In a just released report from Digital Book World and Writer’s Digest; “nearly 80% of self-published authors and more than half of traditionally published authors earn less than $1,000 a year.”
The report was based on a survey of 10,000 authors in various stages of their writing career from unpublished to multi-published. With the explosion of self-publishing, many authors who remained in an agent or publishing house slush pile are now being published but are finding very limited success. The survey also showed however, that even authors who are published by a traditional house are not earning much of an income.
Dana Beth Weinberg, Ph. D., Professor of Sociology and Director of the MA in Data Analytics & Applied Social Research Queens College, CUNY, and Jeremy Greenfield (Editorial Director, Digital Book World), authored the survey and also noted that; “Authors held favorable views of traditional publishing and expected that traditional publishing would offer several advantages over self-publishing, and most of the authors wanted to publish their next book with a traditional publisher.”
