Bowker has not publicly released any figures on self-publishing in the United States since this one detailing ISBN counts from 2013 to 2018. But Publishers Weekly now reports Bowker has recently put out a new report with updated numbers. (We have not yet seen it circulated, unfortunately.) In 2021, the number of new self-published titles that have both ISBNs and BISAC codes was 2,298,004, according to Bowker. That’s well beyond the 1.5 million registered in 2018. Fiction is the most popular category for registered work, followed by juvenile nonfiction.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
