For those of you who celebrated yesterday, today might be a day for nursing a sated belly, enjoying leftovers, and picking up parcels from outlying acquaintances. It’s also the perfect context for reflecting on my favorite stories of the year. Here, while you look for something light to mix into your post-celebration haze, is the first of three interconnected stories that brought me joy this year. Stay tuned for the other two next time.
Surveying Author Spending
ALLi News Editor, Dan Holloway
Let me start with survey findings. It has been a year of many surveys. Many of them have examined what authors earn. Many more have asked what we think about or do with AI. These are important topics, but the one I found most interesting didn’t ask how money comes in—it asked how it goes out. What do authors spend on editing, marketing, and cover design?
This information was captured in the Written Word Media survey. It provides a startling rebuttal to the scandalous claim by Spines that its AI offers a great service because it reduces the cost of self-publishing to just a few thousand dollars—still more than six- and seven-figure-income authors are spending. But it also provides valuable context for my remaining stories. And serving a journalist’s desire for a smooth segue is as valuable a role as any data can fulfill.
Key Findings on Author Spending
So what were the key findings? The survey broke down the spending habits of authors according to their earnings. This is both useful because it provides insight and dispels myths like those propagated by Spines. But as I pointed out at the time, it’s also a correlation, not a cause. We don’t know if the authors surveyed would have earned more or less if they had spent more or less.
The survey found that those earning the most—$10,000 or more a month (yes, there are indeed enough of them for it to form two significant groupings, though they’ve written an average of over 60 books each, so don’t get too excited about your prospects next year!)—tend to spend $500–$999 on cover design.
When it comes to editing, spending tends to range between $100 and $999 (with some, but by no means all, at $500–$999) across all income groups from $250 a month and up. Those at the very top end weren’t spending significantly more, which is something of a theme. They might be spending a hundred dollars or so more, but not thousands.
Marketing was the area that surprised me the most. We’ll come on to why in the next column (consider that my gift of a cliffhanger to you). It’s not the $700 a month or the 32 hours a month that’s surprising (note how this doesn’t align with Spines’ claims about what we spend on a book!). It’s how and where. Kickstarter campaigns were rated as the least effective form of marketing, while BookBub and other promo sites came out on top. The most overrated form of marketing was considered to be in-person events.
What this context means I will explore next time when I look back at two of the big stories and trends of the year. And still no AI in sight.
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