Waz
Scribe
An agent friend posted an article from this website, and it's given me a lot to think about in regards to my path forward. It's authorearnings.com, and here's a link to one article that shows the balance of money in SFF between traditional publishing and self-publishing.
July 2014 Author Earnings Report – Author Earnings
The articles from this site are information dense, but trends in the data indicate that SFF money is already favoring self-published, especially for new authors. Of course there are lots of reasons why someone might favor one publishing approach over another, but this type of data has not traditionally been available for helping decisions.
Of course, this data will be completely out-of-date within only a few years. Every publisher, agent, editor, and writer I've spoken to says the same thing, that no one knows with certainty what the publishing industry will be like in five years.
July 2014 Author Earnings Report – Author Earnings
The articles from this site are information dense, but trends in the data indicate that SFF money is already favoring self-published, especially for new authors. Of course there are lots of reasons why someone might favor one publishing approach over another, but this type of data has not traditionally been available for helping decisions.
Of course, this data will be completely out-of-date within only a few years. Every publisher, agent, editor, and writer I've spoken to says the same thing, that no one knows with certainty what the publishing industry will be like in five years.