MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Taleist Self-Publishing Survey

kennyc · 06-11-2012, 07:51 AM

Some info here: http://blog.taleist.com/2012/05/24/r...ishing-survey/

but unfortunately they are Selling the results as an ebook at Amazon (clever huh?):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B0085M7KIU

some highlights:

- 10% of self-publishing authors earn 75% of royalties--a statistic that's eerily similar to the income breakout in traditional publishing. (Only about 60% of the more than 1,000 respondents were willing to answer questions about their earnings.)

- Half the authors earned less than $500 in 2011.

- A quarter of books probably won't make back the authors' production expenses.

- Earnings were sharply defined by genre. Romance writers earned 170% more than others, with literary fiction authors earning the least.

- Authors who sought outside help (editing, copy editing, proofreading, cover design) earned more than those who didn't.

- The 29% of respondents who went from a traditional publisher to self-publishing earned twice as much on their own as they did from their publishers.

- The most financially successful self-publishers write more than their peers, and spend less time marketing. In fact, those self-publishers who marketed the most earned the least.

More at a couple of blogs:

http://catherineryanhoward.com/2012/...ishing-survey/

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/...ishing-survey/

(I hope this is not all old news, I learned of it from the SFWA website this morning: http://www.sfwa.org/2012/05/two-surv...ef=as_li_ss_tl )

06-11-2012, 07:51 AM	#1
kennyc The Dank Side of the Moon Posts: 35,872 Karma: 118716293 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Denver, CO Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire	Taleist Self-Publishing Survey Some info here: http://blog.taleist.com/2012/05/24/r...ishing-survey/ but unfortunately they are Selling the results as an ebook at Amazon (clever huh?): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B0085M7KIU some highlights: - 10% of self-publishing authors earn 75% of royalties--a statistic that's eerily similar to the income breakout in traditional publishing. (Only about 60% of the more than 1,000 respondents were willing to answer questions about their earnings.) - Half the authors earned less than $500 in 2011. - A quarter of books probably won't make back the authors' production expenses. - Earnings were sharply defined by genre. Romance writers earned 170% more than others, with literary fiction authors earning the least. - Authors who sought outside help (editing, copy editing, proofreading, cover design) earned more than those who didn't. - The 29% of respondents who went from a traditional publisher to self-publishing earned twice as much on their own as they did from their publishers. - The most financially successful self-publishers write more than their peers, and spend less time marketing. In fact, those self-publishers who marketed the most earned the least. More at a couple of blogs: http://catherineryanhoward.com/2012/...ishing-survey/ http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/...ishing-survey/ (I hope this is not all old news, I learned of it from the SFWA website this morning: http://www.sfwa.org/2012/05/two-surv...ef=as_li_ss_tl ) Last edited by kennyc; 06-11-2012 at 08:01 AM.