The self-publishing industry has taken large strides in the past few years, causing a shift in the traditional publishing houses conventions within the book publishing industry, challenging the current status quo and forcing them to reassess their influence within the market.

There have been a lot of variables that have helped contribute to the growing rise in the number of independent self-published authors out there, one of which being the technologies available to authors and the end-user, making it easy and more affordable to print copies of books for selling, as well as expanding the channels which people buy books, in essence creating a larger audience.

Looking back over old industry news and articles since the beginning of 2014, there have been mostly positive news and related stories into the success of self-publishing, with expanding statistics to support the claim that independent publishing is here to stay.

Statistics from the Nielsen Book’s UK Books & Consumer Annual Review for 2013 have shown a 4% decrease year-on-year for the purchase of physical books, which was offset by the purchase of digital versions of titles that account for 25 per cent of the total number of book purchases – although this fall in sales of physical copies does not necessarily support our argument, it demonstrates the change in consumer behaviour.

An investigation from Author Earnings estimates that the numbers of authors that are self-published account for approximately a third of sales for e-books. Although this reflects only a small part of the book industry on the whole, the e-book market is showing great signs of improvement on the whole, which in turn can benefit both independent authors and authors that have deals with traditional publishing houses.

The possible future of the self-publishing revolution will only been seen in time, often things that show huge growth to begin with often plateau later, but given the expanse of and growing number of technology on the market, as well as places to shout about and market book titles, including the huge potential that social networking sites can offer the independent author of tomorrow will have something to look forward to, with a decreasing number of barriers to entry giving the chance to any author that wants to give a book a go.