I read a statistic that estimates there were four million new books published in 2022 (sourced from https://www.zippia.com/advice/us-book-industry-statistics/). This includes all self-published books (at least 50%) and traditionally published textbooks and books for the trade.

This means there is a new book published every eight seconds or nearly 11,000 per day, every day of the year.

With our economics driven by “attention merchants,” we are flooded with efforts to attract our eyes and help us reach into our wallets. Is it any wonder publishers are looking for that extra edge from their authors to help garner that attention via the author’s platform?

A great book can still achieve a lot of attention via word-of-mouth, which gives us all hope.

Next time you click on a book listing or pluck a book off the store shelf, ask yourself why did you do that. What was it that made you click or pick? Now, ask what will create the same action for your book.