We believe the facts speak for themselves. Book publishing is booming while authors are going broke. But let me give you the facts first and then we can discuss them.

Industry data shows people are actively purchasing books, which is positive for authors.It’s also true that advances in technology now make it easier than ever for authors to self-publish. You would think that is good news.

However, 90% of self-published books sell less than 100 copies and most will sell less than 250 ever. That’s not good news for authors. I will discuss that in more detail below and in another article.

There are several reasons why the current publishing models do not work for authors.

The first reason is because the publishing industry has operated in much the same way for the last 500 years. There is a school of thought that proposes nothing should ever happen for the first time, and unfortunately, many of its proponents are senior executives in the publishing business. 

The publishing industry rarely implements new initiatives that could increase an author’s income, increase the shelf life of their books, or improve the public’s awareness of their works.

It seems astonishing and incongruent to me that the publishing industry, which would not exist if authors didn’t write books, puts maximising profit for printers and publishers and, to some extent, agents ahead of the author’s needs, such as, their need to earn an income or gain increased awareness of their skill and ability.

But there is another specific reason the current publishing models are not working for their authors. The reason is the same for both models, but the cause is different. Let’s look at each model and you will understand why they fail and why the cause of that failure is slightly different.

First, we assume we are talking about books that are well written, have a good plot or subject if they are non-fiction and a there is a market that likes to read that genre. In effect, there are other books that are selling well in that niche.

Publishing the book is just the starting point.

If you think that publishing the book marks the end of your work, I have some unfortunate news for you.

If you want to attract more readers with pre-launch promotions, get more reviews and make more sales over a longer period, you need to build a following and develop a relationship with your readers.

That is a PR and marketing exercise which requires a range of skills, especially writing or creating good social media and blog content that keeps readers coming back for more.

Developing and maintaining a mailing list to contact and update fans and to promote future books and other products is another crucial element successful authors need.

The number one and most important platform for any author is their website. We cover this in more detail in another article. That requires web development skills to create and then the author needs to update the website with regular posts that need to be researched, planned, and written.

As mentioned above, authors need to have a social media strategy, create their social media accounts and learn to use each platform in the most appropriate way for that platform. That will often involve creating images, memes, and videos in various formats and interactive content, such as quizzes.

Creating interesting, relevant and timely content is crucial and needs to be posted regularly, preferably daily, to build a solid fan base.

Every platform has its own eccentricities which you need to understand so you can use its features to your best advantage. For example, marketing on Facebook differs totally from marketing on “X” (formally Twitter) or Pinterest, Instagram or TikTok. We cover this in more detail in other articles.

There are many other aspects to creating a successful marketing campaign, such as offline marketing, PR, Competitions and creating derivative products, to mention a few. These all require unique skills and most of all, time and sometimes money.

I’m sure you can see the problem. First, it is rare for one person to excel at all these things and even if they could, they would not have time to do them all and write more books.

And writing more books is important. Industry data shows that the average successful author (i.e. one that earns over $100,000 per year) will have written, on average, 33 books which in aggregate earn them a good income. See our article about this.

The Real Reason Self-Published Authors Fail

So the reason most self-published authors sell so few books is because very few people know they exist. They fail at marketing, not writing.

Do Traditionally Published Books Sell More Copies than Self-Published Books?

Initially, the answer to this question is often yes. And the reason is that the publisher does most of the things we outlined above that self-published authors should do. And the fact that they are supposed to do these things is the reason the author’s royalties are so much lower, i.e. 10% Vs 60%.

The question is, Do Publishers Actively Market New Books and if so, For How Long??

And the answer is, yes, they do all the above and more for their successful authors and they continue to do it for as long as their books sell well. However, as you will see in our article, Financial Success Requires a Comprehensive Strategy. For new authors, this often only happens during the launch period and ceases after the golden 3-month launch window. Thus sales of traditionally published books often plummet in the same way self-published books do.

A perfect example of this is, if JK Rowling had not gone out and marketed her book herself, by doing her own PR, arranging interviews on radio shows etc. she may not be the successful author we know today. But she obviously could do that. Not everybody can or does. Many authors are too busy working two or three jobs to survive and writing their next book to do a good job of marketing as well.

What Traditional Publishers Actually Do!

Instead of addressing this issue, the publishing industry has adapted itself to survive and prosper in the circumstance where books make most of their sales in the first few months. But it has not included the best interests of writers in its strategies.

Instead, it has built churn and author waste into the model. The result is publishers look after the successful authors that survive the initial process long enough to write a collection of books and develop a following who already buy their books (This is publisher code for; authors who have a large email list).

We believe it is time for a better solution and that is what we have created.