Self-publishing surging to 31% of ebook market, claims report

Hugh Howey says his study, based on calculation of Amazon sales, shows 'real progress' for authors who have chosen to go it alone
Hugh Howey
'The indie movement is not a blip' … Hugh Howey speaking at Taipei International Book Exhibition in February 2014. Photograph: Mandy Cheng/AFP/Getty Images

A new report claims that self-published authors have surged to 31% of ebook sales on Amazon.com, and are now earning more ebook royalties than writers published by the "Big five" traditional publishers. Despite research published earlier this month finding professional UK authors' incomes plunging below minimum standards, self-publishing champion Hugh Howey says the new results, in his third Author Earnings report, prove DIY authors are "here to stay".

"While it should be a jolt to see that indies are earning nearly 40% of the ebook dollars going to authors," the report concluded, "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."

Assembled by Howey with the help of an unnamed "Data Guy" from publicly-available positions of 120,000 titles on Amazon bestseller lists correlated with estimates of sales rates, the report suggests that self-published authors represent a quarter of the titles published electronically, earning 39% of ebook revenues on the Kindle store, or "more … than Big five authors, combined".

"Self-published authors are now earning nearly 40% of all ebook royalties on the Kindle store," the report continues. "The days of looking at self-publishing as a last option are long gone."

The report also tackles the spread of sales over genre, arguing that self-publishing is taking a significant market share across the board. With literary fiction representing just 2% of Amazon ebook sales, according to the report, "the market for literary fiction is anemic for indie authors simply because it is an anemic segment of publishing overall."

According to the Bookseller editor Philip Jones there are "large question marks" about Howey's data.

"This is a very narrow selection of a particular type of market at a particular time," he said. "Most people who've looked at this in any depth say you can't extrapolate from bestseller rankings on the Kindle store to a picture of the wider market. Howey sees an ice-cube, and shrieks 'iceberg'."

While Howey has sparked an important conversation about author earnings, Jones continued, the report's positioning and aggressive rhetoric obscures much of its value.

"The fact that we don't know who this 'Data Guy' is or where he's come from suggest that we should take the Author Earnings report with a large pinch of salt," Jones said. "I think of it more as part of Amazon's PR effort, rather than an objective overview of the digital marketplace."

The report's treatment of literary fiction is a case in point, he added. "In the real world, literary fiction is a vibrant market, albeit smaller in sales than commercial fiction, and so far not an attractive purchase for your average Kindle user. I see this as less a problem with the canon, and more an issue for the platform. But I've yet to see Howey look at a piece of data, and not seek to pass it off as a problem big publishers have caused."

According to Jones, authors and publishers would welcome an "adult debate" about ebook sales and author earnings, but in the absence of sales figures from Amazon that's just not possible.

"Nobody has a good view of this market, because Amazon holds all the data and doesn't share it," he said. "Anyone who claims otherwise is just making it up."

The general secretary of the Society of Authors, Nicola Solomon, welcomed Howey's attempt to shed light on a rapidly changing market, though suggested his conclusions should be treated with caution.

"First, these figures don't look at sales of print books, which will still be a major part of the earnings from a Big five publisher. Even if you look at ebooks only, these figures don't take into account the risk and up-front costs which self-published authors take on themselves," she said, "Nor the impact of advances received by a traditionally-published author."

The report offers a snapshot of sales at only one retailer, she continued. "Do these figures really mean you should self-publish and ignore a traditional publishing deal? Well, no, not necessarily." But with self-publishing becoming increasingly attractive for many authors, traditional publishers need to offer more, she continued. "They should be offering better rates – 25% of net receipts is simply not fair – and they should be offering shorter timeframes on contracts before rights should either revert to the author or be up for renegotiation."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/18/report-self-publishing-surging-ebook-market-amazon
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