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The latest Author Earnings report has concluded that “the indie movement in literature is not a blip and not a gold rush”.
The third quarterly report, which pulls data from Amazon.com's category bestseller lists, found that just 16% of titles on the US retailer’s bestseller lists were published by one of the Big Five publishers.
The report also looked at the effect of DRM on sales, concluding that “DRM harms e-book sales at any price points”.
This quarter’s report also looked at genre sales, revealing that self-published authors are “dominating traditionally-published authors” in romance and sci-fi fantasy, but are also taking “significant market share in all genres”.
“The market for literary fiction is anemic for indie authors simply because it is an anemic segment of publishing overall,” it continued.
The report concludes: “It’s too early to distinguish between global trends and seasonal trends, but the percentage of e-book 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 e-book 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.”
Author Earnings was launched by writer Hugh Howey earlier this year with the goal to “gather and share information so that writers can make informed decisions”.