Electronic Book Review: Amazon reveal a quarter of top 100 Kindle books are now written by self ...

Friday, December 6, 2013

Amazon reveal a quarter of top 100 Kindle books are now written by self ... - Daily Mail

Online retailer revealed 25 of their top eBooks in the US are self-published
Amazon has emerged as the leading seller of ‘indie’ titles
Experts said the same trend is likely to emerge in Britain

By Rob Cooper

PUBLISHED: 05:47 EST, 5 December 2013 | UPDATED: 05:59 EST, 5 December 2013

431 shares

View
comments

Self-published success: Amazon, who sell the Kindle, have emerged as the leading seller of self-published books

A quarter of the top 100 Kindle books sold by Amazon.com are written by self-published ‘go it alone’ authors, it has been revealed.

Although the figures are for the online retailer’s US website, experts said the same is likely to be repeated in Britain over time.

The statistics, released at a trade show, have been dubbed a victory for start-up authors who have traditionally struggled to get their work published.

The chart was posted on Twitter by Writer.ly, an online marketplace which links writers with the editors, book designers and marketing help they need to publish.

Amazon.com ‘s figures revealed a quarter of the leading titles are by’ indies’ – a broad term which includes all titles that aren’t put out by the big six publishers.

Although the online giant has not released figures for the UK, it is thought that there has been a significant growth in the success of ‘indie’ authors.

Orna Ross, director of the UK Alliance of Independent Authors, said the success of self-publishers in the US is likely to be repeated in Britain.

‘We are in the middle of a major change. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we reached a situation where the majority of the top books are author-published. I don’t see what would stop that, ‘she told The Guardian.

Hugh Howey, a Florida-based author, who became an overnight success after publishing his novel Wool, wrote that individual authors were collectively as powerful as leading names.

He Tweeted: ‘Taken together, indie authors form a new major publisher to round out the “Big 6.” That’s the level of sales we represent. ‘

E-success: Hugh Howey, a successful self-published author, Tweeted that indie authors are collectively as strong as the big six publishing houses

Big sellers: Amazon, who sell the Kindle (pictured in the middle of this pile) said a quarter of their best sellers are by ‘indie’ publishers

A spokesman for Amazon said that the figures released to a trade fair were for the the US only.

‘This figure is referring to Kindle books on Amazon.com in 2012, with’ indie ‘meaning books self-published via Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

‘So a quarter of the top 100 bestselling Kindle books on Amazon.com in 2012 were self-published via KDP.’

Amazon has emerged as the leading retailer of self-published works following the rapid growth of the Kindle in recent years.

The retailer gives ‘indie’ titles equal billing alongside the work of leading publishing houses.

Richard Mollet, chief executive of the UK Publishers Association, told The Guardian: ‘It is notable that very often those authors who find initial success from self-publishing subsequently work with publishers to take their writing career to the next level.’