According to the latest report from ProQuest affiliate Bowker, self-publishing grew at a rate of 40% in 2018 – and shows no signs of slowing down.
Bowker’s annual study, “Self-Publishing in the United States, 2013-2018,” highlights self-publishing trends based on the number of ISBNs registered in the Bowker Books In Print database. A book’s ISBN is a 13-digit product identifier used by libraries, booksellers, publishers and internet retailers for ordering, listing, sales records, and inventory.
The combined total of self-published print books and ebooks with registered ISBNs grew from almost 1.2 million in 2017 to more than 1.6 million in 2018. The vast majority of those books came from the top three independent publishing platforms.