The latest survey from Written Word Media was supposed to be a quick pulse check on the state of independent publishing. Instead, it reads like an autopsy report for oldpub.

Once again, the data confirms what many of us have been saying for years: The folks holed up inside Manhattan high-rises aren’t steering the future. Newpub is in leading the industry, and contra their carefully maintained public image, legacy publishers are along for the ride.

Independent authors armed with skill, determination, and immunity to the lure of corporate validation, continue to claim profitable ground the old institutions can’t even see.

Below are the most revealing points.

The Midlist Has Moved, and It Isn’t Coming Back

Survey respondents who earn a full-time income from writing overwhelmingly identified as independent.

Not trad, not hybrid.

Independent.

Today’s healthy midlist has vanished from New York. It now lives in newpub.

The establishment spent a decade shredding its list of consistently selling, working authors, convinced prestige was more valuable than profitability. That decision created a vacuum. And indies filled it so effectively, many readers have no idea their favorite authors aren’t published by some Manhattan-based imprint.

Oldpub replaced decades-long careers with TikTok gimmicks. Readers voted with their wallets. And they’re not switching back.

Readers Show Up for Writers Who Show Up

One of the biggest takeaways from the survey is that the most successful authors publish consistently.

Not frantically.

Consistently.

Oldpub dithers over outdated marketing schedules and fringe politics. Indies release new work when it’s ready, not when a sales team with a spreadsheet or a sensitivity reader with a newly minted studies degree gives them permission.

And the survey makes clear that readers reward reliability. It’s not 2008 anymore. A year is no longer a standard interval between books, it’s a dip into irrelevance.

The moral: Write, publish, repeat. The rest is noise.

Advertising Still Works, But Not as a Crutch

The survey contained a subtle warning disguised as a statistical footnote: Ad spend only pays off when the catalog behind it can support repeat readership.

This data point exposes one of the oldest lies in publishing, that visibility is the sole ingredient for success.

It turns out that visibility without substance is a bonfire of cash.

The indies reporting the strongest revenue didn’t buy their way into prominence. They first built stable readership through series, mailing lists, direct sales, and predictable output. Ads helped, but only after the foundation was already poured.

Therein lies the secret: Predictable output, cohesive catalogs, and reader trust.

But oldpub, unable to release a sequel on time to save its life, cannot replicate this winning formula.

Direct-to-Reader Relationships Aren’t the Future, They Dominate Now

In one of its most explosive findings, the survey reported that authors who cultivate their own sales channels like direct stores, subscription platforms, and email lists are more resilient and far more profitable.

The gatekeepers spent decades convincing writers they were helpless without them. Now the numbers show that writers who take responsibility for their own audiences earn multiples of what their agented peers do.

Control means survival. It also means independence. This reality terrifies the corporations still pretending they’re indispensable.

The Silent Collapse

Perhaps the most remarkable parts of the survey were the implications behind the numbers. Every metric that once gave traditional publishing the advantage: distribution, revenue stability, and discoverability has slipped through their fingers.

Newpub now dominates these areas through agility, direct contact with readers, and operational efficiency the old guard cannot match.

It didn’t happen overnight, but now that the revolution is complete, it’s irreversible. The transition from oldpub to deadpub is a done deal.

Indies are the ones still writing, still selling, and still meeting reader demand.

The Takeaway for New Writers

If you want a writing career that lasts, the path is wide open:

Don’t wait for permission
learn the business
release steadily
talk to readers directly
own as many channels to your audience as possible.

The Big 5 publishers are sinking. But writers willing to take the wheel are finding more opportunity than ever before.

Newpub isn’t the future. Neopatronage isn’t the future.

They’re the present.

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Brian Niemeier is a best-selling novelist, editor, and Dragon Award winner with over a decade in newpub. For direct, in-person writing and editing insights, join his Patreon.