Time once again to take a closer look at the Amazon’s Epic Fantasy Bestseller list for the Kindle. The data for this post was take 09/09/2013.
Traditional publishing continues its majority presence, but just barely 51% of the books published through that route. Self-publishing still is doing well with 43%. Small press and Amazon titles makes up very few of the overall list at 6%.
When breaking down the list via authors we find that there are 48 authors (4% less than last report) who have books on the list and self-publishing is providing the greatest number of contributors with 54%. Traditionally published authors decreased to 40% from the last report.
Just as last report, the majority of these 48 authors have only one book on the list. That being said, the single book authors was down slightly from 58% to 54% of the authors having one book on the list.
The traditionally published authors with multiple books include:
- Robert Jordan 12 books (6: $5.99, 2: $6.99, 4: $7.99)
- George R.R. Martin 6 books ($5.69, 2: $6.99, $11.99, $15.72 (omni), $31.99 (omni))
- Brandon Sanderson 6 books ($4.99(novella), $5.99, $6.99, $7.49, $14.99, $16.03 (omni))
- Michael J. Sullivan 4 books ($7.99, 3:$8.89)*
- Mark Lawrence 3 books (2: $5.99, $9.99)
- Terry Goodkind 3 books ($7.49, $7.99, $11.04)
- J.R.R. Tolkien 2 books ($7.49, $10.00)
- Justin Cronin 2 books ($5.99, $7.99)
- Terry Brooks 2 books ($5.99, $10.99)
- R. A. Salvatore 2 books ($6.83, $7.8)
The self-published authors with multiple books include:
- Brian D. Anderson 4 books (2:$2.99, 2: $3.99)
- Michael G. Manning 4 books ($0.99, $2.99, 2: $4.95)
- B.T. Narro 3 books (2: $3.99, $4.99)
- Jeff Wheeler 3 books ($2.99, $2.99, $2.99
- Jordan Baker 3 books ($0.99, 2: $2.99)
- Morgan Rice 3 books (3: $2.99)
- Joseph Lallo 2 books (2: $2.99)
- Leeland Artra 2 books ($3.99, $5.99)
- Martin Hengst 2 books (2: $2.99)
- Michael Ploof 2 books ($2.99, $4.99)
- Shae Ford 2 books ($1.99, $2.99)
- Will Wight 2 books (2: $2.99)
The traditionally published authors with 1 book include:
- Brent Weeks ($0.99 (short))
- Brian McClellan ($1.99)
- David Mitchell ($9.99)
- Deborah Harkness ($9.99)
- Jim Butcher ($7.99)
- Joe Abercrombie ($9.99(omni))
- Naomi Novik ($10.99)
- Orson Scott Card ($5.99)
- Stephen King ($7.20)
The self-published authors with 1 book include:
- C. Greenwood ($2.99)
- Casey Odell ($3.99)
- Chanda Hahn ($2.99)
- Charles E Yallowitz ($0.99)
- Chris Hollaway ($3.99)
- Daniel Arenson ($7.99)
- E. L. Todd ($0.99)
- Jeremy Brooks ($3.99)
- M. R. Mathias ($0.99)
- Mitchell Hogan ($7.99)
- Pemry Janes ($2.99)
- Russell Thomson ($1.55)
- Thomas Rath ($2.99)
- Toby Neighbors ($2.99)
The Amazon & small press authors with 1 book include:
- Neal Stephenson, Erik Bear, Bear Greg and Joseph Brassey ($3.99)
- Robert Kroese ($1.99)
- Sherwood Smith ($4.50)
When we look at pricing. The majority of books are priced in the $4.99 – $9.99 range. But we did find downward pressure on price from the traditional sector. The average price for traditionally published books fell by over $1 from $9.59 last time to $8.45 this report. Self-publishing pricing remained fairly consistent with the average last time at $3.30 and this report $3.40. A look at the total price to purchase all books shows a decrease of 11% from $672.12 to $596.56.
To further explain the downward pressure on price:
- Total price of all books last time $672.12 this time $596.56
- Average price for traditionally published books was
When it comes to gender, male authors continue to dominate the bestseller list. This report showed even fewer titles by women down to 21% from 28% last report.
Last reports observations continue. In that women appear to be having more success in self-publishing than traditional. For instance:
- 11% (2 of 19 of the traditional authors are female
- 100% (10 of 10) of the traditional authors with multiple books are male
- 22% (2 of 9) of traditional authors with one book are female
- 27% (7 of 26) of the self-published authors are female
- 25% (3 of 12) of self-published authors with multiple books are female
- 29% (4 of 14) of self-published authors with one book are female
* NOTE: I should put up a disclaimer that this entry refers to myself.
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