Are Small Publishers the Future of the Industry?

By Jason Boog 

In an essay in the Independent Book Publishers Association’s monthly Independent magazine, Ingram content acquisition VP and IBPA board of directors member Kelly Gallagher showed why small and medium-sized publishers are “the industry’s healthiest and fastest-growing segment.”

The article noted that small publishers (the presses that need fewer than ten ISBNs every year year) have increased 69 percent between 2006 and 2011. Bowker now counts almost 21,000 of these scrappy publishers.

What do you think? Is this rapidly expanding segment the future of the publishing industry?

Here’s more from the article:

During the past four years, from 2008 to 2011, publishers with annual net sales between $500,000 and $5 million grew unit sales by more than 25 percent, double the industry growth rate. And publishers with less than $500,000 in annual net sales also far exceeded the industry average, growing unit sales by nearly 23 percent in the same four-year span. Revenue growth for each of these two publishing segments is even more impressive. Publishers netting $500,000 to $5 million annually grew at five times the industry average, at a rate of over 15 percent, while publishers netting less than $500,000 annually grew at four times the industry average, at a rate just under 13 percent.