Self-Publishing Alliance of Independent Authors - The Indie Author Income Survey 2023

[LJ Beck]

I'm virtually attending the 2025 SFF Worldcon this week/weekend and just sat in on a panel called "Where’s the Money in Indie Publishing?" Was FAB!

One of the panelists pointed us to a survey The Alliance of Independent Authors (UK) did that shows all kinds of interesting statistics (from 2023). The one I particularly loved to see was the genre breakdown of what's selling. "Romance, fantasy/scifi/speculative, and crime/thriller/detective were by far the most prevalent genres, representing a combined 57% of all respondents." Yay!

Full report attached for all those stats nerds out there.

 

[LJ Beck]

I just found out they support the use of AI in writing. So I have stopped supporting them. The survey is still interesting, but I can't be part of an organisation that thinks AI is helping creativity.

 

[RK Wallis]

I can't be part of an organisation that thinks AI is helping creativity

I hear you there

 

[David Newrick]

One take away from the statistics for me is 61.63% use reader magnets i.e. free book or other incentive and 50.87% use book giveaways. Personally, now that I pay much more attention to these matters and publicity offers, I have been utterly shocked at how Stephen King novels, Lee Child novels and many other famous, long-established serious players offer their books for just £0.99 or $0.99 in the US. It just goes to show what you need to do to survive...

 

[Ronnnie]

Thank you for sharing. It really gives food for thought.