IndieAuthors.Social NewsJun 16

News Summary: Authors Guild Report Finds Only 25% of Readers Paid for Their Last Book

A new Authors Guild report has reached a stark conclusion: most readers are not paying for the books they read. To put it bluntly, that would seem to be the conclusion of a report from the Authors Guild. The report is dated December 2025, but the press release only came out in the last week, suggesting that some crunching and considering has been going on in the interim. I'll have a look at the more noteworthy findings and what they suggest for us as authors (Publishers Weekly's headline on the piece clearly cites a connection to declining author incomes), but first I want to situate this somewhat.
https://selfpublishingadvice.org/authors-guild-report/

#audiobookgrowth #authorincome #AuthorsGuild #bookpiracy #digitallibraries

Authors Guild Report: 25% of Readers Paid for Their Last Book

Authors Guild survey finds only 25% of readers paid for their last book. Libraries and piracy account for much of the remainder.

The Self-Publishing Advice Center
Show threadNathan Lowell (he/him) 📎

@indieauthornews

The long tail is still the long tail.

For decades the median author earnings had a floor held up by the publishing industry.

That's gone and the writers in the basement are starting to get counted.

The findings seem to blame readers for continuing to read any way they can in the face of decades long price increases in reading material, decreases in disposable income, and a homogenization of mainstream media.

JMO

Jun 16 at 12:59pmWeb