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).