Words > Numbers

Perhaps seeking to optimize global writing ecosystem wealth size and revolutionize global writing ecosystem wealth distribution could make a most fitting mission conclusion considering demand for writing has steadily shrunk in size ever since pop culture deemed radio, television, and computers “cooler” than books, words, and ideas and run-on sentences and subtle, cerebral wit.

Now the year is evidently two-thousand fifteen, and people spend more money on fast food than on great reads.

The money people do spend on writing is maniacally hoarded by a tiny aristocratic elite of writers, publishers, agents, and booksellers. Prose is evidently determined to flip this system upside-down, inspire the people to value writing again like the year is thirty-two hundred BC or fifteen-fifteen AD, and ensure the ecosystem’s circulation of wealth flows through the hands of many deserving authors, representatives, and distributors, not just mostly through the hands of a questionably deserving one percent. In short, Prose is evidently dedicated to serving the global writing ecosystem and all its many talented, beautiful members. But consider the problems from which most of these members, players, or participants presently suffer. Consider the U.S. writing ecosystem for example. This ecosystem generates thirty billion USD per year. The entire U.S. market generates eighteen trillion USD per year. The U.S. writing ecosystem has zero point zero, zero two percent share in the entire U.S. market, or one of two-thousand. The writing ecosystem is made of three primary subindustries: authors, representatives (publishers and agents), and distributors (print and e-book sellers). Authors have five percent U.S. writing ecosystem share. Representatives and distributors have sixty-five percent and thirty percent share, respectively. The U.S. writing ecosystem author subindustry consists of two primary types of player: bestsellers and everyone else. five-thousand bestsellers, together, have ninety-seven percent subindustry market share, which is worth one-billion hour-hundred eighty-five million USD per year. Everyone else consists of one-hundred fifty thousand competing authors who, together, have three percent market share, or forty-five million per year. The U.S. writing ecosystem representative subindustry consists of two primary types of player: the Big Five and everyone else. Five companies, together, have seventy-five percent subindustry market share, which is worth thirteen-billion five-hundred million USD per year. Everyone else consists of three-thousand competing publishers and agencies that, together, have twenty-five percent market share, or four-billion five-hundred million USD per year. The U.S. writing ecosystem distributor subindustry consists of two primary types of player: Amazon + Barnes & Noble and everyone else. Two companies, together, have ninety percent subindustry market share, which is worth eight-billion one-hundred million USD per year. Everyone else consists of twenty-five thousand competing bookstores and resellers that, together, have ten percent market share, or nine-hundred million USD per year.

Now consider some big-picture facts.

The U.S. writing ecosystem, worth thirty billion USD per year, consists of roughly one-hundred eighty-three thousand seven players – one-hundred fifty-five thousand writers, twenty-eight thousand seven businesses. The writers share one-billion five-hundred million USD per year while the businesses share twenty-eight billion five-hundred million USD per year. Discern between two primary player types: dominant and disadvantaged. The average dominant U.S. writer makes two-hundred ninety-seven thousand USD per year while the average disadvantaged U.S. writer makes three-hundred USD per year. The average dominant U.S. business makes nine-hundred sixty-four million two-hundred eighty-five thousand seven-hundred ten USD per year while the average disadvantaged U.S. business makes one-hundred ninety-two thousand eight-hundred fifty-seven USD per year.

This market is perverted and backwards.

The writers should have more share than the businesses. Furthermore, there should be no discrepancy between dominant versus disadvantaged U.S. writing ecosystem writers and businesses in any case. Distribution needs greater balance. Conclusively, the U.S. writing ecosystem deserves greater U.S. market share than zero point zero, zero two percent and the global writing ecosystem deserves greater global market share than zero point zero, zero one percent. Furthermore, the U.S. and global writing ecosystems within themselves deserve better distribution between the wealth they produce and the players contributing to its production. One percent should not hoard and trap ninety-nine percent.

Enough.