Self-Publishing Success Stories: B.V. Larson

Kindle official youtube channel did a feature on this author.  Check it out.

As of the interview date (Dec 30, 2011) he has 23 books and has sold a quarter of a million books.  (it's at the 1:00 minute mark).

He was at the 100,000  mark back in April 2011.

Excerpt
http://www.ambersistla.com/blog/2012/02/01/writer-wednesday-b-v-larson/

11. Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

Don’t expect immediate success. If you picked up something new, like skiing or singing opera, or playing a violin, you would probably crash and burn for years before you did anything impressive. There’s nothing different about writing. You have to put in your years of skill-building, unless you are a natural talent…and that is very rare.

Current Amazon Kindle Ranking

Swarm (Star Force Series)  #21 Paid in Kindle Store
Mech 3: The Empress #1,656 Paid in Kindle Store
Extinction (Star Force Series) #1,156 Paid in Kindle Store
Mech 1: The Parent #3,126 Paid in Kindle Store


Highlighting some of the author's books:



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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Susan Alison

This successful author is the Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner for 2011.  She lives in Bristol, UK, and writes and paints full-time.  Most of her success came from the UK Kindle Store.  Her two books still ranked pretty high there even after many months.

Her book (#5 in the image below) was featured in a Kindle ad page (Sorted by Bestselling).
You can read and view the large image on her blog here:
http://www.montyandrosie.blogspot.com/2012/03/heh-just-luck-that-my-white-lies.html

She generously shared her sales number with other writers on the Kindle Boards Writers' Cafe on Feb 16, 2012.

Yes, I made it to over 50k at the end of last month.

White Lies and Custard Creams is about 40k of it - published last June - and All His Own Hair is the other 10k - published last October.

Am chuffed.

Highlighting the author's two books:



both are ranked #471 Paid and #463 Paid in the UK Kindle Store respectively as of this very moment.


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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Marie Force

Excerpt from USA Today's "Author Marie Force talks about her e-book success" (October 2011)

HEA: How many e-books have you self-pubbed? And about how many have you sold? 

Marie: As of September 2011, I had self-published seven e-books and sold close to 140,000 copies since the first one posted in November 2010. In one month recently, I made five times what I made in three years with publishers. From January to September of this year, I earned more than 20 times what I made in three years with publishers.

Stunning success.  And that was back in September 2011 (~140,000).



In March of 2012, this number was at more than 200,000 ebooks.  She wrote this in the comment section (defending self-publishing):

I've self-published 11 books with a 12th on the way and sold more than 200,000 ebooks in the last year. I don't spend anywhere CLOSE to 75 percent of my time on the items you listed in your post. Rather I spend 75 percent of my time writing the next book and 25 percent of my time dealing with my business. The best way to sell books is to write another book that my readers will want to buy and read, which is why I keep my focus on the writing.

A real-time snapshot of some her books ranking on Amazon:


Hoping for Love #440 Paid in Kindle Store
Falling for Love #1,565 Paid in Kindle Store
Maid for Love #2,043 Paid in Kindle Store
Fool for Love #2,260 Paid in Kindle Store






Update:  300,000+ as of June 2012








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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Kathleen Brooks

From the author's blog post "Wow, What a Month!"

It’s been a little while since I posted, so let me first say “THANK YOU!” to all of my readers.  During February, I experimented with Bluegrass State of Mind as a free book. I was able to reach nearly 80,000 new readers during that month. And many of you went on to read Risky Shot and Dead Heat. I have been on the top ten of eBook charts for Romance on Apple, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. I have even seen multiple books hit the #1 spot on those lists during February.
Basically, I feel like the luckiest writer in the world and I owe it all to you, the readers.

She also generously shared her sales number with other writers on the Kindle Boards Writers' Cafe (March 25, 2012).

I am happy to announce that I can join this ranking today with my Bluegrass Series: Bluegrass State of Mind, Risky Shot and Dead Heat. As of March 24, 2012, I have sold 50,015 paid books with 99% coming since the beginning of February of 2012.

 I looked at her current Amazon Kindle Ranking and this is the result.

Bluegrass State of Mind (currently a free book)
Bluegrass Undercover #257 Paid in Kindle Store
Risky Shot (Bluegrass Series) #198 Paid in Kindle Store
Dead Heat (Bluegrass Series) #216 Paid in Kindle Store


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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Melody Anne

Melody Anne generously shared her sales number with other writers on the Kindle Boards Writers' Cafe.

Hi guys, I just found this forum. I've been really curious about how other self-published authors are doing. I don't know my exact number of payed sales right now. I know it's over 150,000. I have over 250,000 total downloads from free promotions, too. I published August 2011, and have done really well, which is thrilling and surprising. I write romance and young adult books.

Melody Anne

Congratulations, Melody.  A quick look at her current Kindle Ranking

The Tycoon's Revenge (Baby for the Billionaire - Book One)  #815 Paid in Kindle Store
The Billionaire's Marriage Proposal #1,142 Paid in Kindle Store
The Tycoon's Vacation (Baby for the Billionaire - Book Two) #1,253 Paid in Kindle Store
The Tycoon's Proposal #1,900 Paid in Kindle Store


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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Liliana Hart

Excerpt from Morgen Bailey Blog "Interview no.97 with erotic romance, romantic mystery / suspense, urban fantasy author Liliana Hart"

Takeaway for other writers:

Liliana: I do all my marketing for myself. I’m a huge Twitter addict
. . . .  

Liliana: …and I’m active on Facebook and the Kindleboards. I think any author has to take charge of their marketing and book promotion. The book industry is too saturated to just sit by and watch the sales roll in. Word of mouth from fans is an author’s best friend.

The author generously shared her sales number with others on the Kindleboards's Writers Cafe.

March-June has been absolutely incredible for me in terms of sales. I had a release the end of February that helped jump start that and another at the beginning of this week, so sales have tripled. I've also just passed my one-year anniversary as a self-published author. My total sales for one year have now exceed 300,000 books. 

A real-time snapshot of some her books ranking on Amazon:

Whiskey Rebellion #369 Paid in Kindle Store
Dane (Erotic Romance)  #1,842 Paid in Kindle Store
All About Eve (A Romantic Comedy) #2,364 Paid in Kindle Store
Catch Me if You Can (Romantic Suspense) #5,555 Paid in Kindle Store


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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Cheryl Bolen

Excerpt from The Book Boost Blog "Time Changes with Guest Blogger: Cheryl Bolen"

Surprisingly, My Lord Wicked is an original e-book that was never published before. It has outsold all the others, several of which were award winners when they were available as mass market paperbacks. My first print publisher turned it down as my option book, and being a newbie, I thought maybe it wasn't a very good book. It was one of those we writers stash under our beds. I've got a lot of those, probably about 20! (My first book sold was the 7th written!)

But when I re-examined it recently, I thought it was worthy of publication. Trust me, some of my other ones which didn't sell previously I would not foist upon readers who've come to expect a certain quality book from Cheryl Bolen.

Cheryl Bolen generously shared her sales numbers with others on the Kindle Boards Writers' Cafe.

Since I began self publishing ebooks nine months ago, I've sold 145,000 copies over several books, with most sales in the Regency genre, where I have had many print books published by NY publishers.

Updated sales number

 I was thrilled last month to mark my one-year indie anniversary with 200,000 paid sales, most of which were for my 11 historicals set in Regency England, a genre in which I was established in print.

Congratulations.


A real-time snapshot of some her books ranking on Amazon:

His Lordship's Vow #574 Paid in Kindle Store
A Lady by Chance #1,326 Paid in Kindle Store
The Earl's Bargain #1,612 Paid in Kindle Store
My Lord Wicked #3,432 Paid in Kindle Store


Highlighting some of the author's books:





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