3.5 MILLION SELF-PUBLISHED BOOKS A YEAR—AND THAT’S JUST THE BOOKS.
More than four million ISBN-registered books hit the U.S. market in 2025. Most were self-published.
Apparently the world isn’t running out of writers.
The bigger question is:
Who is helping all these people get discovered?
📚 SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A BOOK?
There are plenty of publishing companies in the world, and every writer knows the dream. Write something great, get discovered by a publisher, land in bookstores, sell a pile of copies and maybe someday watch Hollywood turn the thing into a movie.
Harry Potter. Twilight. Fifty Shades of Grey. We know the stories because the winners become enormous. Publishing companies can provide editing, design, production, distribution, bookstore relationships, marketing and something incredibly valuable to a writer:
Somebody else helping you sell the book.
The problem is getting them to say yes.
You can spend months or years writing something and then discover there is an entirely different business waiting on the other side. Agents. Query letters. Submissions. Rejections. More submissions. More waiting. Somebody you have never met is ultimately deciding whether your idea fits what they believe their company can sell.
That doesn’t necessarily mean they think your book is bad.
Publishing is a business.
The question isn’t merely, “Is this good?”
It’s also:
“Can we make money selling this?”
And that helps explain why so many writers eventually look at the whole process and say:
Fine. I’ll publish it myself. 😂
🏢 PUBLISHER VS. SELF-PUBLISHER
Traditional publishing still has real advantages. A publisher may provide professional editing, design, production, distribution, established retail relationships and marketing support while assuming much of the financial risk. If the machine gets behind your book, that machine can be extremely powerful.
Self-publishing gives you something completely different:
You don’t need permission.
You decide what gets written, when it gets published, what the cover looks like, how it is priced and where it is sold.
Congratulations.
You’re an author.
Unfortunately, you also just became the publisher, marketing department, creative director and sales department. 😂
That’s the trade.
🚀 AND SOMETIMES DOING IT YOURSELF ACTUALLY WORKS. 😂
Andy Weir is a great example.
He originally published The Martian on his own website. Readers wanted a version they could put on their e-readers, so he eventually placed it on Amazon Kindle. The book took off, traditional publishing followed, and eventually Matt Damon was stuck on Mars eating potatoes. Weir has described his path as essentially happening backward from the normal publishing process.
That is the self-publishing dream.
Write something. Put it into the world. Readers discover it before the big publishing machine does.
Does that happen to everybody?
😂
No. Of course not.
And that is where this story gets interesting.
📊 BECAUSE THE NUMBERS ARE ABSOLUTELY NUTS.
Bowker data reported by Publishers Weekly shows that more than four million ISBN-registered books were published in the United States during 2025. Traditional publishing accounted for 642,242 of them.
Self-publishing?
3,529,980.
Self-published output jumped 38.7% in one year, from about 2.5 million in 2024. Between 2022 and 2025, traditional output increased about 10%, while self-published output increased 43.5%.
Now, let’s be careful with the number. That does not mean 3.5 million different people each wrote one completely new book. Authors can publish multiple books and editions, and different formats can carry different ISBNs.
But stand back from the accounting details for a minute.
THREE AND A HALF MILLION.
That is an enormous amount of independently published material entering an already crowded marketplace in a single year.
And the book business itself is hardly disappearing. The Association of American Publishers estimates that U.S. publishing generated $33.4 billion in 2025, including about $21.7 billion from Trade consumer books.
If you combine 2024 and 2025 alone, that is approximately 6 million self-published titles and editions registered in the U.S. across those two years. However, this number only counts new titles registered with an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) via Bowker, the official U.S. ISBN agency. The total number of all-time or currently active self-published books out in the world is much higher.
Books aren’t dead.
Writers aren’t disappearing.
Apparently a massive number of people are publishing one. 😂
🔎 PUBLISHING THE BOOK ISN’T THE SAME AS SELLING THE BOOK.
Technology largely solved the old permission problem.
You can publish.
Wonderful.
Now what?
Amazon can make your book available to millions of people. That doesn’t mean millions of people know your book exists.
Your website can explain everything about the book. That doesn’t mean anybody visits the website.
You can post:
“MY BOOK IS FINALLY AVAILABLE!”
to your Facebook page.
Maybe Aunt Susan buys one.
😂
That is the problem nobody wants to talk about while they’re dreaming about becoming an author.
DISCOVERY.
The Authors Guild’s large income survey illustrates how difficult the economics can be. Among all participating authors, including part-time writers, median book income for 2022 was only $2,000. Full-time self-published authors reported median book income of $12,800, although experienced self-published authors who had been publishing for several years reported considerably higher earnings.
That doesn’t mean 95% of books “fail.” I don’t even know how anyone could honestly calculate that because success means different things to different writers.
If you wrote your grandfather’s life story and twenty members of the family read it, maybe you succeeded.
If you spent $30,000 producing a thriller because you expected to quit your job and twenty people bought it?
Different definition. 😂
But this much seems obvious:
MILLIONS OF BOOKS BEING PUBLISHED DOES NOT MEAN MILLIONS OF BOOKS ARE BEING SUCCESSFULLY DISCOVERED.
And that’s where my Sales Freak brain starts working.
🅿️ AMAZON DOESN’T NEED TO LOSE FOR WRITERS FREAK TO WIN.
I’m not building Writers Freak to replace Amazon.
That would be ridiculous.
Amazon is a massive distribution and retail channel. Bookstores have their purpose. Publishers have theirs. An author’s own website should be the home base for the author or book.
Why wouldn’t you want another place for the book to live?
That’s where a Writers Freak Parking Spot fits.
For $7 one time, an author can create another page around the book and explain the story behind it. Show the cover. Add photographs. Embed supported video. Talk about the research. Link the author’s website. Link directly to wherever the book is sold. Tell readers what makes it different. Update the page later when something changes.
Amazon might be where somebody buys your book.
Writers Freak can be another place where you give somebody a reason to care about it first.
That’s a different job.
🤠 MAYBE YOU DON’T NEED ANOTHER CUSTOMER. MAYBE YOU NEED ANOTHER WRITER.
Suppose you wrote a Western.
“Giddy up partner!”
You spent two years researching New Mexico in the 1880s, finished the manuscript and now you’re trying to decide whether to find an agent or self-publish. You’re trying to choose an editor, wondering about an audiobook, figuring out advertising and discovering that writing “THE END” did not actually end anything.
😂
Why not talk about that? What’s that experience been like for you? That’s an interesting Parking Spot. Your experience has value to other writers, so why not share it, create some interest and you can share your challenges along with your website and your book.
Put your book on Writers Freak, but also explain what you’re trying to accomplish. Tell people where you’re stuck, what you’ve already tried and what you’ve learned.
Maybe somebody discovers your Parking Spot six months from now who has already published five Westerns.
Maybe they’ve already made every mistake you’re about to make.
Maybe they contact you and say:
“I’ve already been through this. Here’s what I learned.”
Now turn it around.
Maybe you’re the writer who already knows the answer. You chose the wrong editor, screwed up your first cover, figured out KDP, produced the audiobook and spent $500 advertising something that sold three copies.
😂 Share that too.
Writers helping writers doesn’t require everybody to agree. Sometimes another opinion is exactly what somebody needs.
And the person who discovers your Parking Spot may not become a customer at all.
They may simply be the person you needed to meet.
🎬 WAIT. WHY ARE WE ONLY TALKING ABOUT BOOKS?
This is the part where the Bowker number gets even more interesting.
More than 3.5 million self-published ISBN-registered titles and editions in one year sounds massive.
But books are only one piece of Writers Freak.
Maybe you wrote a screenplay and you’re trying to get somebody in the film business to read it. Maybe you wrote a stage play, song lyrics, an audiobook or a podcast. Maybe you’re a ghostwriter, editor, narrator, journalist, blogger, writing coach, literary agent, publisher, bookstore owner, book-cover designer or somebody selling a service to people who create things with words.
That’s why Writers Freak isn’t:
BOOKS FREAK.
😂
It’s Writers Freak.
Books. Authors. Stories. Publishing. Podcasts. Audiobooks. Scripts. Editing. AI. The whole world around words.
So when I look at those 3.5 million self-published books, I don’t think:
That’s the Writers Freak market.
I think:
THAT’S ONE SEGMENT OF IT.
💰 AND THEN MY SALES BRAIN SEES ANOTHER CUSTOMER.
Maybe you’re reading this thinking:
“That’s great, but I haven’t written anything.”
You don’t have to.
Writers Freak has an affiliate program.
Maybe you’re already in sales or marketing. Maybe you’re retired, a veteran transitioning into something new, have a disability that makes a traditional work environment difficult, are caring for somebody at home, can’t find the right job or simply want a flexible online business in a niche that interests you.
Join the affiliate program for free and find the people who have written something.
Writers Freak already created the product.
You don’t manufacture anything, carry inventory, rent a storefront or ship boxes from your garage. You’re introducing people to a $7 product they can use to give their work another place to be found.
Now go back to Bowker.
3,529,980 self-published titles and editions in one year.
I’m obviously not suggesting all of them are going to buy a Writers Freak Parking Spot. I’m not even suggesting every one represents a different writer.
I’m asking a much simpler sales question:
HOW MANY PROSPECTS DO YOU NEED? 😂
Ten?
Fifty?
A hundred?
You’re going to run out of time before the publishing industry runs out of writers.
And remember—we haven’t even left the book aisle yet.
💡 THAT’S WHAT MAKES THIS INTERESTING TO ME.
There are several different people who can look at Writers Freak and see completely different opportunities.
- The writer can promote something they’ve created and give it another place to live.
- The experienced writer can share what they’ve learned and potentially help someone navigating the same road.
- The publisher or writing-related business can talk about books, services, authors or projects they’re trying to promote.
- The affiliate can introduce a simple $7 product to an enormous niche without having to create the product themselves.
Same Island.
Different reasons for being here.
That is how an ecosystem starts becoming more interesting than another website filled with articles.
📚 SO WHY BOTHER WRITING THE BOOK?
Maybe you’ll write the next Harry Potter.
Maybe not. 😂
Maybe you’ll self-publish the next Martian and Hollywood comes knocking.
Maybe not that either.
So what?
Maybe 100 people reading your book would make you happy. Maybe you want 100,000. Maybe you’re building a career, documenting your family, explaining something you know or finally writing the story that’s been stuck inside your head for twenty years.
Write the thing.
Just understand that writing it and getting it discovered are two completely different jobs.
Traditional publishers understand that.
Self-published authors learn it pretty quickly.
And when more than 3.5 million self-published titles and editions enter the U.S. market in a single year, I don’t see a shortage of writers.
I see something else.
THE WRITING BUSINESS DOESN’T HAVE A SUPPLY PROBLEM.
IT HAS A DISCOVERY PROBLEM.
And that’s exactly why a place called Writers Freak makes sense.
🅿️ GIVE YOUR WORDS ANOTHER PLACE TO LIVE.
Maybe it’s your new book or the book you’ve been trying to sell for five years. Maybe it’s your screenplay, stage play, podcast, audiobook, writing service or your story about everything that went wrong when you tried to publish the first time.
Park it.
Tell people what you created, what you’re trying to accomplish and what you’ve learned along the way. Let somebody find you.
Maybe you’ll sell something. Maybe you’ll learn something. Maybe you’ll help somebody else. Maybe you’ll meet the person you needed to meet.
That’s the whole point.
A standard Writers Freak Parking Spot is $7 one time. You control it, you can update it later, and there’s no monthly fee, scheduled renewal or scheduled expiration.
Seven bucks.
More than 3.5 million self-published titles in one year.
And that’s only the books.
😂