My last blog focused on the drop in book readers. When I saw those statistics, I wondered if the drop was due to a lack of books to choose from?

Ha!

In 2025, over 4 million books were published in the United States.

Lots of books; fewer readers. That isn’t encouraging.

( Publishers Weekly has an excellent article on the topic.)

Those 4 million books published in 2025 include traditionally published and self-published. They’re hardcovers, paperbacks, ebooks, and audio books. (Each type of publication needs a separate ISBN and, according to Bowker, which supplies ISBNs, that number was up over 35% from 2024.)

I wasn’t surprised that self-published works led the increase. They were up by a million over the number published in 2024. (2025—>3.5 million; 2024—>2.5 million) The number of traditionally published books also rose, but only by 40 thousand. (2025—>   642.242 thousand 2024—>602,428 thousand) and some of those books were releases, not new works. The top genre was fiction, adult  fiction leading juvenile fiction.

Obviously there are plenty books  and formats for readers to choose from, but if not as many people are reading it stands to reason not as many are buying books.

So, can a writer make any money with so much competition?

For most of us, sadly, the answer is not much. The sales average of a traditionally published book is 3,000 copies over its lifetime. (Lifetime, not one year.) For a traditionally published paperback, the writer generally gets 10% of the sales price. Depending on that price, over a lifetime , it will only earn around $5,000. The lifetime sales average for a self-published book is 250-300 copies. The self-published book generally earns 75% of its sales price. That’s great, but you’re probably not going to be able to buy a Rolls Royce with those earnings. You will get around $2,500 or so.

On the other hand, If your self-published book sells 3,000 copies in one year, you can bet a traditional publisher will be after you with a contract in hand.

So, can you make a living writing?

If you have a well written book and you’re good at marketing, or hire someone who’s really good at getting your name and the book out to the general public, you can make money writing.  Many authors have. Sometimes coming up with the right story at the right time, and/or writing several books a year, will earn you a lot of money. You just never know when that’s going to be.

If you love writing—if it’s something you just have to do to be happy—the money isn’t as important (nice, but not important) as the pleasure of hearing someone say how much he or she loved your book or books.

Keep writing.