Indie Author Snapshot: An Introduction

Indie authors have to shoulder the responsibilities not only of writing, but also as a publisher. This includes all promotional activities, as well as developing a longer term business strategy. It is a challenge which can be both exciting, and intimidating.

There are a number of resources which I have used to assess the market, and how best to promote my work as an indie author. These include:

• Advice from other indie authors (including from forums, websites, and books)
• Advice from promotional resources supporting indie authors
• Observations and profiles I've assembled from individual authors who have "made it" in the self-publishing world

As part of this effort, I recently completed a cross-market review of several indie authors in the fantasy genre, looking for trends and common attributes for success. I will be sharing my observations from this review in a series of upcoming blog posts.

The market survey included statistics collected from:

• 24 indie authors who have published in the fantasy genre
• Each author had anywhere from one to sixty books under their belt at the time the data was collected
• A total of 259 books were included in the study
• These books spanned a total of 59 different series

Data was compiled for each book in the study, to reflect a snapshot for each indie author's publications - as compiled on a single day in June. The data collected included:

• Amazon ranking for each eBook
• Amazon rating
• Number of Amazon ratings and reviews
• Goodreads rating
• Number of Goodreads ratings and reviews
• Original release date for each book
• "Print Length" for each eBook
• Price and formats available (eBook, paperback, hardcover or audiobook)

Plus other details about each novel (which I'll be discussing in coming days)

All of the authors reviewed had published at least one novel in the fantasy genre - falling into sub-genres ranging from urban fantasy, to sword and sorcery and high fantasy. For the purposes of this assessment, a few sub-genres were omitted - including grim dark or dark fantasy, as well as erotic fantasy.

Other fictional works attributed to each author were also included as part of the overall assessment for the breadth of each author's portfolio - although any non-fiction books were omitted. I also omitted books published under a different pseudonym.

In the coming blog posts, I will be reviewing the statistical findings from this miniature survey, and comparing them to those reported by others in the indie author community.