Author Earnings, who has a two-fold mission that encompasses supporting authors of every publishing path, has released a new report, this time looking not only at the data so far up to July 2014, but also mapping out the trends that the data can help identify.
The comprehensive and exhaustingly complete report provides graphs on a variety of factors in publishing, all aimed at determining where the sales are taking place, how the bestseller lists are ranking works, discovering how authors have been compensated for their books, and more.
“It’s too early to distinguish between global trends and seasonal trends, but the percentage of ebook dollars going to indie authors has crept up for two straight quarters. There could be movement in the opposite direction as the Holidays approach. While it should be a jolt to see that indies are earning nearly 40% of the ebook dollars going to authors, we are starting to take this reality for granted. That’s real progress. As it has proven to be in other fields of entertainment, the indie movement in literature is not a blip and not a gold rush. It appears to be here to stay.”
The July 14th data showed that Big Five publishers’ titles accounted for only 16% of the books on Amazon’s bestseller list, while indie authors, small to medium presses, and publishers who’d produced only one book accounted for 83% of the bestsellers combined, across various genres of fiction and non-fiction.
In what is an interesting snapshot of the data that should put to rest any nasty rumors that Amazon is trying to ruin the book industry with its traditional publishing imprints, only one percent of the bestsellers were published by Amazon Publishing. This speaks to the company’s commitment to launch books they believe in while not necessarily pandering to the “push what sells” mentality that has plagued the traditional publishing industry.
The remainder of the complete report is available HERE.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.