Sam Henrie

About Sam Henrie

Sam Henrie is President and Founder of Wheatmark, Inc., and Past President of the Arizona Book Publishing Association. He is Co-Chair of the Book and Movie Business Genre of the Literary Committee for the Tucson Festival of Books, the third largest book festival in the United States. Sam is also a Senior Faculty at the Authors Academy.
16 May, 2009

Brick vs. Click

By |2023-06-09T11:39:56-07:00May 16, 2009|Marketing, Resources|Comments Off on Brick vs. Click

Brick-and-mortar bookstores are the obvious place to start selling your book, right? Wrong!  On top of the problems that publishers bemoan, including heavy discounts, substantial returns, lack of pricing flexibility, and stiff on-shelf competition, brick-and-mortar bookstores are a shrinking sales channel.  Brick-and-mortar bookstores now account for less than half of all books sold.  And each year sees a further decline in their share of the total book market, a trend which is accelerating!

Luckily, there are plenty of opportunities in other, growing, sales channels.  We at Wheatmark recommend that you, the independent author, focus all of your marketing efforts on these channels, particularly the online bookstore channel.  Each year online bookstores grab a larger share of the total book market.  And, online bookstores are perfect for the independently published book.  They offer a level playing field—your book gets equal “shelf placement” with the titles from major publishers.  Many publishing houses are […]

Read More
14 February, 2008

A New Era in Book Publishing

By |2023-06-09T11:41:14-07:00February 14, 2008|Publishing, Resources|Comments Off on A New Era in Book Publishing

As president of the Arizona Book Publishing Association for the last two and a half years, and as head of the self-publishing firm Wheatmark, www.wheatmark.com, for the last eight years, I’ve talked to hundreds of publishers and authors, and read countless articles and studies on the publishing industry. This experience has made it clear to me that a significant transition is taking place in the book publishing industry. The era of the major publisher and the bestseller is ending, and the era of the independent publisher and the micro market is beginning.

Major publishers’ titles account for an ever decreasing portion of overall book sales in the United States, while independent publishers’ titles and self-published titles account for an ever increasing portion. Similarly, bestsellers constitute an ever smaller portion of the total publishing pie, while books selling in the few thousands or hundreds account for an ever larger portion.

This shift […]

Read More
Go to Top