According to this report, self-published authors now command more daily income from digital royalties than all Big 5 published authors, combined. Visit authorearnings.com/report/may-2015-author-earnings-report to learn more.
If you’re a fan of data, especially data on indie book sales, you’ll love wading through the sea of it at authorearnings.com. The site, “by authors, for authors” (spearheaded by best-selling indie author Hugh Howey) touts as its purpose, “to gather and share information so that writers can make informed decisions. Our secondary mission is to call for change within the publishing community for better pay and fairer terms in all contracts.”
Their May 2015 Author Earnings Report (click the title to get reading) is the sixth quarterly look at Amazon’s ebook sales, with data taken on over 200,000 bestselling ebooks. Because of major publishers controlling ebook pricing of many of their titles (to protect retailers’ print book sales, presumably), indie authors seem to be gaining market share.
Take the time to read this report and weigh in with your own conclusions. And, if you’re really, really into data, the site provides a download to the Excel file that includes all the raw data used for the report.
Conclusion: It’s fascinating info, and full of trends every author should be monitoring. But author beware – there’s still an enormous challenge for debut authors, especially in the fiction category, to get noticed among the millions of titles fighting for attention.
We’re interested to hear what you glean from the report, and whether it changes your mind about your preferred method of publishing…
Great info. Thanks, Shari!
Gives me a headache, reading all of it – but it’s sure useful knowledge for authors!!!
Since the methodology used in compiling the AE reports is extremely flawed, no one should take them seriously. Using Amazon as the bellweather of the industry is like using a thousand-pound gorilla to test children’s toys. Amazon manipulates and controls so much about the sales of books that it provides no clear picture of the actual marketplace. The Amazon system skews heavily toward promoting its own imprints plus its KDP and KU books, so it’s no surprise that a snapshot of the Zon’s competition fits the AE hypotheses so neatly.
Good points all, but when it comes to e-books, pretty tough not to use Amazon – they, for better or worse, do represent the bulk of e-book sales – If an author wants to play in the e-book sandbox, they’re going to have to play in this one (and avoid a few buried cat “presents” here and there…)