Thoughts on the 2025 Author Survey

I always find Written Word Media's annual author survey results interesting. Since I don't personally know any other authors, it's nice to learn how others feel about the state of publishing, and what they use for marketing; and, of course, how successful they are. I'm a participant in the survey as well. It's the only time I'm ever asked about my publishing life.

With this year's results, as well as prior years', I'm not surprised to find that I'm an outlier. I don't do the things everyone says one must do, and obviously my income bracket falls far below other authors'. (Surprise!) I admit, I approach each year's results hoping to find a kindred spirit or two, but that's hard when all that's presented are aggregate numbers. Maybe there are others like me--surely everyone can't be uber-successful, right? 

There are, I find, many authors who earn less than $100 per month--44% of respondents, in fact. ($100 per month? How about lifetime?) Given that percentage, I've come to suspect that many aren't really "into" the whole publishing game. Maybe they've written one book, which correlates to their low publishing income (proven out by the stats regarding catalog size). I think a lot of people give writing a try, find out it's not fun (nor easy), and that's that. I can respect that. I, on the other hand, kept writing books because, well, I enjoyed it, plus I wanted to master the discipline. You've read how bad my first couple of attempts were, and I was determined to get better.

One can get a skewed impression of self-publishing, depending on the social sites she frequents. The Reddit self-publishing sub, for example, consists of people who are serious-minded when it comes to $$--oh, and to writing. But mostly to $$. Authors with one book aren't scrolling that sub. They've moved on with their lives.  

As I noted, I'm an outlier. I can more easily understand earning less than $100 per month if you only have one book in your catalog. With one book, it's all or nothing. I've got 12 books currently, which means, according to the results, that I should fall in the $100-$1,000 per month category. 🤣 Call me cuckoo, but I don't tie quantity to income. If an author writes standalone books, rather than series, no reader is eager to hop aboard another standalone novel by that same obscure author. Standalones are risky. One novel might be great and feature a plot that a reader finds fascinating; the next novel's plot might seem completely uninteresting. How many times have I read about a reader's disappointment with a follow-up novel to the one they fell in love with? 

After being demoralized by reading the survey's income stats, I zeroed in on the marketing aspect. It was interesting that on a scale of 1 to 5, newsletters rated 3.3 and promo sites came in at 3.25. So, some authors believe that their newsletter drives sales, but almost the same number believe it's the promos. I believe neither. And I can back that up with true data. (Lots of people swear by FreeBooksy, and I agree that it's the best of the lot. But that's not "sales". It's giveaways.)

Marketing comprises the biggest share of the results page, which is natural considering that Written Word Media is a marketing site, but the commentary strikes me as a bit self-serving. The author does, though, tout author newsletters a lot, and notes that the highest earners have the largest mailing lists. (You think?) Here's where the writer gets it backwards. These authors aren't high earners because of their mailing lists. They have a big mailing list because they're high earners. Their books are popular. Try being an author with one published book that's never gotten any traction. How many newsletter subscribers do you have? One? Two? Somebody clicked the link in your ebook because they were bored or just curious? I don't put a "subscribe" link at the end of my books. I could, but someone would have to read the book to even see the link. So, I'd be that author with two subscribers. Hardly worth composing a newsletter. Plus, I don't have any "news". 

The 2025 survey's emotional snapshot goes like this: marketing fatigue, algorithm fatigue, loneliness, optimism.

I personally don't pay enough attention to Amazon's algorithms to be fatigued by them. They're gonna do what they're gonna do, and it's out of my hands. Marketing fatigue? Sure; that plus pocketbook fatigue. I don't experience loneliness as a writer, because I like my solitude. And optimism? Who are these people? I grow less optimistic every day. But I say, let these people have their fun. When I first published, I was optimistic, too. That was almost ten years ago. 

The surveyors obviously didn't take my response into account. Or I was the only person who expressed negativity, so my answer was too isolated to quantify. I don't remember for sure, but I probably answered, "hopeless". A more precise response would have been, "I just don't care anymore."    

It was interesting that in the category, "Genres More Common in Lower Income Brackets", women's fiction didn't even make the list. Even religious non-fiction garnered a mention; not that there's anything wrong with religious non-fiction. I'm just noting how horribly unpopular my genre is, that it wasn't even worth noting. (Yea, I know; there are approximately two trade-published women's fiction authors who are zillionaires. That's two.)

Confirming my contention, romance is by far the most popular and the highest earner. I'm not going to make any sociological comments about romance's popularity--you know how I feel about that. If I was mercenary, I could write romance. It's just a formula, after all. I'm that weirdo, though, who wants to be proud of my writing; not embarrassed by it.

All in all, I wasn't buoyed by the survey results. I didn't exactly find that kindred spirit I was looking for. Reading them was interesting, though. They certainly showed me where I stand.