Current Problem

"A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it." — Albert Einstein

Currently, the publishing industry faces several challenges. Also, as a resource, content is underutilized. The book industry consists of several entities and each with its own set of problems:

Publishers – Publishing houses' revenue streams are limited, and their expenses on marketing every book is burning holes in their pockets. They incur a huge loss because of piracy, and at the same time piracy is not the only concern of the publishers. More than 60% of new books published every year don’t even break even. Some of these books are from new authors who do not get enough eyeballs for their first book and marketing expenses of these new books are often steep.

Authors – Authors are paid not more than 25% of the revenue as royalty. In most cases, the royalty is less than 15%. Authors not just need to sell their work but all themselves to their fans which is hard in the existing setup. In the US, on average a reader reads twelve books in a year. It is highly unlikely for a reader to pick the work of new authors unless it has been suggested by someone to them. The connection between readers and authors needs an overhaul which doesn’t exist in the current setup.

Content – Reading a book is considered as the only and the ultimate experience so far. Limiting the use case of content to just reading undervalues its true potential. Content can be used as entertainment, an asset, a source of marketing, and a source of generating more content. The eBook and audiobook format has squeezed the use cases of books to just entertainment for the readers while other benefits are used by the online platform selling them. Considering that any good content will have a prospective reader even after 100 years, content as an asset will always appreciate.

Readers – Although readers don’t face any kind of challenge, considering the potential use cases of the content they pay more for what they are getting.