According to Bowker, 71% of self-published books in the past 12 months were bought by women, with romance titles the most popular category, followed by literary fiction.
More than 80% of last year’s self-published ISBNs came through just eight self-publishing houses. Amazon’s CreateSpace had the biggest year-on-year increase, followed by Smashwords, Lulu and, in fourth place, the Random House imprint Author Solutions.
These figures refer to self-published books with an ISBN, so are likely to be an under-estimate of the overall DIY market.