AuthorWings Research
AuthorWings Research: Original Data on Books, Reading, and Publishing
We test the claims people repeat about books, readers, and authors against public data, and publish what we find, even when the answer is “no.” Every study shows its sources and limits, and its charts and data are free to use with credit.
Latest study
Most Publishers Still Read Authors Without an Agent. Most Say Nothing About AI.
64%
Of 296 traditional publishers were open to authors without an agent in October 2026. Only 4 of 18 Big Five houses and imprints were, and 79% of submission pages say nothing about AI.
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All studies
Most Publishers Still Read Authors Without an Agent. Most Say Nothing About AI.
10 of 17
Canadian publishers say on their submission page that they won’t take AI-written work. In the US it’s 19 of 156.
Read the studyThe 12-Copy Myth Is Fading. Other Book Sales Myths Aren’t.
11 of 19
Top Google pages that tell readers how many copies books sell still repeat a myth as fact. We traced eight viral sales statistics to their source and tested five AI assistants.
Read the studyGen Z Didn’t Kill Reading. Their Parents Did.
Down 63%
Reading time for Americans aged 55 to 64 since 2004, while teens read about as much as they did 20 years ago.
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For journalists
Media contact: Dr. Bazla M, Head of Research, AuthorWings · bazla.mukhtar@authorwings.com. Dr. Bazla M is available for interviews and questions about any study.
- Every chart is free to use with credit. Open “Use this chart on your site” under any chart for the embed code.
- Download the data: book sales statistics and reading statistics.
- How to cite: AuthorWings Research Team, the study title, AuthorWings, the month and year, and the study’s web address.
How we research
- Public data firstGovernment data, industry figures, and published surveys, never scraped from sites that forbid it.
- Checked against the sourceEvery number is checked against an official figure where one exists, and every source is linked.
- Limits statedEach study says what the data measures, what it misses, and what we can’t conclude.
- Updated as data changesWe update each study when new data comes out and note what changed.
