My science experiment… preliminary data

Early results…

Publishing Community survey on “perceptions of success”

HOLY SHIT the results are fascinating.

MY SCIENCE EXPERIMENT, preliminary data…

On a scale from 1-5, rating their level of happiness

Hybrid authors: 4.58 (n=7)

Indie authors: 4.04 (n=71)

Trad authors: 3.56 (n=9)

^^ Did not expect that… :O

Readers/Bloggers order of determinants/indicators for (perception of) success:

1. Respect of fellow authors (4.46)

2. Happiness (4.33)

3. Average rating on Amazon/B&N/Kobo* (3.62)

4. Hitting NYT/USA list (3.57)

5. Total number of books sold (3.49)

6. Number of ratings on Amazon/B&N/Kobo (3.40)

7. Praise from high profile bloggers/reviewers (3.38)

8. Making a successful yearly wage as an author* (3.34)

9. Number of FB likes/followers (2.88)

10. Securing a publishing contract (2.36)

11. Securing an agent (2.35)

Authors (aspiring, trad, indie, hybrid) order of determinants for (perception of) success:

1. Happiness (4.53)

2. Making a “successful” yearly wage as an author* (4.23)

3. Respect of fellow authors (4.15)

4. Total number of books sold (4.10)

5. Hitting NYT/USA list (3.84)

6. Praise from high profile bloggers/reviewers (3.48)

7. Average rating on Amazon/B&N/Kobo* (3.47)

8. Number of ratings on Amazon/B&N/Kobo (3.33)

9. Number of FB likes/followers (2.58)

10. Securing a publishing contract (2.55)

11. Securing an agent (2.50)

Of note, with the author group, I normalized the scores / I gave each segment equal weight (so, average across each type was then averaged. Therefore, trad author group is weighted the same as indie author group, etc….)

This is so interesting to me!

Readers/Bloggers discounted “making a successful wage as an author”, but placed a high degree of importance on average rating (on Amazon, B&N, kobo, etc.)

Authors did just the opposite (discounted importance of ratings and placed high importance on wage).

Also interesting that (to readers/bloggers) respect of fellow authors ranked highest; whereas, to authors, it ranked 3rd.

Also, very interesting that readers’ scores are more normalized (meaning, their distribution curve across all items is a normal curve, i.e. equal distribution on both sides of the average); whereas authors’ have a negative (“right leaning”) distribution (translated, this means– to authors– everything is important).

Sorry, had to share this someplace!

Okay… I guess I should go to sleep at some point. O.o