Plenty of guff gets written about ebooks versus “real” books, and self-published books versus those produced by Penguin, Hachette, etc. For a huge industry, the publishing world has crap data, but over the past few years, a mysteriously named Data Guy, on a website called Author Earnings, has been gathering fresh data, especially from Amazon, and he has just published a landmark report that reinforces my plans. I can’t say I fully understand Data Guy’s analysis versus that from the older data providers, but other more experienced observers trust his work and consider it to illuminate.
Take a look. Browse Data Guy’s findings. More than half the books sold recently are ebooks, and the share of market held by traditional publishers is steadily declining. Once upon a time, if you self-published, you ended up with a vanity project and a garage full of mouldering books. Now, self-publishing holds its head high.