The Number of Self-Published Titles Cracked 1 Million in 2017 - Publishers Weekly

Panzer was tootling around in the Catosphere when he decided to make a stop at the Publishers Weekly site. With a little digging in the posts there our adventurous kitty boy found one about ISBNs.

According to Jim Milliot, Bowker, the dispenser of ISBNs, has issued their annual report for 2017. The report lists print book ISBNs issued as 879,587 and ebook ISBNs issued as 129,601 for a total of 1,009,188 for the year. While ISBNs issued can be used to estimate the number of self-published books, it's not a totally accurate number. The ISBN numbers don't include Amazon's ASIN numbers for books published through KDP. The post does give information about ISBNs through CreateSpace (which is now gone), Lulu, Smashwords, and Author Solutions all of whose ISBN numbers are included in Bowker's total.

Everybody wants to write a book.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... What's a little kitty to do. The book publishing competition just keeps growing and growing."

Note: This is a medium length post. Bring a cup of tea and a cinnamon roll for today's reading selection.

To read the post tootle over to self-published titles

Your News: Writer's Digest and Author Solutions split and Amazon vs Hachette

Had enough Amazon-Hachette yet?

Panzer meant to post this for you last week, but he got sidetracked in the Catosphere by other stuff.

So ... here it is now.

My bad boy loves the Indies Unlimited site. In addition to being an indie ebook marketing site, they have great posts. Last week's monthly news roundup by Stephen Hise has information on the news of the Author Solutions-Writer's Digest split situation.  He also has a link for additional news on the Amazon-Hachette dispute.

Panzer says, "Even if he doesn't like kittens, he's not all bad."

To catch up on the news, tootle over to newsbites at Indies Unlimited.

David Gaugham on Author Exploitation

Don't mess with me!

 Panzer found an important post at David Gaughran's Let's Get Digital blog he wants you all to read and re-blog.

Gaughran is posting about Author Solutions and the other scummy vanity presses. He paints a picture of their business and financial practices involving would-be writers. He tells how Author Solutions and their brethren are the users of hopeful naive new writers who are trying to make it into the publishing world. He has links to articles and lawsuits to illustrate his points.

Worst of all, these same vanity presses take advantage of writers and hide behind the screen of the traditional publishers that own them. Yes ... you read that right. Traditional publishers have been diving into the mucky end of the pool and snapping up the vanity presses.

Panzer says, if you want to know who owns who ... and who you need to avoid, tootle over to The Author Exploitation Business.