A new year and decade mean the ushering in of countless new trends. We will be surveying some of the top trends that are expected to transform the publishing sector in 2020. They are –
• Collaborative Publishing – Self-publishing ruled, in terms of publishing trends, in 2019. In 2020, authors will be asking themselves what traditional publishing services have to contribute in a time of self-publishing. They might still be publishing themselves, but will be hiring freelance designers, distributors, and the like to help package and sell their books better.
• Audiobooks Will Continue to Be More Popular – Spoken word is experiencing an upward trajectory, and podcasts and audiobooks are finding favor among sections of populations that did not traditionally consume these media. 2020 will also witness more indie authors experimenting with audiobooks as a form of sharing their stories.
• Authors Will Also Want a Stake in Marketing – Marketing a book really tells on its sales and the profits made by the stakeholders involved. New-age authors no longer want the marketing responsibility of their book to be at the sole discretion of the publishing team; they want to have a say in the process too. With an organic reach of the published material forecast to decline, advertising and marketing become more important for a book to sell in 2020. Authors will want to direct how this marketing/advertising effort occurs for their book.