01
What medians does the Authors Guild survey state, and for whom?
The Authors Guild's "Key Takeaways from the 2023 Author Income Survey," checked 17 October 2026, is dated September 27, 2023, and updated October 25, 2023. It says the survey was run with 36 other organizations and that 5,699 published authors participated. It does not state the days the form was in the field. Book income "includes advances, royalties, and fees from licensing and subsidiary rights." Other author-related income "includes work such as editing, blogging, teaching, speaking, book coaching, copy writing and journalism." For full-time authors, "The median author income for full-time authors from their books was $10,000 in 2022, and their total median earnings from their book and other author-related income combined was $20,000." For full-time authors in commercial markets, excluding academic, scholarly, and educational books, "the median book income was $15,000 and median author-related income was $25,000." The page uses that phrase, "median author-related income," and this answer does not relabel it. For all authors who completed the survey, "80 percent of whom consider themselves professional authors, but only 35 percent of whom considered themselves full time," the median book income "was just $2,000 for 2022, and the median total author-related income was $5,000." Full-time self-published authors: "The median income of full-time self-published authors in 2022 was $12,800 from books and $15,000 total from all author-related activities." Those who had been publishing since at least 2018 "reported a median income of $24,000 compared to $13,700 in 2018, a 76 percent increase." The same page separates full-time genre medians from books: romance and romantic suspense $31,725, with combined income $37,000; graphic novelists $15,000 book income and $25,000 combined; mystery, thriller, and suspense $10,000 and $15,010 combined; literary fiction $5,000 and $13,500 combined; biography $3,500 and $9,200 combined; literary works, fiction and/or nonfiction, $2,800 from books and $10,100 overall. Those are different groups, not one author. Full-time Black authors had a median of $2,412 from their books, compared with $10,985 for white authors. The page also states a median of $800 in book-related income for all Black authors and $2,000 for white authors. A debut advance is not stated.[446]
- The $10,000, $2,000, and $12,800 figures are medians for different groups in the same survey.
- Half of a group is at or below the median. The page does not call any of these figures typical pay for a new author.
02
What does the ALLi survey state, and how was it collected?
ALLi's media release, "for immediate release Monday, April 17, 2023, London," checked 17 October 2026, calls the project an international survey of self-published authors, commissioned by ALLi. It was distributed in February 2023 to members, subscribers, and other author organizations. "The survey garnered a total of 2,539 respondents, of whom 2,261 (89%) met the qualification criteria." It says 60 percent were in North America, 21 percent in the United Kingdom, and Australia/New Zealand and Europe each about 8 percent. Analysis was by Thad McIlroy of The Future of Publishing and Steve Sieck of SKS Advisors. The median it states for 2022 is US$12,749, for self-publishing authors who spend more than half their working time on writing and publishing. The release compares that, "like for like," with "a median of US$8,600 for authors with third-party publishers," converted to US dollars. In the next list it attributes US$8,600 to a 2022 UK survey by the Authors' Lending and Collecting Society, down 38.2 percent since 2018. The same list cites a 2018 Canada median of US$6,990 from the Writers' Union of Canada and a 2018 US median of US$6,080 from the Authors Guild. This page did not re-check those three reports. The release says average incomes were over $80,000, with a 53 percent increase in 2022 over the previous year. It says almost a quarter had not yet started to earn, bringing in between 0 and 1K, that 43.8 percent reported over $20k, that 28 percent earned $50k or more, and that almost a fifth had six-figure publishing businesses. The average and the median are far apart on this release, and the release does not present the average as the middle author. The release does not state a debut advance.[447]
- US$12,749 is the median. Over $80,000 is the average the release states. They answer different questions.
- The US$8,600 figure is the release's comparison, tied in the same release to a 2022 UK survey. It is not the Authors Guild's $10,000 or $2,000.
03
Why do these income figures differ?
They describe different people, collected in different ways, and this page does not average them. The Authors Guild page is a United States survey of published authors, split into full-time and all respondents, book income and author-related income, and a full-time self-published subset. Its news page does not state the field dates. ALLi's release is an international opt-in survey, distributed in February 2023, limited to respondents who met its qualification criteria, and it reports writing and publishing revenue for people who spend more than half their working time on that work. A full-time self-published median of $12,800 and a primary-occupation indie median of US$12,749 can sit near each other without being the same statistic. The Authors Guild's $2,000 median is for every author who finished that survey, not only full-time self-publishers. ALLi's over-$80,000 average includes the high earners the release describes, which is why it is not a substitute for the median. Neither page is a census of authors.[446][447]
- Do not add the medians and divide. The samples, the countries, and the income definitions are not the same.
- A platform royalty rate is not an income. Royalty rules are on the royalty-rate answer.
04
What do these pages leave unknown?
A median debut advance is not stated. The Authors Guild news page does not state when the questionnaire was open, or a response rate against a defined population of all authors. ALLi's release does not state a debut advance, a per-country median beyond the geography shares above, or the income of authors who spend less than half their time writing and publishing. Neither page states what a given author will earn next year. Royalties, advances, and rights fees inside "book income" are not itemized into a debut figure.[446][447]
- These surveys report groups. They do not price one book.
Use the guided answer
Apply this to your book
The guide preserves your exact choice in the URL, so you can return to it or send it to someone else.
Open the distribution stage