About 50% of picture book authors said their publisher provided very little or no assistance marketing their book. These percentages are almost identical for large and small houses alike. However, at smaller houses is authors were slightly more likely to say their publisher provided either "A ton" or "A great amount" of marketing help.
Did this translate into sales?
The average (mean) number of copies sold per Big Five debut was 41,375*
The average (mean) number at smaller advance-paying publishers was 12,340
*The averages at the Big Five publishers were skewed by one huge selling title. If I remove the upper outlier, the average for Big Five publishers is 17,841.
Let's slice the data another way and look at median sales. (That's the middle-most sales.)
The median sales of debut picture books at Big Five publishers was 10,000 copies.
The median sales at smaller advance-paying publishers was 5,000
The median sales at no-advance publishers was 2,000
Big Five Authors usually sold more titles than authors at smaller houses, regardless of their level of perceived marketing assistance. This should come with a huge disclaimer that there are many types of small publishers and some non-Big Five publishers are quite large. Still, even authors at Big Five publishers who said their publisher offered "no" marketing support, usually out-performed peers at smaller houses. But, these authors did not usually sell as many copies as peers with more marketing assistance from their Big Five publisher.
#6: How many drafts did you write of your debut picture book before it was accepted for publication?
14.5% of authors wrote more than 20 drafts of their book before it was accepted for publication; however, most authors (56.7%) wrote 2-9 drafts.
Last year, I ran an anonymous survey for traditionally published children's authors. Hundreds of authors participated and the results for young adult, middle grade, and picture books categories painted a detailed picture of the life and livelihoods of children's authors.
After I published these results, a few people contacted me saying it's easier/better/more profitable to self-publish. I had guesses but not enough information to respond or verify. I wanted to know more, so from January to May (2018) I opened a survey for "Non-traditional Children's Book Publishing."
This anonymous survey was for authors publishing children's book(s):
1) under their own publishing brand (or under the label of a close friend/family member)
or
2) through a company that provides minimal to no editing/marketing assistance (including print on demand)
or
3) through a company where the author pays for or crowdfunds at least part of the publishing project.
Authors identifying as "self-published" or "indie" were welcome to participate as long as they met these requirements. In the end, seventy-eight authors submitted answers. THANK YOU authors!
A note about the term "indie author"
Some people thought I should call this survey an "indie author survey" instead of "non-traditional" or "self-published." However, while advertising for the survey, "indie" created some confusion. Some people seemed to think indie means published under a small, traditional, and advance-paying press. Not so. Indie means the author manages their own publishing brand and becomes their own house. Because of this confusion, I chose to identify all authors participating in the survey under the umbrella term "self-publishing." Feel free to discuss this more in the comments.
The authors taking the survey were:
Gender: 84.6% female, 14.1% male, 1.3% husband/wife team, 0% non-binary
Ethnicity: 8.2% Hispanic or Latino, 1% Filipino-American, 1% Ukrainian, and the remainder simply identified as "not Hispanic or Latino"
Race: 87% White, 3% Black or African American, 3% Mixed, 1% Middle Eastern, 1% Filipino, 1% American Indian or Alaskan Native, and 4% didn't answer
Age: The ages ranged from 19 to 85 years old. The average age was 46.
Country of residence: 85% USA, 4% Canada, 4% UK, 3% Australia, 1% Denmark, 1% Brazil, 1% New Zealand, 1% Singapore
Types of creators: 69% authors, 28% author/illustrator, and 3% illustrator
Writing: 88% fiction, 12% nonfiction
Intended audiences: 52% picture book, 2% chapter book, 33% middle grade, and 13% YA
I didn't have a large enough sample to feel confident breaking the data into sub-groups. However, if there's interest, I can look up specific information, like "30 year old female Hispanic picture book writers from the United States."
Levels of experience:
Authors rated their levels of experience in writing, editing, and marketing on a scale from 1 (hobbyist) to 5 (expert).