The Year in Book Selling (and the Focus for 2026)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

In 2025, print books became harder to place in stores — but far more profitable for authors who sold direct to readers.

As big retailers carried fewer titles and relied more heavily on algorithms and sales velocity to decide what stayed on shelves, many independent and niche books were filtered out and not because of quality, but because the big retailers and wholesalers are prioritizing fewer titles and mostly titles from the larger publishing houses.

The physical printed book business continues to go through a major reset. Big retailers are much more selective than in the past, taking fewer risks, and relying more heavily on algorithms and sales velocity to decide what stays in stock and what disappears from shelves. That has created a tough environment for indie publishers, authors, niche titles, and new releases that don’t immediately explode out of the gate.

This is where phrases like “low-velocity seller” started to matter in very real ways.
In today’s mainstream retail ecosystem, books that don’t sell fast and in large quantities are being shut out of the traditional sales channels.

But here’s the great news — and it’s important:

Print demand did not go away.

Readers did not stop loving physical books.

Authors did not stop selling them.

What changed for indies was where the sales were happening.

Here’s a look at how printed book sales broke out for BookBaby authors in 2025.

The year in review

Now for the exciting part. In the slide above, you can see that from a pure unit standpoint, Amazon is still the largest print sales channel for our authors’ books. And that makes sense since Amazon has a massive customer base and readers are comfortable buying there.

Amazon is a powerful discovery and fulfillment engine.

But units sold is only half the story.

In the slide below, something far more important shows up:

Even though authors sold roughly twice as many print books on Amazon, they earned about twice as much money from direct sales through the BookBaby Bookshop.

Why?

Because on Amazon, there is the retailer margin, and fulfillment fees eating into the author’s revenue. On the BookBaby Bookshop, authors set the list price and earn 50% on the sale.
So while Amazon delivers volume, BookBaby Bookshop delivers profit.

And in 2026, that’s the combination smart authors are building their business around:
Use Amazon for reach and BookBaby Bookshop for revenue.

With a single Bookshop link, every social post, email, and mention of your book becomes a direct-to-reader sales channel and that is a powerful tool for you to use to sell your books in the most profitable way possible.

A changing wholesale landscape

One of the more significant shifts in 2025 happened behind the scenes in the wholesale and distribution layer of the book business.

Long-standing players like Small Press United, Baker & Taylor, Reader Link, Lectorum Publications, and Diamond Comics all exited or dramatically changed their operations this year. These companies weren’t household names to most readers, but they played an important role in getting independent and niche titles into bookstores, libraries, and specialty retailers for decades.

They helped build the modern book ecosystem.

So it’s worth tipping our hats to the teams behind those organizations and acknowledging that their departures signal something bigger than just a few company closures.

What we’re seeing is a reshaping of the middle of the supply chain. Large retailers are catering more exclusively to larger publishers, leveraging automation, and data-driven inventory decisions. At the same time, smaller wholesalers who once acted as bridges for independent publishers are finding it harder to survive in a world dominated by just a few massive platforms.

For authors, this doesn’t mean fewer readers.It means fewer intermediaries, and a sharping of focus on the channels that drive your profits.

And that’s one of the reasons direct-to-reader models, Print On Demand, and platforms like BookBaby Bookshop are key to printed book selling success. When the old distribution paths shrink, the authors who thrive are the ones who can reach their audience without needing permission from the middle.

The sands are shifting but opportunity is shifting with them.

What this all means for authors in 2026

The winners are the authors who built direct relationships with readers and used every format strategically.

Here’s what the modern publishing stack now looks like:

eBooks and audiobooks give you global reach, instant delivery, and permanent discoverability. They are your always-on sales engine. Our eBook and audiobook distribution runs on a modern, cloud-based backbone that keeps titles live, searchable, and available across global retailers at all times — without the fragility of physical logistics. In a year when print supply chains and wholesalers were stressed and unpredictable, BookBaby authors had a digital sales engine that simply kept working, quietly and reliably, around the clock.

Printed books The power of print is emotional and tangible. Focused Amazon sales ensure that impact reaches readers with speed, trust, and convenience. The data shows that Amazon sells the most printed book units. And with BookBaby you get our top-quality printed books sold through Amazon.

BookBaby Bookshop gives you a place where all of that comes together where you own the customer relationship, earn big payouts on every sale, and never lose access to your readers because a retailer or wholesaler changed its rules. The data shows that authors earn the most money selling through their BookBaby Bookshop pages.

That combination is incredibly powerful.

The big retailers will continue to evolve. They will carry fewer titles, optimize harder for velocity, and use more automation to decide which books get visibility. That isn’t personal, it’s just how those outlets work.

But authors don’t need to compete with that system anymore. And that’s the message.
They can route around it.

When you promote your Bookshop page first, as a high-value product and experience for fans, you create something much stronger than a single retail listing:

You create your publishing business.

And that’s what we’re focused on at BookBaby as we head into 2026 giving you the tools, the distribution, and the infrastructure to build something that lasts, no matter how the industry shifts.

Why we changed the print model for 2026

We moved from wide retail print distribution to a BookBaby Bookshop + Amazon model because the data is unambiguous:

• Major retailers are increasingly de-prioritizing independent books.
• The vast majority of indie author print sales happen in direct-to-reader storefronts and Amazon.
• Other retail and wholesale channels generate negligible revenue and are increasingly more selective in the printed books they will carry.
• They create unpredictable delays, there is significant returns risk, and are too large to provide adequate support.

This change is about optimizing what works for BookBaby authors and cutting out the friction.

What we no longer do

We no longer push printed books into:

• Barnes & Noble (eBooks will still be available at B&N)
• Ingram catalogs
• Low-velocity retail networks

The data shows these channels rarely sell our indie POD books and are mostly a dissatisfying distraction for our authors.

Authors should focus on the selling on Bookshop and Amazon where traffic more reliably converts into sales. It’s reliable and profitable.

2026 is going to be an exciting year for self-publishing!

In 2026, there is absolutely no reason an independently published book should look, feel, or perform any differently than a book released by a traditional publishing house.

The tools are here.

The talent is here.

The sales channels are here.

The technology is here.

At BookBaby, you have access to professional editing, award-winning cover and interior design, world-class print manufacturing, global eBook distribution, professional audiobook services, and a direct-to-reader storefront that lets you keep more of what you earn. That is the same core infrastructure the big publishers use — without the gatekeepers, delays, or loss of control.
You don’t need permission to publish a great book anymore.

You need a partner who knows how to do it right.

And that’s what we’ve been building for nearly two decades. We’ve seen and done it all. We know how authors win.

So as we head into 2026, my message to every author is simple:

If you have a story to tell, a message to share, or a book you’ve been waiting to finish — this is your moment. You can launch a book that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with anything coming out of New York. You can reach readers around the world. And you can build a real, sustainable publishing business of your own.

We can’t wait to help you do it.

Another year in the books — and the best chapter is still ahead.