Strategic Book Group (SBG) have released a Summary of their and their Authors’ achievements throughout 2011. It makes for exciting reading but more importantly, it points toward far greater success for sales of DARK-Millennium 3 in the future.
2012 should be a good year for SBG.
In China alone, SBG has put runs on the board which will enable it to operate from a strongly enhanced position in the Book Publishing Industry in that country. SBG has entered into an agreement with the Chinese Government to operate the Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF) selling at future International Book Fair Expos held in China. This enables SBG to have a significantly higher profile than many other players there in the book publishing industry.
DARK-Millennium 3 foreign rights have been sold, particularly in e-Book format as we revealed last year, to eight different organizations in China, including three Libraries and and five TELCOs, where once again, the translated works are made available by bundling with the sale of e-Readers and associated Apps.
In Russia, SBG has sold their entire catalogue of e-Books.
We are advised, royalties from these foreign e-Book deals will take from one to two years to begin to contribute significantly to author earnings.
We have ensured that DARK-Millennium 3 features among the books taken around the globe in 2012 to all seventeen (17) International Book Fairs and Expos. Each exposure of SBG and its Catalogue of Authors and Books leads to more of these Foreign Rights deals. Already we have received positive reports in 2011 from places as diverse as Abu Dhabi to Frankfurt.
As the world shrinks and as the e-reading public grows exponentially, the demand for books: novels; children’s stories, travel, science and biographical increases, with the English language one of the most requested languages on Earth. The three Principal Languages used are French, Russian and English. All International Standards are printed in these three languages (ISO publications have them in 3 columns on the same page) and subsequently translated, by permission, into local tongues and dialects as demanded by the public.
India is the next Great People moving to e-Book demand and this particularly in English. With a population a quarter of that of the planet, India represents a massive book publishing market and SBG will take DARK-Millennium 3 there in 2012. We hope and expect that SBG will be able to obtain similar bulk publishing agreements in India to those obtained in China, Taiwan and elsewhere.
It was clear during 2011 that Asia had taken up e-Book technology, e-Readers and e-format materials to a far greater extent than the West. However, times change and during the Christmas Rush last December, the number of Tablets, e-Readers and e-Books sold in the USA doubled the number in use. Clearly, as prices fall and people in the West begin to see facility in e-format, this demand will increase. Miniaturization also has increased demand, due to the ability of manufacturers to cram more function into small, hand-held electronic appliances.
We see the Tablet format becoming a stable preference though, due to its convenient size. A book page reduced to the scale of a Smartphone screen becomes tedious for adults to use. Children have no difficulty seeing the tiny print in miniscule palm screens but for simple convenience and ease of use, adults will always prefer something they can handle. Smaller that an Lap-Top perhaps but larger than a Smartphone.
So we are excited now to see Strategic Book Group going ahead in leaps and bounds on the international book publishing scene. We looked at their business plan in 2010 and saw at the very start that their model required Author Enthusiasm but contained massive potential for growth in the technological field. We were happy to take DARK-Millennium 3 to them and they came back with the contract in two weeks!
Writing books has changed little. It requires time, effort and creativity. Selling books is still a matter of marketing. In the Twenty First Century, Marketing has changed. It has come to pass now that a book published in the East can be seen as quickly as lightning is seen in the West.
We live in astonishing times. SBG seems up to the challenge and the Millennium 3 trilogy is found to be in good hands.
Chris
