Business Week Reports Nonmainstream presses generated $14 billion in 2005 — more than half of all book sales — by targeting niche readers. At a time when the book world continues to struggle, focusing mainly on bestsellers to remain profitable, Archipelago is one of a growing number of small publishers who are upending the industry stasis and redefining the business of publishing on their own terms.
Eschewing the large press penchant for concentrating on the hits with huge print runs like The Da Vinci Code (40 million copies sold to date) or the latest James Patterson novel (The Fifth Horseman was No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list for four weeks before dropping to No. 3), small presses are championing new voices, focusing on niche markets or subjects and genres that have either been ignored by the big houses or simply deemed unprofitable — such as poetry and foreign authors. They are creating whole businesses by reissuing out-of-print classics and maintaining the tradition of printing literary fiction.
Recent Comments