Self-publishing sees explosive growth

Changes in consumer behaviour, coupled with the economics of print-on-demand technology, are driving industry-wide growth in self-publishing.

Online publishing community Blurb said that it produced nearly 80,000 unique titles in 2007.

By comparison, Simon & Schuster publishes approximately 1,800 titles annually, and Random House published 9,000 new titles in 2006.

Blurb said that the self-publishing explosion is being driven by a dramatic increase in digital camera sales, which grew twice as fast as the industry expected in 2007.

As a result, creative professionals and consumers have enormous libraries of digital images ready for bookmaking.

Popular photo sharing website Flickr celebrated its two billionth uploaded photo in November 2007, and Technorati said that 120,000 new blogs are created worldwide every day.

"Although consumers are still new to the opportunities of self-publishing, the tools are now in place to help them create high quality books using their own content," said Mette Eriksen, an analyst at InfoTrends.

"The photo book market grew by 166 per cent in 2007 and will continue to grow as more consumers become aware of the opportunities offered by companies like Blurb.
"Blurb's end-to-end platform that offers consumers ease of use combined with a high quality finished product is one of the drivers for market adoption."