Most books that are published now are self-published.

Publisher’s Weekly has an interesting article on the increase in the number of books published with ISBNs in the U.S. jumping 32.5% in 2025, with the majority of books being self-published (3.5 million of 4 million). In other words, more than 80% of books in the U.S. last year were self-published.

I mentioned this news to an agent friend of mine and he believes the number of self-published books is even higher as many do not have ISBNs and thus wouldn’t be included in this data.

Is self-publishing the model of the future for writers? Or the model of the present even?

Most writers I know are already hybrid, where they publish some books with traditional publishers while self-publishing other works.

It’s an interesting time to be a writer. There has never been more opportunities to publish your work. The challenge now isn’t getting your books out there, it’s getting them noticed amid all the other books. I suspect the real value of publishers in the future will be less about distribution and more about driving conversations about their books in the attention economy.