“I’ve always been sort of a practical person. I thought, what’s the best thing for my career and my direction? At one point it was traditional publishing, and then it shifted to self-publishing, now it’s shifted to something else.”

The rise of independent publishing – also known by “self-publishing” – has changed the book business as dramatically as social media has affected the news cycle. What once were closed systems that gatekeepers strictly managed for their own benefits are now open, expansive and welcoming.

When the tables first turned earlier in this decade, authors rejoiced. But in 2018, the celebration may be dying down.

According to Bowker, more than three-quarters of a million ISBNs were assigned to self-published titles in 2016. In 2011, book title registrations of the same type were just under a quarter million. For 2016, numbers of print titles rose 11 percent year-over-year, a sharp fall from a 34% hike in 2015. E-book title registrations also dropped in 2016 by three percent. Bowker has identified in the dwindling numbers, “an ongoing maturation and stabilization of the self-publishing industry”.

Certainly, self-published authors like Jeff Rivera can confirm that the market winds have shifted. A best-selling author of dozens of titles in a wide range of genres, Rivera rode the self-publishing wave to considerable heights, though he recently announced in a blog post that he will suspend his book writing to focus exclusively on film-making.

“I’ve always been sort of a practical person. I thought, what’s the best thing for my career and my direction? At one point it was traditional publishing, and then it shifted to self-publishing, now it’s shifted to something else,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

“What I noticed – and I have seen for the last few years – is a change in consumer attention in general. Attention has really shifted away from reading physical books or e-books, and more to social media, more to gaming, more to live events, more to music, more to films, more to Netflix-style television binge watching. I had to take a real practical realistic look at consumer behavior and think to myself, where do I want to be? It’s not even what’s happening in the future. It’s what’s happening right now, when you take an honest look at where consumer behavior is. And that’s where I want to head.”