Hi there,

Welcome to the first Reedsy marketing newsletter of 2024! If you’ve been following this series of newsletters, you’ll know that since last year, I’ve been sending them pretty… sporadically, to say the least.

So while I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions, I’ll make an exception this time and promise to stick to a proper fortnightly schedule this year. What's more, I promise to keep them short (or, well, shorter) than they used to be, since that format got great feedback from you all when I tested it last year.

So to sum up: you can expect to receive this newsletter every other Thursday. Each issue will focus on a specific book marketing topic, trend, or idea. All are aimed at authors looking to make a living writing (and if that’s not your case, you can opt out from receiving them by clicking on the “Manage your subscriptions here” button at the bottom of this email).

Without further ado, let’s get started on the first topic of the year: my main prediction for 2024.

Now, I’m usually just as fond of New Year’s predictions (speculation) as I am of resolutions (wishful thinking), but I feel particularly strongly about this one.

Quality will matter more than ever before

Ever since Kindle Direct Publishing was born, each year has seen a new record-breaking number of books released into the market. No one knows the exact numbers (as most indie authors don’t bother using ISBNs), but it’s estimated that over 4 million books were published in 2022… and that’s before the advent of generative AI models.

For better or worse, generative AI is being widely adopted, and it’s getting progressively better. I have no doubt it will have many benefits for legitimate authors. But at the same time, it’s already being abused by scammers to flood underserved niches with what’s essentially trash content. 

The end result, in all cases, is an exponentially higher number of books in the market. 

Is this doom’s day for publishing? Absolutely not. This trend already existed before — it’s only getting accelerated by AI — and it never made it impossible for authors to find success. On the contrary, the number of authors making over $50,000 a year in KDP royalties (as disclosed by Amazon) has only grown in the past few years.

So what’s going to happen? 

Quality will become the overwhelmingly decisive factor of success.

Think about it this way: the more books available to readers — the more choice — the pickier they are likely to become. 

If the cover doesn’t immediately attract their eye, you can be sure they’ll skip it. 

If the blurb doesn’t immediately hook them, they’ll look for something else.

And if your first chapter doesn’t keep them turning the pages, they won’t bother reading further.

In other words, “okay” books won’t cut it anymore. There are just too many options out there for readers to settle for something they just mildly enjoy.

At the same time, great books — those that readers truly love — will stand out more than ever. It may be harder for readers to find those books in the first place, but once they do, they’re all the more likely to rave about them (this happens all the time on TikTok) and then read everything else by the same author.

So what can you do, practically, to prepare for this future? Invest in your books (don’t skimp on editing, cover design, formatting, etc.), and invest in your craft. Invest in becoming a better writer. A writer who crafts characters that readers care so much about that they can’t put down the book. A writer who imbues their stories with the kind of human emotion that leaves readers craving more. A writer, in short, whose stories will never be able to be replicated by machine learning models.

“Yeah, that all sounds nice and poetic, but how does one actually achieve that?” 

The same way you learn how to master a musical instrument. You learn, and you practice. Over, and over, and over again.

This is why last year, we released our first ever Reedsy Novel Writing course. It is designed to not only teach you the most advanced elements of writing craft, but also get you to write — to practice — every day, and receive regular feedback on your work.

If your New Year’s resolution is to take the next step in your writing career, consider joining one of the next cohorts here.

And in all cases, here’s to your writing and publishing endeavors in 2024! 🥂

Happy writing, 

Ricardo

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