Once again my 2017 science fiction survey is up. We're getting feedback from authors, specifically about if they are wide and what percentage of revenue comes from page reads and non Amazon sources.
If your a scifi author, answer 5 questions and take a look at the results.
I just filled out the survey, but couldn't see everybody else's answers. Also with the revenue question, it's something of a design flaw that you can only put in 0, 1000, 2000, etc...
Hey everyone,
So sorry about the lack of results.
I'll post them here in a few days. Have had 45 people respond. I'll give everyone the breakdown before the weekend. That's on me. My bad.
And yes I capped some of the numbers because I didn't expect a lot of high incomes, which I was correct about.
I tweeted it for others, but was a DNF. For someone with a lot of books across several genres with some in KDP and some wide, it would be pretty time consuming to get the data just for the scifi books. Just mentioning this as others in the same boat might feel the same way and stop halfway through. I know some people are meticulous bookkeepers and use all sorts of tracking software, so maybe they could get the information with a few clicks, but I'm not. I just look at cumulative monthly income totals and make sure I make a lot more than I spend.
I'm in and out of the Amazon Top 100 sci-fi, which means there are around 100 authors on Amazon that sell more than I do, of which about half are indie and some are on KBoards. I also figure we KBoarders aren't the only ones filling out the survey. The survey as written skews low because the higher data isn't being captured. It's as if general income data on citizens didn't take anyone over $1M in income into account. 1% of people, but what, 50% of the wealth?
I'm curious about the results, but I'm not a science fiction writer. Is there a way to view them without filling out the survey? I remember a survey for writers making 100k+/year awhile back. It seemed to suggest that many of those authors had 30 books out. Maybe this survey is specifically targeting smaller authors and trying to exclude the bigger fish.
If I had 30 books out and were making $200,000/year, I would open the survey, see it isn't intended for me, and then close it without filling it out. I assume it's the creator's deliberate way of excluding anyone with 26 books / $51k out of his survey results, right?
Thanks for being patient everyone.
Here are the raw results. I'm battling to find time for promoting new books, writing and the Christmas holidays. It's a hectic time of year.
Here are the results. They are anonymous. I was hesitant to provide them, but the reality is that each writers journey is their own.
You will find that most authors make less than 12,000 a year.
Key thought here: The larger the standard deviation, the wider the distribution of people's answers. When you see a small SD, it means that the average is even more accurate.
Once the survey is complete (and you have time to tabulate all the results) will you be able to break it down into earnings as compared to the number of books published by an author? In other words, do earnings rise as the number of books published increases? As the number of books published increases, do earnings per published book increase, decrease or stay the same?
True, but I think this reflects a more realistic look at what most writers will be able to earn, especially in the early stages of their writing career. It might be more accurate to include higher incomes and then cut out those outside the standard deviation, but for a simple survey I think this works.
If you have 9 writers out of 10 who earn $15,000 per year and one who earns $1.5 million, the average income would be calculated to be $163,500 per year for all writers, which does not reflect the reality that most writers in this sample earn only $15K per year.
Seeing what the outliers can earn certainly gives positive motivation to others in that they see what they could possibly earn if the gods of writing smile upon them. As writers, we are professional daydreamers. But it is equally important that writers see what the reality is so they don't make poor decisions due to incomplete data.
I think this survey is a great idea! It educates us and enlightens us so we can make better decisions going forward with our writing careers.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Kindle Forum
3.9M posts
114.4K members
Since 2007
A forum community dedicated to Amazon Kindle owners, authors, and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about publishing, audio, troubleshooting, models, styles, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!