The success of EL James’s erotic trilogy has led to a surge

in the number of middle-aged women producing ebooks

The success of EL James and her Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy did much to overturn the stereotype
of a self-published author. Now academic research further challenges the image of eccentric
hobbyists scribbling away in their sheds by revealing that it is middle-aged and well-educated
women who dominate the growing e-publishing market.

Alison Baverstock, an associate professor in publishing at Kingston University, Surrey, said her
research showed a clear gender split, with 65% of self-publishers being women and 35% men.
Nearly two-thirds of all self-publishers are aged 41 to 60, with a further 27% aged over 61. Half are
in full-time employment, 32% have a degree and 44% a higher degree.

Baverstock said there was a widespread misunderstanding about who decides to self-publish a
book, and how the genre was changing the publishing industry.

James has become arguably the richest of self-published authors through her “mummy porn” but,
while the prose and storylines have won mass audiences, they have also attracted scorn. There is
a belief, according to Baverstock, that self-publishers are doing so as a last resort, as vanity
publishers, and may not have much formal education.

However, she said, James was an example of how self-publishers “really know their audiences,
she is pretty sophisticated … she had self-belief. The books people really want to share are
fiction”.

Presenting her work to the Westminster Media Forum on the prospects for books, publishing and
libraries, Baverstock said there were popular subjects that traditional publishers had ignored,
including “respectable soft porn” and “gentle memoirs of everyday disasters, such as losing a
child”. Most publishers, she said, were being outpaced by a heady mix of democratisation and
digital distribution, because they came from a “very limited gene pool … all agree on what they like
… they know each other, and are not necessarily in touch with popular taste. Self-publishing is
going on in schools, across institutions, spreading knowledge [of how to publish].”

Gordon Wise, senior literary agent at Curtis Brown, lent support to her argument, adding: “Authors
may wish to remain self-published; there are many routes to market.”

Baverstock said that rapid change also meant “the position of the [literary] agent could be quite
threatened. If all an agent does is take a percentage of what the author receives, that sort of
relationship is threatened. Lots of people self- publishing are collaborative, they share information.”

Nicola Solomon, chief executive of the Society of Authors, said that self-publishing had “come of
age”, was making decent returns for some and was not just for people who want to be published at
any cost.

A quarter of self-publishers already considered themselves to be writers. “Publishers are narrowing

around safer options, bigger brand names. Lots of middle list authors, with a steady return, are too
small for them to engage with,” Solomon added.

Baverstock said that, far from feeling desperation, there was a consistently very high satisfaction
with self-publishing. Nor did it necessarily mean going it alone. In current research she is tracking
self-publishers’ rising use of freelance editors and marketing and legal experts after discovering in
a 2012 survey that 59% had used an editor – removing one of the last distinctions between
published and self-published books.

The rising demand for freelance editors means the quality is rising. She said that self-publishers
had to take personal responsibility for the management and production, so opening up an
understanding of how publishing worked. “This will hopefully diversify participation, widen
involvement. The author with experience of self-publishing is empowered,” she said.

Jeremy Thompson, managing director of Troubadour Publishing, a traditional publisher which has
also diversified into Matador, a self-publishing service, said demand had grown so rapidly in the
last few years that more commercial publishers were setting up self-publishing arms.

Opportunities to buy and sell are diversifying as digital sites such as Smashwords allow writers to
publish their own stories online free of charge. But the Westminster Media Forum heard that
people were suspicious of books available for nothing, and there was a sweet spot price point of
around £3.99 for an e-book.

Michael Tamblyn, president and chief content officer of Canada’s Kobo e-book platform, said that a
further challenge to publishers was that e-books, which record people moving on to the next page,
were throwing up “monumental data” about how people read.

“How people engage with books has been an undiscovered country,” he said. “How many are
opened, how many are finished. It enables us to find a book that did not sell well, but every person
liked it well enough to finish it. Also, where the reader lost the thread. To any author is that helpful?
It brings the reader into the picture.”

And some behaviour has not changed. He added: “We are seeing a surprising number of books,
award-winning titles purchased with the best of intentions, still sitting on the digital shelf.”

QUEENS OF SELF-PUBLISHING

EL JAMES - FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

Her trilogy was a breakthrough in “respectable mummy porn” – or erotic romance – featuring
billionaire Christian Grey and college graduate Anastasia Steele. The British author originally
published her work as an ebook and print on demand in 2011; the trilogy has now sold more than
100m copies worldwide. The film, starring Jamie Dornan, is out on 14 February 2015.

LISA GENOVA - STILL ALICE

The American neuroscientist/writer published Still Alice as a debut novel in 2007. It tells the
heartbreaking story of a 50-year-old Harvard professor, Alice Howland, a wife and mother of three,
diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. It gained popularity, was acquired by Simon & Schuster,
sold in 30 countries and 20 languages, and has been adapted for the stage and film.

BARBARA FREETHY - KISS ME FOREVER

Freethy started self-publishing her back lists, which were out of print, because she felt there was
an audience for romantic fiction and emotionally compelling stories about love. She has sold 4.8m
ebooks in three years, including her latest trilogy, Kiss Me Forever, Steal my Heart and All Your
Loving, featuring seven friends who start as bridesmaids and end up as brides.