News New report suggests self-published authors earn more – and their incomes are rising substantially

[E G Logan]

A new report from the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) claims authors who self-publish currently earn more than traditionally-published authors. In addition, their incomes are rising, while in the traditional publishing sector they are falling.

The ALLi survey questionnaire went out to the organisation’s members and subscribers, plus “other key self-publishing and author organisations” in February 2023. There were more than 2,000 respondents – 60% in North America, 21% from the UK and 8% respectively for Australia/New Zealand, and for Europe.

Based on those replies, median revenue for independent authors in 2022 was found to be $12,749 (£10,229). This suggests self-published authors’ average incomes are rising, with a 53% increase in 2022 over the previous year, the ALLi said.

In contrast, a report into traditionally-published authors’ earnings commissioned by The Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS), published in December 2022, suggested that median writing earnings for these authors were approximately $8,600 (£7,000). This meant there had been “a sustained fall in professional writers’ real terms income from writing over the past 15 years of around 60%”. This had pushed their median earnings down to minimum wage levels, the ALCS said.

The ALLi has commissioned further research from the UK Copyright & Creative Economy Centre, CREATe – which conducted the ALCS survey. Its brief is to expand analysis of the preliminary ALLi findings, particularly in relation to “key demographic groups and factors that contribute to higher incomes.” A full report from this analysis, including demographic data, is to be published in June 2023.

 

[Jonny]

Interesting information @E G Logan and serious food for thought.

The dream for most is get a trad deal as it’s affirmation that we are “real writers”. Someone else believes in us and will put their money where their mouth is. We have arrived.

But then contrast that with authors like LJ Ross who writes and sells her self published crime thrillers by the shedload. Makes absolute oodles compared to any average mid-lister.

LJ Ross: The self-published crime writer making a killing

She has sold more than seven million copies of her works since swapping financial law for crime writing.

www.bbc.co.uk

Look at this recent story about crime and thriller writer Adrian McKinty. He had an award-winning series of crime thrillers behind him yet was forced to become an Uber driver because of the meagre royalty his books produced annually.

After quitting the business he finally hit the jackpot in the trad arena, but it wasn't through querying. He had made some contacts and one day that ship came in.

From Uber driving to huge book deal: Adrian McKinty's life-changing phone call

Despite awards and acclaim for his crime fiction, the impoverished novelist lost his home and was set to quit – then the phone rang

www.theguardian.com

 

[Hannah F]

Ah, yes. But L.J. Ross had shed-loads of dosh (and a sabatical!) to start her off and now employs assistants. I suspect it's breakouts like L.J. Ross (and Sanderson!!) who skew the stats plus genre trends. Cozy crime and Romance do well wrt self publish sales. Trad published authors who turn to self-publish when they already have a good following will also skew the stats. Most self-published authors won't be earning £12 000+ though they will make more per book that they sell.

For me, I need a trad deal because a) no money b) Scottish Book Trust get children's authors into schools but only trad published ones (yes, that snobbery still remains). I guess it's their way of ensuring some kind of quality filter (another snob-barrier to success).

 

[AgentPete]

I want to move Litopia this year to be completely agnostic in terms of publishing destination.
And pretty good at helping authors decide on, and then execute, either strategy.
Just a few short years ago, the only realistic option for authors was the traditional publishing route, because that’s how you achieved serious physical distribution.
That distribution system is now not entirely broken, but certainly a shadow of its former self. Without that, the compelling reasons to go the trad route are… less compelling.
If we’re falling back on snob appeal… then I really do fear for the industry.

 

[KG Christopher]

I think self publishing has to b 100% immersive...you have to be great at self marketing and you are probably starting out in a team of one....I always assumed that if you landed a good deal or engaged a good agent, then you are getting that extra team effort and belief...

I suppose there is no getting away from the marketing and 'greesing' aspect of publishing....Its all a tournement...many entrants but just a few winners - self published or traditional.

 

[David McGuire]

It's interesting, isn't it? So much of what I want to pursue a trad deal for sounds vain and a bit silly when I say it out loud: bookshops; libraries; school visits; festival slots; legitimacy. To be able to call people I need to talk to for research, and not have them just ignore me. To wonder whether something might one day get optioned. I know it's ridiculous, but I can't tell you how many times I've gone into Waterstones, and walked up to the M shelf of the middle grade bit and gone "Yep... one day... just there..."

But the more time goes on, the more it makes you think. Cos I'm a marketer for my day job. Could I find interesting and unusual ways to promote a kids' book? You betcha. And maybe, eventually, that's just what I do. And if that goes so well I get a platform, then maybe the trad thing can happen later.

 

[Hannah F]

It's not easy, but it's possible to get self-published books into bookshops. I know a couple of authors who have done so. Libraries are actually more difficult according to those same authors.

Festivals: depends on the festival. Maybe not the Edinburgh Book Festival or the Hay festival, but smaller niche festivals might well accept your offer to talk. Last year, I attended a talk at the Cymera fantasy festival (Edinburgh, last June, coming round again this June 2-4th) where one of the speakers was trad published (small press) and the other was self-published. It made for an interesting discussion as to why each chose their path. Both books were available at the festival book shop.

Legitimacy: I know self-published authors who call themselves "[something] Press." That seems to solve the legitimacy problem.

Children's book marketing is changing. Just a few years ago, self-published authors had a really hard time selling (and partly due to the difficulty in getting into schools and libraries). Until #BookTok. Now YA (especially) book sales are on the rise. I don't know stats of self-published vs trad, but a clever #BookTok pitch has as good a chance of selling your book irrespective of the way it's been published. If it's good enough #BookTok reviews by teens will sell to teens.

 

[Brooke]

It's interesting, isn't it? So much of what I want to pursue a trad deal for sounds vain and a bit silly when I say it out loud: bookshops; libraries; school visits; festival slots; legitimacy. To be able to call people I need to talk to for research, and not have them just ignore me. To wonder whether something might one day get optioned. I know it's ridiculous, but I can't tell you how many times I've gone into Waterstones, and walked up to the M shelf of the middle grade bit and gone "Yep... one day... just there..."

But the more time goes on, the more it makes you think. Cos I'm a marketer for my day job. Could I find interesting and unusual ways to promote a kids' book? You betcha. And maybe, eventually, that's just what I do. And if that goes so well I get a platform, then maybe the trad thing can happen later.

relate to this completely! i get to a wonderful part in a book and think, someday someone's gonna be having this same feeling about my book!

self-publishing, i think, depends a lot on who your target audience is and how they consume content. for example, i'd market for a YA audience using social media platforms like tiktok and instagram. if i was trying to market for an older audience, i'd probably go for ads on sites like facebook, or... myspace? not sure, but you get my point.

 

[JohnBertel]

I know self-published authors who call themselves "[something] Press."

If it's just something they CALL they are running a big risk. When you upload your book to amazon there's a field for Publisher, and you can write anything you want. No one is checking that.

But there was a horror story over on kboards about a writer who had entered some generic term followed by 'Publisher' for all her books. After 10 years a company claimed the name and Amazon asked her to remove the publisher's name from her books. That seems fair, but the true horror is that apparently, it is extremely hard to get in contact with sensible people on KDP. So they barred her access to her books ... and then closed her account because she didn't remove the publisher's name! Again, it sounds like something sensible people could fix in a minute, but not so with Amazon, especially if they have already closed your account. As I understand, the writer had a fair income from her books, and that was now blocked for a time, perhaps forever, for having entered something in an 'innocent' field.

So you should probably officially register a company if you want to call yourself a publisher

 

[AgentPete]

I think self publishing has to b 100% immersive...you have to be great at self marketing and you are probably starting out in a team of one....

Certainly true for the pioneers of self-pub, some of whom I interviewed way back when they were starting out, and Litopia was pretty serious about podcasts. (Note to self – some Litopans might like to listen to these early shows, you can do so here). I’ve recently been trying to get in touch with one or two of these pioneers, to see how it’s been going for them… no response as yet, I suspect they may be exhausted!

The answer to this, I firmly believe, is to group together. Particularly if you’re a genre writer, you should be collaborating with other writers in your genre to build a collective audience. We’re not in competition with each other, and we don’t have to invent and support our our individual marketing infrastructures, it doesn’t make sense.

I always assumed that if you landed a good deal or engaged a good agent, then you are getting that extra team effort and belief...

Yup, a very common assumption. Sadly not always – or even usually – borne out by events. Some of the nastiest battles I’ve had with publishers over the years relates to their lack of marketing support, and sometimes lack of basic marketing expertise. Don’t assume that publishers are inevitably better at selling your books than you are.

I suppose there is no getting away from the marketing and 'greesing' aspect of publishing....Its all a tournement...many entrants but just a few winners - self published or traditional.

I’m not quite so deterministic. I think you can expand the market quite a lot if you have something that folk really want to get into, e.g. an awful lot of HPotter (or as the Russians say, Gary Potter) readers weren’t actually “readers” in a marketing sense - they hadn’t read anything significant before Potter came along (and many didn’t after). Rowling didn’t cannibalize the market, she expanded it.

 

[AgentPete]

It's interesting, isn't it? So much of what I want to pursue a trad deal for sounds vain and a bit silly when I say it out loud:

Not vain at all, makes a lot of sense

bookshops;

Far less important than they used to be. Unfortunately. Time was when getting the front table at Walterstones would cost a publisher ten grand but would really boost a title. Can’t do that these days, and a couple of copies on a hard-to-find back shelf aren't worth bothering with.

To be able to call people I need to talk to for research, and not have them just ignore me.

Yeah, but they’ll ignore trad published authors, too It’s all in the Art of the Hustle, maybe a Huddle topic.

To wonder whether something might one day get optioned.

Probably one of the best reasons to get an agent these days. TV/film rights are still muchly traded by agents, self-pubs don’t really get a look-in.

Oddly, I’ve been wondering if Amazon, might not want to get into this… they specialise in disintermediation, and the tv rights biz is ripe for it.

But the more time goes on, the more it makes you think. Cos I'm a marketer for my day job. Could I find interesting and unusual ways to promote a kids' book? You betcha. And maybe, eventually, that's just what I do. And if that goes so well I get a platform, then maybe the trad thing can happen later.

Such interesting times to live in, publishing was in stasis for much of the C20th, now just look at the changes we face almost daily… and opportunities…

 

[AgentPete]

self-publishing, i think, depends a lot on who your target audience is and how they consume content. for example, i'd market for a YA audience using social media platforms like tiktok and instagram. if i was trying to market for an older audience, i'd probably go for ads on sites like facebook, or... myspace? not sure, but you get my point.

As time goes by, I think “the reader” will be less and less bothered, or even aware of, the status of the books they read. Is it trad published or self-pub… will they care? Don’t think so.

With a few impressive exceptions, publishers have never understood the nature or importance of branding. No reader goes into a shop and says, “Hmm, I really feel like a Knopf book today!” Nor do they know the difference, say, between Knopf or Crown (we do in the trade, but it’s the reader’s judgement that counts).

I think that whatever adverse associations may have been re self-pub will soon be gone. Good thing too.

 

[AgentPete]

So you should probably officially register a company if you want to call yourself a publisher

And consider creating a neologism (new word) and getting a trade mark. Not too difficult.

 

[Jonny]

Strikes me that, and as Pete is saying, there are many more avenues to reach an audience these days, and although my own preference is a trad deal all day long, my experience on that side of the coin was that I had to hustle, push and 'market' every bit of promo that went out there.

If I wrote something I thought had real commercial potential and then exhausted all traditional avenues to have it published, I would certainly consider self publishing. Because what's the alternative? Leave it an a drawer to gather dust and never be seen or read by anyone?

Perhaps it would be ready to go as a follow-up when the new WIP gets signed. But what if that were not to hit the target either? Put in the drawer with number one and rely on number three and so on?

I believe the snobby stigma that existed within the industry a few years ago is now fast dissolving. What's more, there are many SP books that have done well or even moderately well then been taken onboard by a trad publisher.

 

[Jake E]

The answer to this, I firmly believe, is to group together. Particularly if you’re a genre writer, you should be collaborating with other writers in your genre to build a collective audience. We’re not in competition with each other, and we don’t have to invent and support our our individual marketing infrastructures, it doesn’t make sense.

I always thought it a missed opportunity when i get to the end of a book I liked not to find a page that simply said:
"If you liked this book, you might want to try..."
And a promo for another author.
There's usually adverts for books by the same author at the back, but never adverts for other authors.

 

[Hannah F]

This is a GREAT discussion!

 

[Hannah F]

I always thought it a missed opportunity when i get to the end of a book I liked not to find a page that simply said:
"If you liked this book, you might want to try..."
And a promo for another author.
There's usually adverts for books by the same author at the back, but never adverts for other authors.

That would definitely be something a collective could do. We could be pioneers of a new trend.

 

[Jake E]

That would definitely be something a collective could do. We could be pioneers of a new trend.

Absolutely.
It wouldn't even be difficult to do.

 

[David McGuire]

i get to a wonderful part in a book and think, someday someone's gonna be having this same feeling about my book!

This! Exactly this! 100%.

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

A new report from the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) claims authors who self-publish currently earn more than traditionally-published authors. In addition, their incomes are rising, while in the traditional publishing sector they are falling.

The ALLi survey questionnaire went out to the organisation’s members and subscribers, plus “other key self-publishing and author organisations” in February 2023. There were more than 2,000 respondents – 60% in North America, 21% from the UK and 8% respectively for Australia/New Zealand, and for Europe.

Based on those replies, median revenue for independent authors in 2022 was found to be $12,749 (£10,229). This suggests self-published authors’ average incomes are rising, with a 53% increase in 2022 over the previous year, the ALLi said.

In contrast, a report into traditionally-published authors’ earnings commissioned by The Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS), published in December 2022, suggested that median writing earnings for these authors were approximately $8,600 (£7,000). This meant there had been “a sustained fall in professional writers’ real terms income from writing over the past 15 years of around 60%”. This had pushed their median earnings down to minimum wage levels, the ALCS said.

The ALLi has commissioned further research from the UK Copyright & Creative Economy Centre, CREATe – which conducted the ALCS survey. Its brief is to expand analysis of the preliminary ALLi findings, particularly in relation to “key demographic groups and factors that contribute to higher incomes.” A full report from this analysis, including demographic data, is to be published in June 2023.

I'm clearly doing something wrong then. But then, I don't do much marketing and absolutely zero advertising. I've earned from Amazon just over £700 since I started Nov 2019, and about the same from selling directly to the public, Smashwords is barely worth mentioning. But my novel, The Panopticon Experiment, never really took off. (Sorry if I've already bored you with this sorry tale). For those of you who haven't heard this before, I published ThePE at the end of November 2019, and by the end of December, Amazon had removed it from sale without telling me. I just assumed it wasn't selling. It turned out, I discovered 18 months later, that there had been a problem with the bar code (which they had originally approved). So that pretty much killed it. But I got some good reviews (even a new 5* one yesterday), but I don't think the figures will improve until I have a much larger body of work. At the moment, I've got the aforementioned PE, and my memoirs, Blown Out of Proportion (which sells slowly but steadily). My problem is that I like writing different things. I don't only want to write memoirs, although I'm told that a series usually sells well, and I don't always want to stick to one genre of fiction. I write because I can't help myself, love trying out new ideas, and learning the craft (I started late), not to make money. Having said that, by looking at the bank balance, I should probably change my motivation and pay more attention to the money side.
Being a publishing snob at heart, I will try to get my new time-slip novel traditionally published. But my track record in finding an agent/publisher has been terrible. So we'll see.
I would like to point out that since joining Litopia, my overall writing skills have improved considerably, as has my ability to compose query letters and synopses So, a big thank you to @AgentPete and my fellow Litopians!

 

[Bloo]

And consider creating a neologism (new word) and getting a trade mark. Not too difficult.

I can't help but wonder if you included the meaning for my benefit

And although the context is different, neologism was indeed a new word to me.

 

[E G Logan]

If it's good enough #BookTok reviews by teens will sell to teens.

How do you grab your teen reviewer? If you don't have an obliging and reasonably talented family member, or next door neighbour...

 

[E G Logan]

There's usually adverts for books by the same author at the back, but never adverts for other authors.

There are on Kindle (Amazon), right at the very back.

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

How do you grab your teen reviewer? If you don't have an obliging and reasonably talented family member, or next door neighbour...

My children constantly tell me my first efforts on TikTok were terrible and have banned me from doing any more. They are both extremely photogenic and tech-savvy, and have promised to help me create some content. I'll believe it when I see it. First, they have to hand in all their final work for Uni (both graduating this summer) and then get over to France. The only other problem, of course, is that neither of them has bothered to read The Panopticon Experiment which I wrote with them in mind (the miserable ingrates!)

 

[Mel L]

I'm clearly doing something wrong then. But then, I don't do much marketing and absolutely zero advertising.

You've probably hit the nail on the head, Rachel. Everything I understand about self-publishing is that your own marketing and promotion are the keys to success, above and beyond any inherent value in your books. Which is what really turns me OFF self-publishing.

I want to write, not market myself. Yet it seems that self-promotion is now part of the process even for those who trad publish; As writers today we cannot get away from having to build the platform, bang the drum, flog the books. As hard as writing is, that makes it so-o-o-o much harder.

 

[E G Logan]

have banned me from doing any more.

I suspect mine would ban me, too. And they'd be right.

I was once despatched on a public speaking course when management decided my total refusal to do conferences, webcasts, podcasts – anything public – was unacceptable. I still have the disc that resulted. I take it out every now and then and laugh till I hurt.

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

I suspect mine would ban me, too. And they'd be right.

I was once despatched on a public speaking course when management decided my total refusal to do conferences, webcasts, podcasts – anything public – was unacceptable. I still have the disc that resulted. I take it out every now and then and laugh till I hurt.

My mum was trad published, and her publishers would regularly send her off to be interviewed on the radio shows. After the first couple of times, my dad suggested she had a swig of brandy before each interview. Things went much better after that

 

[Hannah F]

How do you grab your teen reviewer? If you don't have an obliging and reasonably talented family member, or next door neighbour...

I don't know. If you can't get into schools, maybe youth clubs? Theatre clubs? And hope a teen loves your book so much they review it off their own bat.

 

[Brooke]

How do you grab your teen reviewer? If you don't have an obliging and reasonably talented family member, or next door neighbour...

i mean... i'm right here lol
if you really want to get teens to respond to your book, the only advice i have is to get a teen "representative" to talk to teens for you.
teenagers are extremely self-righteous; they think little kids are immature and they think adults are ancient, so they'll only listen to their own age group. get your kids to talk about your book to classmates and peers, or to advertise it on social media.
as a teenager, i can confidently say that no advertisement made for teens by anyone over the age of 23 is good enough to actually draw in teens. they can tell who's making the content they consume, and they have some sort of stigma against anyone who isn't aged 14-19. as dumb as it is, you'll want a real teenager to get you real teenager readership.

p.s.: ask me to and i'll talk about your book to everyone i know for freeee (partly because i just want to help people lol)

 

[AgentPete]

I want to write, not market myself. Yet it seems that self-promotion is now part of the process even for those who trad publish; As writers today we cannot get away from having to build the platform, bang the drum, flog the books. As hard as writing is, that makes it so-o-o-o much harder.

Yes.

All the more reason for authors to band together, collective-wise.