Publishing books now is hard. It's even harder to sell them.

Phil Cooke recently posted an article on this topic in his monthly ezine The Change Revolution. He shared some sobering thoughts about book publishing that aspiring writers should consider. Here's an excerpt:

Many book categories – including business, current affairs, and self-help – have become oversaturated. It is increasingly hard to make any book stand out.

New titles are not just competing with 560,000 other new books, they are competing with more than seven million previously published books available for sale. And other media are claiming more and more of people's time…

We are in the early stages of an explosion in digital versions of books and digital sales channels for books and portions of books. However, early indications are that the digital revenues are replacing traditional book revenues rather than adding to overall book revenues.

The total book publishing pie is not growing, but it is now being divided among even more products and markets, thus further crowding and saturating the marketplace. And while some digital costs are lower, other costs are higher and price points are lower, making digital profits even slimmer than print publishing profits…

Read the rest of the article: The Ugly Truth About Getting Your Book Published