We hardly talk about self-publishing anymore. This mode of independent publication has entered the editorial landscape and is no longer considered a phenomenon, and yet…
We have few figures on this segment of publishing, but this report published a few days ago sheds some light on it. Self-publishing is not dead, far from it!
Growth of self-publishing
According to the latest Bowker report (USA), the number of self-published books is growing. The company which issues, among other things, ISBN numbers estimates that the number of self-published titles with ISBN increased by 7.2% in 2023 compared to 2022, exceeding 2.6 million.
In comparison, the number of traditionally published titles falls 3.6%, to 563,019. Staying in the numbers, according to the company, in 2022 and 2023, self-published titles have surpassed traditionally published books by more than two million titles.
What are the growth factors?
According to Andy Kovacs, Bowker's chief marketing officer, this continued growth is partly linked to the emergence of a growing number of increasingly efficient and user-friendly services, such as Draft2Digital, IngramSpark and Amazon's leading Kindle Direct Publishing. the market.
In addition, the presence of authors on networks and at trade fairs also helps to give visibility to independent authors.
How profitable is self-publishing?
Does self-publishing make money for independent authors? Obviously, it is difficult to determine the extent to which growth in self-publishing output translates into sales.
But according to PW, industry observers estimate that annual sales of self-published books are in the billions of dollars.
Amazon, for example, claims that over the 10 years Kindle Unlimited has been in business, KDP authors have earned more than $3.5 billion in royalties, including more than $650 million in the last 12 months. only.
If we further project the data, these same experts estimate that if we add to this the à la carte sales of printed books and digital books self-published by other players in the self-publishing sector, the total sales could easily exceed 3 billion dollars per year. Self-publishing has been a topic on IDBOOX for 14 years see our section here
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