Related to the previous item in this issue, the UK’s Bookseller has announced a weekly ebook ranking. But as mentioned many times in past issues of The Hot Sheet, any such attempt is limited to what data trade publishers will share. “Audited ebook sales figures are released monthly by e-tailers to publishers,” Tom Tivnan writes at the Bookseller. “Weekly figures are given to publishers, but are unaudited. Therefore, we have a positional-only chart, based on unaudited numbers publishers have revealed to us.” And there are just six publishers revealing those numbers: Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and independent publisher Bloomsbury.
What of the missing self-published numbers? Amazon and other major online retailers don’t report them. “We are fully aware,” writes Tivnan, “this does not encompass the whole digital market, leaving off, well, all other publishers except these six and, of course, misses the self-published market.“
The Bookseller team hopes to generate a better-rounded picture of UK ebook action by soliciting anonymous input from independent authors, but to no avail thus far. Any indie authors who wish to participate can do so here [Editor’s note: this survey was for 2015].
Bottom line: While it’s common for self-published authors to complain that the industry doesn’t include them, it’s worth noting that when they’re invited to add their numbers to an analysis that wants to embrace them, at least in the UK, many indie publishers and authors don’t participate. Perhaps a lack of coherent response is to be expected in a sector that defines itself as independent, but if indie publishers and authors want a better picture of the marketplace, it will require their cooperation.
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.
