Since Author Earnings (as BookStat) is no longer publishing information for the general public, it is difficult for the little guys to get access to the information.Īmazon has one goal when you publish through Kindle Direct. When including un-categorized authors, the vast majority of whom are self-published, the true indie share in each market lies somewhere between 30%-40%, the study shows.Ī later Author Earnings update of these data shows that taken all together, Amazon accounts for more than 80% of English-language ebook purchases. Self-published authors, according to Author Earnings, are verifiably capturing at least 24%-34% of all ebook sales in each of the five English-language markets, including the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. (Update: according to Statista, Amazon owns 50 percent of the entire e-commerce retail market for merchandise (gross merchandise volume or GMV).

Opting into the Select program automatically gives Amazon exclusive distribution rights. More than half of the indie authors in the study were enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited Full-Read Equivalent program ( Kindle Select), which pays authors from a royalty pool based on how much of a book is read. These sales included titles sourced from the Big Five publishers, small presses, and indie authors. What’s more 64-80% of all ebook consumer dollars flowed through Amazon sales channels. “…64-80% of all ebook consumer dollars flowed through Amazon sales channels…Īn early 2017 five-country, 15-retailer report from Author Earnings (now available as Book Stat but available only to companies of $10 million or more in revenues) shows that owned a startling 65% of all ebook unit sales in those English-speaking countries including the USA (by now more than 70%). But with great sales opportunities come great pitfalls.įirst, let’s examine just how lucrative the ebook publishing market may be today. The thriving market for ebooks has prompted many authors to turn to Amazon Kindle Digital Publishing (KDP) for book distribution.

This updated article refers mainly to self-published authors using the Amazon KDP platform to distribute their ebooks.) (Editor’s note: Thanks to excellent feedback from our readers, I have clarified several points in this story about Amazon We strive for accuracy and welcome your comments.

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