author earnings |

Thanks to a share on Facebook, I’ve discovered Author Earnings, the website of a group of people who are collecting data about book sales.

They have a range of reports that crunch data from authors and publicly available information to compare earnings across different publication methods. If you’re trying to make a decision about how to publish (and where, and in what format), these reports are a must read.

The tenured vs debut author report reveals startling information that most people just entering the market will want to know. Here’s their summary:

Big-5 publishers are massively reliant on their most established authors to the tune of 63% of their e-book revenue.

Roughly 46% of traditional publishing’s fiction dollars are coming from e-books.

Very few authors who debut with major publishers make enough money to earn a living—and modern advances don’t cover the difference.

In absolute numbers, more self-published authors are earning a living wage today than Big-5 authors.

When comparing debut authors who have equal time on the market, the difference between self-published and Big-5 authors is even greater.

And one chart (the report has lots more).