Small Presses
Small presses typically use QuickBooks. They may also use publishing specific software such as AnyBook, Publishers Assistant, Dashbook or Easy Royalties.
AnyBook and Publishers Assistant offer order processing functionality, publishing specific sales reports and royalty processing for publishers that distribute phyisical products. Each of the these solutions is used by over 150 publishers.
DashBook and Easy Royalties are two royalty processing solutions used by small publishers.
Medium Publishers ($1M to $10M USD)
The market for publishers with revenue of $1M to $10M USD is dominated by Cyberwolf’s Acumen product. Acumen has more clients than any competive publishing specific ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning Solution) in this market segment and continues to sign up more clients each year than its competitors. Cats Pajamas, a competitor to Acumen with 150+ clients has ceased most software development and is now being marketed to publishers with sales of $1M to $5M, with the hosted .NET Elan Bookworks software being offers to publishers with sales of $3M+.
ERP Software
In 2011 expect that Acumen’s dominance in this market space will grow with the release of their new SQL version and the growth of their Adobe Content Server service that allow small publishers to sell DRM protected eBooks directly to their customers. Cat’s Pajamas client base will continue to shrink as their customer base switches to other solutions or upgrades to modern Media Services Group’s Elan Bookworks product.
Royalty Software
With the growth in digital sales has spurred many publishers to upgrade their royalty software. We expect that royalty software solutions; Easy Royalties, Elan, Klopotek, Royalty Tracker from Metacomet and Publishing Technology’s Advance will see substantial sales growth in this segment as publishers upgrade their systems.
In 2010 we saw about 18 North American publishers; with 200 to 1500 titles, purchase Easy Royalties product to manage their royalty obligations. In 2011 we expect Easy Royalties to double its in this market segment.
The high end of the market; publishers with sales of $10+, will be dominated by product sales from Media Services Elan, Klopotek, Metacomet, and Publishing Technology. Why? These solutions are highly scalable and expandable royalty software solutions that can process royalties for tens of thousands of products. These solutions also offer Sarbanes Oxley compliant internal controls. Each of these solutions is offered in standalone and hosted software configurations.
Medium Publishers ($10M to $50M USD)
The market for publishers with revenue of $10M to $50M is highly competitive. No one publishing software solution dominates this market.
We estimate that 80% of book publishers in this market use non-publishing specific software including custom designed applications and off the shelf ERP solutions.
The leading competitors in this market space are:
- Acumen - Affordable ERP solution for book publishers with sales under $20M.
- Elan Bookworks – Powerful hosted publishing specific solutions that are easy to use
- IBS Bookmaster – ERP solution with powerful distribution management functionality
- Klopotek – Powerful ERP solution that excels in rights, royalties,editorial and production management
- KnkPublishing – An integrated software solution for publishers using Microsoft Dynamics NAV
- Publishing Technology – Powerful ERP solution that is highly user customizable
- Trilogy Publishing – .NET ERP solution for publishers and distributors
- Virtusales – Hosted solutions for publishers
Large Presses ($50M to 1B+)
Publishers with revenue $50M to $1B+ tend to use publishing specific solutions from IBS Bookmaster, Klopotek, Publishing Technology or Virtusales. Each of these solutions is highly scalable and offer internal controls that are SOX compliant.
- IBS Bookmaster is stronger in distribution and warehouse management,
- Publishing Technology is the most user customizable
- Klopotek is strongest in editorial and production management
- Virtusales offers an easy to use hosted product