Though many reports show a decline in eBook sales over the past two years, self-publishing doesn’t seem to have met the same fate. “Successful self-published authors aren’t rare at all”, says Mark Dawson. That said, with only a 2% market share in print, self-publishing is almost wholly dependent on digital sales, which are in an apparent decline. The Publishers Association (PA) reported that between 2014 and 2015 there was a 2% decline in digital sales. So how is self-publishing faring today?
The first thing to bear in mind while looking at the data is that the PA’s numbers do not take into account Amazon imprints or self-published sales. Their market share has actually continued to grow even with the decline in digital sales, so the overall figures are misleading. Early figures from 2016 show that the growth of self-and amazon-published sales might be in proportion to the market’s overall shrinkage.
The self-publishing sector also has access to a diverse selection of routes to readers. Mark Dawson, an expert online marketer, uses multiple sales platforms: Amazon makes 60% of his sales, Apple 20%, and 10% is via other outlets. “I’m agnostic on how books are delivered”, he says.
Source: “Self-publishing in digital still on the rise”, Mark Dawson, London Show Daily, P.30
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