Independent publishing intelligenceSources over slogans
What Writers Don’t Know
Source desk

Receipts,
not vibes.

Primary documents, professional bodies, surveys and reporting used across our current briefings.

01Whitman Archive — Leaves of Grass, 1855 editionwhitmanarchive.org↗02Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library (Yale) — 1855 Leaves of Grassbeinecke.library.yale.edu↗03Jane Austen Society of North America — Sense and Sensibilityjasna.org↗04Jane Austen’s House — First edition: Sense and Sensibilityjaneaustens.house↗05V&A — Peter Rabbit: the tale of “The Tale”vam.ac.uk↗06Mental Floss — Why Beatrix Potter Self-Published Peter Rabbitmentalfloss.com↗07Elle Griffin — No One Buys Books (The Elysian)elysian.press↗08Lincoln Michel — No, Most Books Don’t Sell Only a Dozen Copiescountercraft.substack.com↗09Slate — A Post About Book Sales Went Viral. Here’s What It Gets Wrong.slate.com↗10Jane Friedman — Why book sales figures are so hard to interpret (verification example)janefriedman.com↗11Authors Guild — Key Takeaways from the 2023 Author Income Surveyauthorsguild.org↗12The Bookseller — Median earnings for authors now just £7,000 (ALCS)thebookseller.com↗13ALCS — UK Authors’ Earnings and Contracts 2022 (full report)create.ac.uk↗14Publishers Weekly — Returns 101: What New Authors Need to Knowpublishersweekly.com↗15Publishers Weekly — With Print Book Sales Stabilized, Return Rate Lowerspublishersweekly.com↗16RISE Bookselling — Industry Insights: Returnsrisebookselling.eu↗17Publishers Weekly — Self-Publishing’s Output and Influence Continue to Grow (Bowker data)publishersweekly.com↗18IBPA Hybrid Publisher Criteria — honest distribution claimsibpa-online.org↗19Google Search Central — Spam policies (scaled content abuse)developers.google.com↗20Google — New updates to address spam and low-quality results (March 2024)blog.google↗