Dramatic changes in the publishing industry are still coming. Traditional publishers are under a lot of pressure from eBook sellers and sooner rather than later we should expect this pressure to change the way they do business. The following are some of the things we should expect.

Traditional publishers will lower prices: Way back in 2009, there were calls for publishers to start selling digital copies of books for $4. However, the call was heeded by authors from unexpected quarters. Traditional publishers failed to heed the call but indie authors did. It is still rare to find traditionally published eBooks for less than 4 dollars and publishers have been fighting hard to keep the prices of eBooks high to avoid cannibalizing their print books. Traditional publishers started mounting a spirited pricing war with indie authors during late 2013 to regain the sub-$4 eBook market which they had surrendered. Discounting eBooks by traditional publishers is a slippery slope but it seems that they will inevitably be forced down that path sooner rather than later.

Effectiveness of price promotions will decrease: The main advantage that indie authors have retained over traditional publishers in the eBook world is price. However, we are more likely to see traditional publishers price their books at $4 or lower. This will diminish the price advantage that indie authors have in the eBook market. In 2012, authors who sold their books for $2.99-$3.99 sold 6 times more books than those who had priced their books at $7.99 or higher. However, in 2013 they were selling only 4 times more and this figure should be expected to decrease further as traditional publishers lower prices.

Growth of eBooks will slow down: The sale of eBooks has been on high gear since 2009 but the market is coming close to its saturation point. People are also starting to overlook the price advantage of buying cheap eBooks in favor of better quality books. The flaws in a business model were masked by a quickly growing industry. However, since the eBook industry’s growth is starting to slow down, the business models of players are beginning to get tested. Now is the time when people will learn if they made the wrong correlations between success and the efforts they were making. People who founded their business models on half-baked theories will struggle to keep their businesses profitable.

Dramatic increase in competition: Every year authors publish hundreds of thousands of books. The catalogues of retailers have grown tremendously over the past few years especially in the eBook industry. Sellers of eBooks should brace for tough times ahead as competition increases dramatically because there are now too many books competing for the attention of few readers.

Total eBook sales in dollars will decrease: This industry that has been on triple digit growth curves for years is expected to experience the first sales reduction in dollar volume. The volume of books sold might go up but the reducing prices of books will shrink the income that authors are making.