IPG releases report into UK indie publishing sector

In the UK, the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG) has found more than half of the surveyed companies believe their business is growing, reports the Bookseller. The finding was in its inaugural Independent Publishing Report on the health of the independent publishing sector, which was undertaken by Nielsen Book and compiled survey responses from 157 IPG publisher members. The report shows that 51% of respondents said their company was growing, 31% said it was stable and 15% said it was contracting. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said they intended to increase their print output and 30% said they would increase their number of ebooks.  When asked which forces have had a positive impact on the business, 48% of respondents cited new marketing channels, with two-thirds of publishers reporting increased sales through online retailers in the past two years, while 35% reported a sales reduction to library suppliers. Other factors listed as having a positive influence on growth were an improving economy and stabilisation in the digital market. More than half of the surveyed publishers (59%) said ebooks comprise up to 20% of their sales, though 24% of respondents did not see any sales from ebooks, and only 2% said ebooks make up 81%-100% of their overall sales. The main negative impact was price erosion, cited by 41% of the publishers, followed by gaps in knowledge (32%), staffing gaps (24%) and late or unpaid invoices (20%). IPG chair Oliver Gadsby said in a statement that there is a ‘strong belief’ among IPG members in ‘the quality of their publishing and of their staff, and I think this bodes very well for the strength of the sector.’ ‘IPG members have been smart adopters of new technologies, and ebooks and print-on-demand technologies form a core part of the offering of many members’, said Gadsby.