The power of small presses

By Carmen 

Business Week looks at the growing influence of small presses, which combined for more than half of all book sales in 2005 (about $14 billion) by going after specific readers. And while the big companies continue to merge, the number of small presses is growing to about 63,000.

“Small presses are really an amorphous market,” says Jeff Hayes, director of research at InfoTrends, a marketing research firm and the principle consultant on the Under the Radar study. “There is a range of companies from the Fortune 500 to information and technology to trade associations down to specialty areas, and they have a loyal following.”

And by trying out different economic models, small presses such as Archepilago, Toby Press and Akashic can publish a comparatively much smaller run of copies, a practice deemed too costly for the large houses, who must sell large volumes of copies to earn back their advances and stay in the black. And they have deployed innovative marketing strategies in order to penetrate a fickle market.