What the Data Tells Us

In 2023, the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) commissioned the first-ever global income survey of indie authors, which discovered that self-published writers earned more than those who were traditionally published. Following on from that, they investigated further and produced ‘The Big Indie Author Data Drop 2025’.

Its findings are enlightening and encouraging for self-published authors. If you would like to read the report in full, click on the image.

Some of the major findings are:

Average self-published author income worked out at around $13,500 per year, up by about 6% from the year before.

Traditionally published authors, in contrast, recorded an annual income between $6000 and $8000.

In 2023, Amazon published 91% of self-published books, but in 2025, that share fell to 83%. That means more sales came from either using other platforms, or directly from writers’ websites.

If you have not used anyone other than Amazon yourself, it could be worth your while to investigate other options. Good places to start are: Ingram Spark, Draft2Digital, BookVault, Books.by, and Lulu.

You could also look at selling directly from your website (if you have one) with tools provided by Stripe, Shopify, Wix, or WooCommerce.

On a cautionary note, it is probably best not to make too many changes at the start, as it takes time to become proficient with a new platform and picking too many in one go can be conflicting. Do your research and pick the one that feels right for you.

Another big factor identified in the ALLi survey showed that authors can be more successful if they have more than one book in their backlist. Sales from new releases are directly linked to a rise in sales of older books by the same author, especially when they are part of a series.

Publishing in different formats is also effective. Audiobooks are taking off rapidly, and virtual voice is growing in popularity. Hardback editions are selling well, too, proving that diversification is effective. To be noticed in today’s marketplace, you need to be offering a lot more than a single e-book.

The key takeaways to the ALLi report are shown below.

On a similar theme, The Write Light Group (www.writelightgroup.com) have an excellent blog post on their website entitled: ‘Self-Publishing Trends in 2026: What Every Indie Author Needs To Know.’ Read it here: