwritten, you must abide by that. That means you can’t reveal the author’s name, the book title, or any other specific details about the project you’re working on. Confidentiality is a very important factor in the ghostwriting equation. The ghostwriter’s reward is not fame or recognition; it’s steady income and a fulfilling job. A second tip I’d like to share is this: avoid clients who demand perfection but are not willing to compensate you fairly. Ghostwriting is a collaborative process. Give it your absolute best, but be sure your client respects you and your services enough to pay you fairly.

Graciela Sholander has been a professional writer since 1993. As coauthor of Dream It Do It: Inspiring Stories of Dreams Come True, she had the privilege of interviewing Bill Nye the Science Guy and astronaut Eileen Collins, among other inspiring individuals. As a ghostwriter, she’s completed 24 manuscripts as well as dozens of articles. She has also worked as an engineer, a marketer, proofreader, copywriter, editor, content provider, and translator. 

What Writers Can Learn from the Animal Kingdom

The idea of the “survival of the fittest” often applies to the writing industry. As a freelance writer, can you beat the competition and stay afloat?

In order to strengthen your competitive edge, let’s look to our friends in the animal kingdom who’ve been doing this survival thing for centuries.

Here are some (r)evolutionary writing tips:

1. A dragonfly’s panoramic vision

A dragonfly has the ability to see in all directions, and can process up to a thousand images into one picture.

How this applies to writing: It's important to think small and be opportunity-focused, but also to think big and create your own opportunities. In some situations there could be a clear toss-up between writing what you're good at and writing what you love, so which to choose? The answer: choose both.

Projects may come by that don't necessarily fall into your range of interests, but are a perfect fit in terms of your expertise or educational background. Stay engaged in commissioned work, but don't forget your goals: finish that screenplay, or book, or story you've been thinking about for months. The key is to balance your vision.

2. A tortoise’s immortality

Successfully avoiding senescence for centuries, the tortoise ages but never grows old. Most tortoises die of old age, unafflicted by disease or injury.

How this applies to writing: You need to focus on constant re-invention. Whether you write literary fiction or fantasy, memoir or morbid exposés, business papers or blogs, your writing style and perspective must continually expand to include new ideas and technologies. Embrace changing modes of publication and writing platforms to stay relevant; otherwise there's the possibility you could be rendered obsolete by newer entrants in the field who are more tech-savvy and have better outreach.

With a change in perspective, you're also likely to develop versatility in your own work, regardless of whether you're a niche or prolific writer. French author André Gide wrote: "Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again." This is true of your own work: even within the realm of what you've written about before, you should constantly seek out new ways to express yourself.

3. An elephant’s vocal range

Elephants communicate at different frequencies, some of which are too low for humans to hear, while others are loud enough to travel huge distances—up to five or six miles.

How this applies to writing: Target your audience. Recognize your voice and identify who your readers will be, and then determine what your goals are in terms of outreach. Just like in any other product-based industry, understanding where you fit within your readers’ expectations and preferences can help you develop a loyal fan base.

Moreover, try to focus on communicating in different ways. To reach a dedicated, niche audience requires a contrasting approach to what you might take if you want to connect with a broader crowd. Consider things like your subject-matter, exposition, language density, and publishing platforms when evaluating these options.

4. A hummingbird’s effort

Though some weigh less than a penny, the hummingbird must beat its wings almost 80 times per second just to stay afloat.

How this applies to writing: Write a lot, write every day, keep writing even when you don't want to write. To stay on top of anything requires hard work, and writing output is directly proportional to input: the more you write, the more you'll sell, and the likelier you are to stay afloat.

Freelance writing jobs are not stable or guaranteed. They require constant initiative, a proactive mindset, and a drive to seek out new opportunities on a regular basis. It's simple: the more you'll reap, the more you'll sow.

5. A dolphin’s multitasking

Being mammals, dolphins must come up for air frequently. When asleep underwater, only half of a dolphin’s brain is actually sleeping, while the other half is responsible for making sure it doesn’t drown.

How this applies to writing: A writer’s work is never done. When you’re not writing, you should be editing. When you’re not editing, you should be thinking up new ideas. Whatever aspect of the process you’re focused on, keep part of your brain focused on the others. To be effective you'll need to get everything done well, and to be efficient you'll need to do it in the shortest amount of time.

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Be organized. Check your email regularly. Stay on top of your deadlines. Understand your personal capacity so you know how many projects you can handle at once. With proper calculation, you'll know when you're going to be ready for new work, thus minimizing the risk of drought periods.


Writers and writing are constantly evolving—and that's what makes this such an exciting job. Do you have any animal-inspired tips that help you in your writing career? Share them in the comments!

Guest Post: 5 Golden Rules of Freelance Writing Success

by IJ Schecter

What’s the easy part of becoming a writer? Learning how to write. What’s the hard part? Making that ability work for you. Whether you write in the basement or on the terrace, about high finance or low golf scores, for national glossies or local circulars, success comes ultimately from developing, and embedding, positive, productive habits. Yes, the freelance battleground is formidable, but it’s also continually expanding. Start ingraining these principles and you’ll be well on your way to staking out your own territory in a field ripe with possibility.

1. Get organized. 
Many writers feel that a chaotic environment is a stamp of creativity. Um, no. The few steps required for a highly functional personal office—file folders, properly labeled storage devices, logical configuration of equipment—can make a world of difference, and it will help you keep your head on straight as you cast about for assignments and engagements. In this business, you get exactly one chance to make a good first impression. Part of being organized is knowing exactly which queries, articles, or manuscripts you’ve sent when and to whom. There is no greater poison to freelance success than inadvertently sending a query to an editor you already contacted about the same idea two months earlier! If you’re going to be diligent about anything in your career, make it this.

2. Never stop when you think it’s great.
“Easy reading is damned hard writing,” said Nathaniel Hawthorne, and he was damned right. Whenever you read through a query or manuscript and pronounce it ready for sending, put it aside and then come back to it at least a full day later, committing to making it just a little bit better, even if that only amounts to tightening one paragraph or replacing one “almost” word with a better one. Since you possess a talent most others don’t—the ability to make words sparkle—you owe it to yourself to set your standards high. Once a piece is done (that familiar feeling of quiet elation will let you know), get it out there, and don’t worry if another edit occurs to you three days later. There is scarcely a writer in existence who looks back on a manuscript and believes it’s perfect. Or, as Anthony Burgess put it, “You don’t say, ‘I’ve done it!’ You come, with a horrible desperation, to realize that this will do.”

3. Practice equilibrium.
Every writer needs to learn to resist with equal vigilance the exhilarating highs and desperate lows that are occupational hazards of the trade. Mostly this requires time and experience, but bullheaded practice helps, too. Query rejected? Curse up a storm, give yourself a pep talk, have a piece of chocolate—then get back to work. Land a sweet assignment? Fist-pump the air, tell someone important to you, have a piece of chocolate—then get back to work.

4. Don’t work in a vacuum.
Even if you don’t think it’s for you, force yourself to network with others, whether via a local writing group, a national association, or the numerous writing-related groups on social media sites like LinkedIn. Yes, writing has traditionally been a solitary pursuit, but those days are long past. Even for writing groups that charge dues, one or two assignments typically make you back your original investment. Plus, these days, things happen much faster than they used to: information gets circulated instantly, assignments get snapped up, research is done fast, and fact-checking even faster. The good news is that there are more opportunities available to more writers than ever before. The bad news is that you can’t afford to fall asleep at the wheel. Being connected to others writers, and to the writing and publishing world at large, will keep you plugged in.

5. Embrace the writing experience.
Says lauded British novelist Julian Barnes, “It’s easy, after all, not to be a writer. Most people aren’t writers, and very little harm has come to them.” In other words, since your choice to write is probably less a choice than a fundamental, irrepressible need, take it in your arms, squeeze it, cuddle it, and love it for all it’s worth. Don’t buy into the stereotype that writers are lonely, unkempt figures forever despairing over what they haven’t published. Instead, celebrate every single word you write, even the ones that never see the light of day, as part of a lifelong process. This difference in attitude will translate into better consistency, higher productivity and, in the end, greater success.

IJ Schecter is an award-winning author, essayist, and interviewer, whose work appears regularly in top markets throughout the world. He is the author of two recent bestsellers, the golf humor collection Slices: Observations from the Wrong Side of the Fairway, and the insider’s guide to freelance success, 102 Ways to Earn Money Writing 1,500 Words or Less. He is also the ghostwriter behind several leading titles, spanning genres from business to true crime, and a popular webinar host.