The Great Book Shortage

I am not sure how many of you noticed but the availability of print books is going down rapidly in India, US and everywhere else.

No. I am not talking about the demand for print books. The reading habit has significantly increased after the pandemic and the preference for printed books is much more than that of ebooks. This should have been the best time to be an author. Sadly, that is not so.

There is not enough paper to print books to satisfy the demand for them. The Vox has a detailed article, ‘The great book shortage of 2021, explained’, which states

‘The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has been exacerbating existing problems in the global supply chain for nearly two years now. Add to that pressure a global labor shortage, a paper shortage, the consolidation of the American printing industry, and an increased demand for books from bored stay-at-homers across the US, and you’re faced with what Baehr says is a “perfect storm” of factors to create what some observers are calling a book shortage.’

We are in the second half of 2022 and the situation hasn’t improved.

Photo by Moreno Matković on Unsplash

A multitude of factors has led to this situation:

·         An environmental initiative in China has shut down 279 pulp and paper mills and this has nearly doubled the price of wood pulp in a single year.

·         A rush to replace plastic with paper alternatives has spiked the demand for paper.

·         The increase in online shopping has led to an astronomical demand for cardboard boxes and paper factories are shifting their resources to make cardboard rather than paper.

·         The price of ink, resin, etc has also been steadily increasing.

When paper is available in limited quantities, a publisher must make some tough choices. Let us say the publisher has an established bestselling author who has a usual first print run of about 10,000 books. This publisher is now presented with a new promising manuscript by a new and unknown author. The publisher has the resources to print only 5000 books.

·         Would it make sense to print 5000 copies of the established bestselling author’s book or

·         should he print just 4000 of the bestseller’s book and invest 1000 in a new author’s manuscript?

Isn’t it obvious? It’s a business decision. Nothing personal, creative or reflective of the new author’s capabilities.

While some of the big publishing houses have adequate stock to sail by these tough times, the others are struggling. Some of them are shutting down.

What does this mean to you?

·         If your manuscript has been rejected within the last couple of years, stop doubting your writing skills. Reassess. Pay for an expert editor’s opinion. Your manuscript may be a promising one. The rejection might have nothing to do with your creativity, writing skills, the manuscript, genre, etc.

·         Expect lower print runs for your book. ☹

·         The price of your book is going to be much higher than before and that might turn away some readers, especially if you write adult fiction.

·         Most books are not getting reprinted. I had placed an order for a few books on Amazon India during my recent visit. Either the orders got cancelled or the sellers sent me some other books as a replacement. (I returned them promptly and got back a refund. Do they think books are interchangeable?)

·         There are a few situations where there is a sudden demand for a new book and the first print run is exhausted in a few days. It takes a few weeks before the next print run happens and that initial buzz for the book has not been met.

Should I remain a writer? Does it make any sense?

Even if you set aside this recent paper shortage, low print runs, broken supply chains, and other sad challenges of printing a book, it had never made sense to be an author. Still, we did it.

Writing is how I make sense of the world around me. It is how I make sense of myself. I had been writing even before I knew about printing, publishing, paper, and wood pulp. And I know that I will keep writing even if printing and publishing vanish from the face of the earth. I will find some way to share my stories with the world.

I don’t write for money or fame, and you shouldn’t too. You can never make both with writing. I remember reading this somewhere: ‘If money is your goal, there are easier ways to make it than writing books. If fame is your objective, the threshold is never going to be reached.’

Write. Continue writing, if that is what defines you.