It's survey time. Specifically, the 2026 Written Word Media survey for indie authors is now open, and judging by last year we can expect the results back before the end of the year. Written Word Media are an ALLi partner member, so I am very happy to encourage people to take part.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
The focus of the survey is on which marketing techniques indie authors find most useful, with cross-analysis by genre, titles published, book pricing, marketing spend, and overall income. You can take a look back at the 2025 survey results here. There are several things to note. The first is that the genres represented are stacked toward romance and fantasy, but if memory serves in the ten minutes since I took this year's version myself, I don't think the 2026 edition has a romantasy genre label, which feels like a missed opportunity.
The Income-to-Titles Equation
Another fascinating analysis is the genres that are overrepresented in high (romance) and low (literary) income brackets. Far and away the most noteworthy section of the report last year, though, was the chart tracking income per month against titles published. And what was noteworthy is that there are absolutely zero surprises. It's a steady rise: more titles, more income, with those having one to three books overwhelmingly earning under $100 a month and 40 percent of those with twenty-five or more titles earning more than $5,000 a month, with those earning $10,000 or more a month generally having over sixty titles. And the more titles, more money equation gets even hotter if those multiple titles are in series.
Will AI Show Up in the Spending Data?
I don't think, looking through the report, there was an AI question last year. There is one this year. But where I will be fascinated to see that emerge by stealth is in the amount people are paying for cover design and editing: these are areas where I would anticipate a fall in expenditure. But whether any expenditure will be reflected in earnings will be a real eye-opener.
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