What 2026 Might Tell Us About Indie Publishing in 2027

As we all know too well, trends in indie publishing move quickly, and a lot can come and go in a year.

A new platform, format or sales avenue arrives, sometimes seemingly out of the blue, and often with enough force behind it that it seems destined to change the way things are done forever.

For a while, the conversation is almost entirely about that one, shiny new thing. But then… the next thing arrives, and the next thing… aaaand the next thing. Suddenly, what seemed like the game changer of January is March’s old news.

Whenever we go back to update our resources, it’s always slightly bewildering, and sometimes a little bit amusing, to see just how much has changed in a year. Trends we were talking about twelve months ago might well have disappeared from the conversation entirely, while today’s hot topic might have been virtually non-existent this time last year.

But some trends do stick. Maybe not forever, but long enough to become something that indie authors should take note of. And, of course, that’s always the tricky part: figuring out which thing is actually going to become “a thing” and which you’re better off ignoring.

Here at ALLi, these conversations feel particularly timely with SelfPubCon26 on the horizon (17 and 18 October, online and free to attend. If you haven’t registered yet, make sure you do here!) particularly this year, with the theme: The Future of Self-Publishing: What’s Working Now & What’s Next.

So, with all this in mind, we thought it would be fun and helpful to share the four trends we believe will be here to stay… or at least sticking around well into 2027!

1. Direct sales are becoming the norm

Now we know that selling direct is hardly new: indie authors have been selling books through their own websites, crowdfunding campaigns and other direct channels for years after all, but what’s changed is just how established direct selling has become.

Around 30% of authors with their own websites were selling books directly from them, up from 27% in 2023 (according to Written Word Media’s 2025 author survey). With crowdfunding being a significant part of this picture as publishing projects raised more than $45 million on Kickstarter in 2025, its second-biggest year for publishing to date!

There are some obvious attractions. Selling direct can mean a greater share of each sale, but perhaps more importantly, it gives authors a direct relationship with their readers. Someone who buys from you can become a repeat customer, join your mailing list and hear directly from you when the next book arrives.

But it can come with drawbacks. Your own website doesn’t come with Amazon’s enormous built-in audience for instance, and finding the readers to send there can be the hardest part. Then there’s payment processing, fulfilment, customer service and potentially additional tax obligations to think about too.

So the question for 2027 isn’t whether direct sales are going to replace retailers, they won’t! It’s whether selling direct will become a normal part of the mix for more indie authors. Looking at the growing range of tools available, how authors are already using them, and the money readers are spending through channels like crowdfunding, we think it’s well worth watching.

2. Audio isn’t slowing down

Audio has continued to dominate the conversation in 2026 and there’s plenty to suggest it will remain a big part of it in 2027.

Audiobook sales rose 10% in the UK and 9% in the US in 2025 continuing a run of strong growth. Spotify meanwhile reported a huge 60 percent increase in audiobook listening hours over the same year with half of its audiobook listeners joining during 2025 alone. And, Spotify has spent the past couple of years making an increasingly serious play for audiobooks and particularly for indie authors.

We’ve seen ‘Spotify for Authors’ expand new tools for audiobook discovery and series reading experiments with shorter audiobooks and a growing partnership with AI voice company ElevenLabs. In 2026 Spotify began integrating ElevenLabs powered audiobook creation directly into Spotify for Authors and has now opened those tools to indie authors in the US.

Audio has traditionally been a relatively difficult format to enter requiring a sizeable investment of both time and money. That barrier hasn’t disappeared particularly for authors who want professional human narration but there are now more ways in and some of them are considerably cheaper and easier than they were even a few years ago.

That doesn’t of course mean instant sales. As ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway pointed out earlier this year the number of audiobook titles available is growing faster than audiobook revenue. In other words, although the pie is getting bigger… there are more authors competing for a slice .

AI narration has opened up an obvious new route into audio. Of course, whether authors want to use AI narration, or AI at all in their publishing, is entirely an individual choice. But there’s no denying that the technology has made something that was traditionally expensive and time-consuming to produce considerably more accessible. For authors who might never have been able to justify the cost of a professionally narrated audiobook, audio is suddenly an option in a way it simply wasn’t before.

Still taken together its difficult to see audio disappearing from the conversation anytime soon. The audience is growing some of the biggest platforms in publishing are investing heavily in it and the options available to indie authors are expanding. We expect plenty more movement here in 2027.

3. BookTok continues to dominate the social media conversation

After years of BookTok chatter, you’d be forgiven for thinking the world might (finally) be moving on from it. But if anything, 2026 is showing us that BookTok isn’t going anywhere.

More than 50 million books recommended through BookTok were sold across major European markets in 2025, generating around €800 million in sales. Globally, more than 75 million posts have now been created using the #BookTok hashtag.

And what started as a fairly organic community of readers recommending books to one another has become increasingly embedded in the publishing industry.

TikTok’s official BookTok bestseller lists, which began in Germany, have now expanded into markets including the UK, Italy and Spain, while social discovery increasingly crosses over into actual purchasing, both online and in bookshops.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean the lesson for indie authors is get yourself on TikTok. Some of our members have found far greater success through email lists, BookFunnel promotions or real-world events. Others continue to sell books very successfully through other social platforms. And what works for a romance author on TikTok may bear very little resemblance to what works for a nonfiction author on LinkedIn or a children’s author on YouTube.

What does seem clear is that social media’s role in selling books isn’t going anywhere. The opportunity for indie authors in 2027 will be less about chasing whichever platform is making the most noise, and more about understanding where their particular readers are, and whether showing up there is actually worth their time.

4. The special-edition boom isn’t over yet

Similarly to audio, producing a highly finished physical edition once meant lots of time, energy and money. But if 2026 has shown us anything, it’s that the barrier to producing a beautiful special edition will continue to fall. Services such as BookVault now offer options including foiling, printed edges, ribbons and bespoke endpapers in much smaller quantities, while crowdfunding gives authors a way to establish demand before even having to commit to production. Special editions are simply not the undertaking they once were.

And the great news is that there’s an audience willing to pay considerably more than the price of a standard paperback for something they see as collectible, personal and special. It’s also a nice trend that seems to buck the assumption that, in an increasingly digital world, readers will inevitably want everything faster, cheaper and on a screen. If anything, there seems to be a growing appetite for books that feel like objects worth owning.

That said, earlier this year, ALLi’s own News Editor Dan Holloway asked whether we might be approaching “peak special edition”. And it’s a fair question. With so many publishers, subscription boxes and indie authors now producing them, will bringing out a special edition even feel special anymore? We think yes! But, the caveat is that, standing out in any crowded market means taking time to focus on what sets you apart from everyone else, and make sure you’re not just bringing a special edition out for the sake of it!

What these four trends tell us

While these four trends might look quite different, there is a pattern emerging:

Readers increasingly seem to be looking for a more direct and authentic author-reader relationship.

Whether that’s buying direct, connecting through socials, ordering a special edition or wanting to hear their work in various formats, there’s a clear move towards the individual author and away from being so dependent on the traditional routes of major publishers and platforms.

And as more and more readers open themselves up to indie publishing, we think that appetite will only continue to grow in 2027 and beyond!