Self-Publishing by the Numbers

Here at Storytelling Rules, some of us are going back to school to earn MFA's (very cool, Eileen!) and others are trying to get skooled in self-publishing.

In a moment (day? week? month?) of recent depression, I commented to Molly and Sinead that I felt like everything I'd spent the last 10 years learning about publishing had become obsolete. And while I didn't really mean it, not literally, it has felt that way at times. And there's certainly a whole new area of publishing to learn about.

Over the past year or two, self-published authors who've had success have been bragging sharing their enthusiasm for self-publishing with the rest of us, and while it's been difficult to know what to believe at times, certainly it's been hard impossible to ignore some of the huge successes that have hit the news, or the authors who've sold enough to hit the conventional bestseller lists. 

But I also had the feeling that some of the bragging claims were exaggerated. Not everyone could be doing that well, and some of the successes being reported didn't sync up with objective and public data like Amazon rankings, and bestseller lists, etc. 

Yes, some self-pubbed authors have been upfront about their disappointing numbers, but for the most part, the author community has heard most from the people who've been doing really well. And that makes sense, whether it's human nature or careful protection of a public image or whatever. Definitely makes sense that we've heard more from the people doing the best.

Then, last week, author Marie Force posted the results of an informal survey she's done, where authors reported their actual numbers, and most of them also disclosed their names along with their numbers, making it easy to check the facts against titles out there, etc. Thank you to all who participated. It's so much easier to learn and make decisions with some actual information. Bravo to all. 

My preliminary conclusions/observations after scanning the numbers:

1) It's time to start taking this publishing option seriously. (Okay, a year ago was probably the time, but since I don't have a time machine, now is the best I can do...)

2) Some of the authors are doing extremely well. Especially in romance.

3) People who were traditionally published first, seem to be doing better. But they aren't the only ones doing well.

4) Many are earning a lot more as self-published authors than they ever did as traditionally pubbed authors.

5) That said, even with the people doing very well, it's not quite as spectacular as I feel I'd been lead to believe on some loops where there was the impression that everyone was making 7 figures a year. (Don't get me wrong. Many authors numbers are super-impressive. It's just that with some of the talk, I thought some numbers would be even higher.)

6) The people who aren't doing that well, yet, really aren't doing very well. It almost seems to be hot or cold. Either people are earning a lot, or peanuts much less.

7) Related to #5, everyone's definition of success is different. Some people selling fewer books seem to be very pleased with how they're doing. And that's awesome. (What it's all about.)

8) There are no straightforward answers as to what works and what doesn't and who will do well and who won't.

9) Perception is important... and some of the people who tout their success, yet aren't that successful, might be smart like foxes... Sometimes the appearance of success builds success... 

10) Suddenly everything is both terrifying and exciting. And I guess that's a good thing.

If you're a writer, are you thinking about self-pubbing? Why or why not?

If you're a reader, do you buy self-pubbed books? Do you even pay attention to who the publisher is?