Romance represents 50 percent of sales at the self-publishing e-book distributor Smashwords, according to a new survey from the company.
The survey includes statistics from March 2015 through the end of February 2016. The research also found that 13.5 percent of authors on the site are using preorders. While most authors haven’t yet used this tool, the company found that seven of its 10 bestselling titles offered preorder sales.
Smashwords also found that offering a free e-book is a great promotional tool. Free e-books see 41x as many downloads as books priced higher when sold through iBooks. In addition, the study found that e-book series sell much better than standalone titles.