Every year, we ask indie authors about their experiences with writing, publishing, and marketing. We’ve been running this survey since 2016, and it’s one of my favorite projects of the year.
For 2025, we had 1,346 responses from authors around the world.
96% of respondents are already published
4% are not yet published but actively working toward it
The survey skews toward serious, prolific indie authors (that’s our audience!), and all data is self-reported, especially income. As always: Correlation ≠ causation. When we say “high earners tend to…,” we’re not saying “if you do this one thing, you’ll get rich.” We’re describing patterns, not guarantees.
This year’s survey covered everything from income and catalog size to email lists, direct sales, KU vs wide, and author sentiment.
Grab a coffee (or your favorite writing snack) and let’s dig in. ☕️
1) How Are Authors Published in 2025?
3) Income Breakdown: How Much Are Authors Earning Each Month?
Indie publishing is no longer anyone’s “Plan B.” It’s a primary, intentional path that serious authors choose because it lets them:
Control rights, pricing, and packaging
Move faster than traditional cycles
Experiment with series, direct sales, and special editions
If you’re indie (or indie-curious), you’re not on the fringes—you’re part of a mature, thriving ecosystem. That means:
You don’t need permission to build a real author career.
You do need to think like a small business owner, not just a creator.
When asked about their primary motivation for publishing a book, authors offered a range of responses, with less than half focused on financial goals:
There are two big takeaways around motivation:
–> Not everyone is here for the money. Many authors are driven by: Expression, Legacy or Joy of the craft.
–> Money-motivated authors do earn more on average.
Authors who checked “I want to make money” are:
More likely to treat their writing as a business
More likely to invest in covers, editing, and marketing
More likely to stick with tactics that move the needle
There’s a strong correlation between saying “my goal is to make money” and actually landing in the higher-income brackets.
If your main goal is creative fulfillment → you’re already winning every time you finish a book.
If your main goal is income → you’ll want to:
Set business-style goals
Invest (within your means) in packaging and marketing
Make decisions based on data, not vibes
Both paths are valid. Just be honest with yourself about which game you’re actually playing.
While 44% of authors earn $100 or less, the majority—56%—are earning over $100 monthly from their writing. Authors in the $500 – $5,000 range make up 20% of respondents, while authors making over $5,000 per month account for 13% of respondents. 8% of authors who answered the survey report making over $10,000 per month.
A few key patterns emerge from the data:
There is a large “early stage” group under $100/month. Many of these authors:
Have just a few books
Haven’t built an email list yet
Spend little or nothing on marketing
The $100–$1,000 group is the “in motion” crowd. They’re:
Publishing more consistently
Experimenting with promo sites and email
Figuring out what works
The $1,000+ group almost always has:
More books (often 10+, and very often series)
An active email list
Regular marketing spend
A mindset: “This is a business”
If you’re under $100/month: you’re not failing; you’re early.
If you’re earning $100–$1,000/month, you’ve proven your books can sell—your next lever is scale (more books, better packaging, stronger marketing).
If your dream is full-time author income, the survey shows it’s absolutely possible—but the authors doing it are:
Prolific
Strategic
Patient
If your primary goal is to make money from your writing, this data confirms that making money from your writing is possible. If you’re already earning over $100 per month from your writing, you’re on the right track – the next step is scaling up. If you’re currently in the lower brackets, remember that it’s common to start small, and that many authors grow their income steadily over time.
If your motivation for writing is driven by creativity or personal fulfillment, don’t be discouraged by lower earnings. Writing for the love of storytelling or as a creative outlet is incredibly rewarding in its own right.
Before we look at how different genres perform at various income levels, it’s important to understand which genres were represented in this year’s survey.
Among the 1,346 authors who responded, the largest primary genres were: Romance – 21% (276 authors), Fantasy – 14% (186 authors), Science Fiction – 8% (101 authors), Thriller – 8% (103 authors), Mystery – 7% (95 authors), Historical Fiction – 6% (73 authors) and Non-Fiction – 6% (79 authors).
A number of smaller but important genres also appeared, including: Cozy Mystery, Literary Fiction, Paranormal Romance, Children’s, Women’s Fiction, Young Adult, Horror, and Religious Fiction & Non-fiction.
⚠️ A Note on Bias
Because Written Word Media’s audience skews toward commercial indie fiction, our genre mix reflects that:
Romance, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, thriller, and genre fiction are all well-represented.
More niche or traditionally print-focused genres—like children’s books, literary fiction, and religious nonfiction—appear in smaller numbers.
That means the income patterns below reveal real signals, but they may reflect indie-author ecosystem dynamics more than the entire book market.
With that context, here’s what we found.
Across the entire dataset, a few genres show up more frequently as income rises.
21% of authors overall
~44% of the Over $10k group
~38% of $5k–$10k
~35% of $1k–$5k
Only ~12% of Under $100
👉 Romance authors are roughly twice as common in the top-earning tiers as you would expect from their share of the survey population.
4% overall
~11% of Over $10k authors
Drops to ~3% in Under $100
Genre takeaway: Paranormal Romance has one of the strongest correlations with high income, showing ~2.5× its expected presence in the top tier.
4% overall
6–9% of authors earning above $500/month
Only ~1.7% in Under $100
Genre takeaway: Cozy authors consistently appear more often in every income bracket above $500, and clearly decline toward the bottom.
A few genres appear more frequently among authors earning under $100/month, and far less among high earners. This doesn’t reflect quality or potential—just market realities for indie publishing.
3% overall
5.5% in Under $100
Almost absent among higher earners
Reasoning: Children’s books often rely on illustration cost, school channels, in-person events, and gatekeepers, which can make indie discoverability harder.
4% overall
~7% in Under $100
Essentially absent from $5k+ brackets
Reasoning: Literary fiction often relies more on prestige, awards, and traditional coverage than the indie-style marketing tactics that scale.
1% overall
1.7% in Under $100
Almost none in the higher brackets
Reasoning: Smaller audiences, niche channels, and lower digital conversion can all play a role.
These genres are not over-represented at the bottom, but they aren’t common at the very top either.
6% overall
9–10% in the $100–$1,000 brackets
Rare among high earners
It’s also important to recognize that non-fiction authors often earn income differently than fiction authors. For many non-fiction writers, the book itself functions as a branding asset—a credibility builder, a calling card, or a lead magnet that drives readers into higher-value offerings such as:
speaking engagements
consulting
coaching
courses
workshops or trainings
newsletters or memberships
Because their revenue often comes from these adjacent services, their book income alone typically sits in the lower or mid brackets, even when their overall business income is much higher. In other words, non-fiction authors may appear under-represented in the top royalty tiers, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect the full financial picture of their author business.
2.5% overall
3.7% in $100–$500
3.6% in Under $100
Almost no YA authors in the top brackets
The YA digital market is smaller than its print/trad counterpart, which shapes indie earning potential.
Commercial genre fiction (Romance, Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery) continues to have the clearest path to high monthly royalties in the indie ecosystem, driven by:
Read-through from series
High consumption rates
Strong, trope-driven reader communities
Effective digital marketing channels
Children’s, literary fiction, religious nonfiction, and similar genres require different success strategies, including:
Events
School and library outreach
Speaking, workshops, or services
Local community channels
Alternate definitions of success
Fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, historical fiction, and mystery make up a large share of indie authors and have strong mid-range earning potential—with some high earners in each, usually those who:
Write in series
Publish consistently
Target clear subgenre niches
Above all:
👉 No genre guarantees income, but understanding how your genre performs on average helps you plan your strategy, timeline, and expectations—with far more clarity.
One of the strongest predictors of earning potential in indie publishing continues to be catalog size—the number of books an author has published. The 2025 data shows a clear and consistent pattern: The more books an author has published, the more they tend to earn.
Here’s how the average number of published books breaks down across income brackets:
From the 2025 survey:
Authors with 1–3 books: About 80% fall into the under $100/month band.
Authors with 5–9 books:
Median income jumps to around $50/month
Many more enter the $100–$1,000 band.
Authors with 10+ books: This is where we start to see a steeper income ramp.
Authors with 25+ books:
Median income ≈ $3,000/month
40%+ of them earn $5,000+/month
For the very high earners, it’s not just “lots of books.” It’s:
Lots of books
In series
Why that matters:
If you spend $100 on a promo and only have one book, the reader can only buy… that one book.
If Book 1 leads into a 7- or 10-book series, that same $100 can turn into:
Multiple full-price sales
A long-term fan
Marketing spend gets amortized across the whole series. That’s where you start to see exponential, not incremental, returns.
Building a backlist takes time, but it’s one of the most important strategies for long-term success in indie publishing.
Your next best marketing move might simply be: write the next book.
If you love standalones, consider loose series (shared world, shared characters) so you can still benefit from series read-through.
Backlist is power. The authors making $5k, $10k, $20k+ per month almost always have:
Every book you add to your backlist:
Expands your digital footprint
Gives readers another entry point into your world
Boosts your chances of read-through
Creates more opportunities for promotions, box sets, and bundles
Whether you’re at 1 book or 21, the path forward is the same: keep writing, keep publishing, and think long-term.
Indie authors continue to diversify the formats they publish in, but one thing hasn’t changed: eBooks and paperbacks remain the backbone of indie publishing.
Here’s the breakdown of which formats authors currently offer:
A few clear trends emerge from this year’s data:
Nearly every author surveyed publishes in both eBook and paperback—the two formats that remain the most accessible, most affordable to produce, and most in-demand on major retail platforms.
eBooks (98%): Still the format where indie authors rely most heavily for discoverability and global distribution.
Paperbacks (97%): Almost universally adopted, thanks largely to streamlined POD solutions through KDP and IngramSpark.
Over half of authors (51%) now have at least one audiobook—an impressive number given that:
Audiobooks are more expensive to produce
They typically require separate distribution channels
They can take longer to break even
But demand remains high, and indie authors are increasingly viewing audio as a long-term investment that deepens reader engagement and increases lifetime value.
With 36% of authors offering hardcover editions, the format has moved from “nice-to-have” to a meaningful part of the indie toolkit, especially for:
Collectible editions
Library distribution
Direct sales
Authors in fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction, where premium formats perform well
The rise of new POD hardback options has clearly made this format more accessible.
Only 8% of authors offer a collector’s edition, but this small segment ties directly into two major industry trends:
Special editions with sprayed edges, foil stamping, or custom art
Higher-margin direct sales at events or via Shopify/WooCommerce stores
Collectors’ editions are especially popular in fantasy, romance, and fan-driven genres where superfans want physical books that feel special.
As you’re planning your publishing strategy for 2026:
eBook + paperback is the essential baseline for indie authors.
Adding audio or hardback can expand your reach and credibility—but they are better positioned as Phase 2 investments unless you already have strong reader demand.
Collector’s editions are best for authors with:
An established fanbase
A strong direct-sales strategy
High engagement in reader communities
Genres with a collector culture (fantasy, romance, sci-fi)
As production tools improve and direct sales gain traction, expect more authors to explore premium formats in the coming years.
When it comes to generating revenue, Amazon is still the dominant platform for indie authors, with 83% of respondents naming it as their top revenue source. The percentage of authors who named Amazon as their top revenue source dropped for a second year – from 91% in 2023 to 87% in 2024 and 83% this year. When looking at which sources generated the 2nd most revenue for authors, Amazon still topped the list, but in-person sales, Apple, Kobo, and direct sales were much more visible in that #2 slot.
We also asked authors how they use KDP Select (KU) and the answers were as follows:
38% of authors– “All my books are in KDP Select”
30% of authors – “None of my books are in KDP Select” (fully wide)
The rest – A mix (some titles in KU, some wide)
When we looked at income brackets:
Among authors earning over $5,000/month:
43% had all their books in Select
15% had none in Select (fully wide)
The rest had mixed catalogs
Many high earners are in KU, but not all. There are successful authors:
Fully wide
Fully KU
And a big chunk doing both
This data does not mean: “To make $5k+/month, you must be in KU.”
It does mean:
Many high earners choose KU because:
Discoverability is often easier
Page reads provide a separate revenue stream
But there is a meaningful group of high-income, fully wide authors too.
There is no single correct path:
Fully KU can work
Fully wide can work
A mix can work
You can experiment:
Put a series in KU for 90 days
Try taking it wide for the next 90
Compare real numbers
Pick a strategy that:
Matches your values (e.g., not wanting exclusivity)
Fits your stage (KU is often easier for discoverability early on)
And that you’re willing to execute on consistently
From the 2025 survey:
About 30% of authors are already selling direct (from their own site or store).
Among those who aren’t selling direct yet, about 30% say they plan to start in the next 12 months.
So we have:
A solid minority currently selling direct
A large pipeline of authors who want to add direct as a channel
When we slice by income:
Among authors earning $10,000+/month, roughly half sell direct.
Among lower earners, direct sales are much less common.
Direct sales let you:
Keep a larger percentage of each sale
Build a customer list you control
Offer:
Special editions
Signed copies
Bundles & upsells
But they also come with:
More logistics (customer service, fulfillment)
A need for traffic (you still have to do marketing!)
We’re also seeing a pattern of:
Early-stage authors going hard into direct
Ending up with boxes of books in the garage and very few buyers
The missing ingredient is usually:
An established audience (often via email)
Proven demand for your existing books
Direct sales are powerful, but they’re not “easy mode.” Consider:
If you already have:
A meaningful email list
Readers asking for signed copies / special editions
→ Direct might be a great next step.
If you’re early and mostly unknown:
Focus first on discoverability on big retailers
Build your email list
Then layer in direct when you have people to send there
Tools like BookFunnel, Shopify, and others make direct sales more accessible—but they’re multipliers, not magic.
2025 reinforced something we love to see: Authors overwhelmingly agree that cover design is the #1 factor in selling a book. Across experience levels and income tiers, cover came out on top when we asked what matters most for selling books.
Low earners (≤ $100/month)
Over half spend $0–$100 on covers.
Many DIY using Canva, templates, or a helpful friend.
Mid-range earners ($100–$1,000+/month)
Typically invest $100–$499 per cover.
Often working with freelance designers who specialize in their genre.
High earners ($5,000+/month)
Most spend at least $250, and often $250–$1,000 per cover.
Very few spend $0.
A small fraction spend $2,000+, but:
There’s no clear correlation between spending $2k+ and higher income.
The importance of a high-quality cover can’t be overstated. However, it’s not “the more you spend, the more you earn.” It’s:
“Spend something to get a professional, on-genre cover, and you give your book a fighting chance.” OR
One of the most important mindset shifts: Your cover’s job is to signal genre, not summarize plot.
Readers scan for visual shorthand:
Dark background + bold serif text + spaceship → Sci-Fi
Pastel illustration + cute fonts → Rom-com
Moody figure + city skyline → Urban fantasy / thriller
If your cover doesn’t “fit” when dropped into the Top 10 of your category, you’re making it harder for readers to say yes.
If your budget is tight:
DIY is okay, as long as you get objective feedback and compare against genre bestsellers.
As revenue grows:
Move into the $250–$500 range for covers if you can. That seems to be a sweet spot for many high earners.
Be ruthless (kindly!) about changing a cover that isn’t working. Emotional attachment to a DIY cover is one of the biggest blockers we see.
Editing remains one of the most important components of a strong, professional book—but indie authors take a wide range of approaches when it comes to how much they invest. The 2025 data shows a broad spread in editing spend, with a surprisingly large number of authors still spending nothing at all.
Authors earning over $10,000/month fall overwhelmingly into the $250–$999 and $1,000–$1,999 editing tiers. Only 11 high earners reported spending nothing. Top earners invest consistently in editing — but the majority spend between $250 and $1,999, not $2,000+
Among authors earning under $100/month:
214 (the largest group) spend nothing on editing
Another 53 spend only $100–$249
Only a small fraction invest $500+
Newer or lower-earning authors overwhelmingly choose DIY, beta readers, or no editing at all — which may directly affect reviews, read-through, and sales.
The More than $2,000 tier is particularly revealing:
Only 4 high earners (Over $10k) invest at that level
38 authors spending $2,000+ are earning under $100/month
High-priced editing does not guarantee high income. Many lower-income authors overspend early, before they’ve built:
an audience
a consistent writing cadence
a clear genre strategy
a backlist
Smart, strategic investment — not maximum investment — is what correlates with earnings.
When we look at authors earning $500–$10k/month, the bulk are clustered in the mid-range:
$250–$499: strong representation across $500–$10k
$500–$999: even stronger correlation
$1,000–$1,999: solid, but slightly fewer
Far fewer mid-range earners are found in:
“Nothing”
Under $100
Over $2,000
Investing something, consistently, between $250 and $999, appears to be a meaningful milestone on the path to higher earnings.
The 2025 survey showed very similar patterns to prior years:
Low earners are much more likely to spend $0 on editing.
High earners almost always spend something, but not usually $2,000+.
Roughly:
Many authors across tiers are spending $100–$999 per book on editing.
Only a small minority spend more than $2,000.
There is no strong income advantage to going way above that range.
Editing matters less for the click and more for the relationship:
The cover sells the book.
Editing keeps the reader reading:
Fewer typos
Clean structure
Satisfying pacing and payoffs
Poor editing often shows up as:
1–3★ reviews mentioning “typos,” “clunky writing,” or “needs an editor”
Weak read-through to your other books
Fewer true fans
Editing is critical — but the data makes an important point: You don’t need to spend thousands to succeed; you just need to invest enough to produce a clean, professional read.
Here’s how to interpret your stage:
If you’re early / low-income:
Beta readers + light professional editing is fine for now, but skipping editing entirely makes it hard to retain readers or build reviews.
If you’re growing:
Target the $250–$999 range, where the majority of rising earners cluster.
If you’re established:
You may not need the $2,000+ tier — most high earners don’t use it — but you should be working with trusted, consistent editors.
Ultimately: Editing is less about price, and more about clarity, quality, and reader trust.
A well-edited book boosts reviews, improves read-through, strengthens your brand, and helps every marketing dollar work harder — which is why the authors earning the most treat editing as a non-negotiable investment.
If there’s one place where authors are loudly on the same page, it’s this: Marketing is the hardest part.
In the 2025 survey, a strong majority (well over 80%) named marketing as the most challenging aspect of being an author—more than writing or production.
From the 2025 data + podcast discussion, here’s how things shake out qualitatively:
Most effective (especially for high earners):
Your own email list
Promo sites (like Freebooksy, Bargain Booksy, BookBub Featured Deals)
Facebook Ads (for those who learn the system)
Lead magnets / reader magnets to grow email lists
Amazon Ads
BookBub Ads
Many authors find these ad platforms hard to optimize, time-consuming and it’s easy to overspend on without clear ROI.
Kickstarter
For some: a huge success
For many: a lot of work for little return
Very “all or nothing”
Newsletter swaps
Still used
But rated less effective than in previous years, possibly due to:
Overuse
Less engaged lists
One of the biggest 2025 insights: High earners don’t rely on one marketing tactic. They stack them.
Common patterns among authors earning $5,000–$20,000+/month:
Strong email list
Regular use of promo sites
Strategic Facebook Ads
Thoughtful pricing & series strategy
For some: direct sales layered on top
It’s very rare to see a high earner who is:
Doing no email
Spending nothing on marketing
And relying only on organic retailer traffic
We also asked authors how much they spend on marketing each month. Across all respondents, the average monthly spend was $636 — but that average hides a big spread.
On average, authors in each income bracket reported spending:
Over $10,000/month in income: spend about $4,500/month
$5,000–$10,000: spend about $1,362/month
$1,000–$5,000: spend about $478/month
$500–$1,000: spend about $275/month
$100–$500: spend about $152/month
Under $100: spend about $81/month
A few things stand out:
Higher earners invest more. The authors making over $10k/month are typically reinvesting thousands of dollars each month into marketing.
Investment tends to rise with income. As authors move from “earning a little” to “earning a living,” their marketing spend increases steadily at each bracket.
You don’t have to start big. Authors in the lower income brackets are often spending under $200/month, then scaling up as their catalog and readership grow.
This doesn’t prove that “spend = success,” but it does show a clear pattern:
authors who are earning more are usually treating marketing as an ongoing business investment, not a one-time experiment.
If marketing feels overwhelming, that’s normal. Almost everyone says that.
You don’t need to spend like a high earner to become a high earner.
Most authors start small. As income grows, spend grows. It’s an evolution, not a leap.
Here’s a simple way to approach it:
Start with the foundations (low or no cost):
Optimize your packaging (cover, blurb, Look Inside)
Build your email list
Test one promo site
These alone can move you meaningfully up the income brackets.
Then scale your investment as your results improve:
Authors earning more tend to intentionally reinvest in marketing — not all at once, but gradually. The data shows a steady climb in monthly spend from about $80/month on the low end to $4,500/month for top earners.
Think of it as a ladder:
Start with what you can comfortably invest
Track what’s working
Increase spend on the tactics that clearly move the needle
As you grow, consider layering in:
Facebook Ads
Promo stacks
Direct sales (for those ready to diversify)
The key is to experiment, measure, and double down on what works for your genre and readers. Marketing isn’t about doing everything — it’s about building, step by step, toward the strategy that fits your goals and your stage of the author journey.
If there’s one metric that consistently predicts higher author income, it’s the size—and use—of an author’s email list. The 2025 data shows a dramatic spread in list size across income brackets:
Average Email List Size by Income Bracket
Over $10k/month: 18,327 subscribers
$5k–$10k: 7,488 subscribers
$1k–$5k: 3,986 subscribers
$500–$1k: 2,743 subscribers
$100–$500: 1,405 subscribers
Under $100: 902 subscribers
This is one of the sharpest correlations in the entire survey: the more an author earns, the larger their email list tends to be.
Among published authors:
Authors with an email list earn a median of ~$300/month
Authors without a list earn a median of ~$15/month
That’s a 20x difference.
When we asked about perceived effectiveness:
High earners (> $10k/month) rated their own newsletters 4.3/5
Low earners rated newsletters ~2.7/5
So the authors who:
make the most money,
have the biggest lists, and
believe most strongly in email
…are exactly the same group.
👉 Top earners don’t just “have” a list—they actively build it and email it.
Your email list is:
a direct line to your readers,
immune to retailer or social media algorithms,
one of the highest-ROI ways to:
launch new books
run promos
drive direct sales
nurture superfans
And unlike ads, which get more expensive every year, email has near-zero marginal cost.
This is why high-income authors rely so heavily on it—and why newer authors underestimate it.
Across both 2024 and 2025, the same habits show up again and again among authors with strong lists:
Use reader magnets (free novellas, prequels, bonus scenes) to attract subscribers
Place email signup links in their backmatter
Join multi-author promotions via BookFunnel, StoryOrigin, Prolific Works
Email consistently—not just at launch time
Treat their newsletter like a key business asset, not an afterthought
The math is simple:
More subscribers = more reliable launches = more consistent monthly income.
If you remember nothing else from this article, remember this:
Start your email list now.
Even if you have one book
Even if you’re still writing your first book
Simple starting point:
Choose a beginner-friendly ESP (MailerLite, Mailchimp, etc.)
Create a reader magnet (short story, bonus epilogue, sample)
Put the signup link:
On your website
In the backmatter of your books
On your social profiles
Over time, this list becomes the engine of your author business.
We also asked open-ended questions about how authors are feeling and where they’re finding community.
After reading hundreds of responses, here’s the vibe: Hopeful but tired. Motivated but overwhelmed. Committed, but facing a lot of uncertainty.
Common themes:
Marketing fatigue (“It’s hard, it’s expensive, I’m not sure what works.”)
Algorithm + platform fatigue (“Things change constantly; it’s hard to keep up.”)
Loneliness (“It feels like it’s just me and my keyboard.”)
But also… optimism
Authors are proud of their books
Many are seeing results
There’s a strong desire to keep going
One of the most important takeaways:
The struggles you’re facing—discoverability, ads, burnout, doubt—are extremely common.
You’re not uniquely failing. You’re doing author life in 2025.
When we asked who is supporting them, authors frequently mentioned:
Written Word Media (thank you, truly 🧡)
Joanna Penn
Becca Syme
ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors)
Author Nation
James Blatch / Self Publishing Show
Dale Roberts
And on the community side:
Facebook groups are still the #1 place authors log in weekly.
Many authors are active in:
Genre-specific groups
20Books-style strategy groups
Wide-publishing communities
Smaller, invite-only mastermind groups
Alongside the positives:
Some authors reported stepping back from groups due to:
Drama
Information overload
Time suck
Others have found a healthier balance by:
Choosing 1–2 core communities
Muting the rest
Protecting their writing time
If you’re feeling discouraged, you are very far from alone.
Plug into one or two caring, practical communities—not twenty.
When it all feels like too much, it can help to come back to: “Why did I start writing in the first place?”
Looking across the 2025 survey, a few big themes stand out:
Invest something in marketing
Stack effective tactics
Keep experimenting
As you look ahead:
Take one or two insights from this survey and apply them—even in a tiny way.
Maybe that’s:
Starting your email list
Investing in your next cover
Planning your first series instead of another standalone
Testing a promo site you’ve been curious about
There’s no single formula, but there are clear patterns. And every year, more authors are quietly, steadily building the writing life they dreamed about.
We can’t wait to see what you create—and what the data will show us in 2026. 🚀