Self-Publishing Success Stories

A list of 170+ authors who have sold more than 50,000 self-published ebooks to date.

The list started out as a thread on the Kindleboards Writers' Cafe.  I believe that the transparency of these sales figures will help other writers.  I want to show that it is possible to be a successful indie author.

However, only a small percentage of indie writers will sell more than a thousand books.  So your mileage may vary. The general theme I've discovered among these success stories are:  1) great books 2) great covers 3) some promotion.  I believe that the cream will rise to the top.  It might take a while but if you have a great book with a great cover, the readers will eventually discover it.

Amazon Kindle Publishing Royalties:
$2.99 - $9.99:  70% (delivery fee at $0.15 per MB, most ebooks are less than 0.5 MB)
under $2.99:  35%  (no delivery fee)

Barnes & Noble Pubit Royalties:
$2.99 and above: 65%
under $2.99:  40% 

Which mean a $2.99 book will result in $2.04 for the author (after Amazon's 30% cut and a small delivery fee).  50,000 ebooks sold at $2.99 pricing will generate $102,000 royalties for the author.

The "200,000+ self-published ebooks sold" club:

1. Barbara Freethy - over 2 million ebooks sold (April 2012) 
2. Amanda Hocking - 1,500,000 ebooks sold (December 2011)
3. John Locke- more than 1,100,000 eBooks sold in five months
4. Gemma Halliday - over 1 million self-published ebooks sold (March 2012)
5. Michael Prescott - more than 800,000 self-published ebooks sold (Dec 2011)
6. J.A. Konrath - more than 800,000 ebooks sold (April 2012) 
7. Bella Andre - more than 700,000 books sold (May 2012)
8. Darcie Chan - 641,000 ebooks sold (May 2012)
9. Chris Culver - over 550,000 (Dec 2011)
10. Heather Killough-Walden - over 500,000 books sold (Dec 2011)
11. Selena Kitt - "With half a million ebooks sold in 2011 alone"
12. Stephen Leather - close to 500,000 books sold (Nov 2011)
13. CJ Lyons - almost 500,000 ebooks sold (Dec 2011)
14. J.R. Rain - more than 400,000 books sold (Sept 2011)
15. Bob Mayer - 347 sold in Jan to over 400,000 total sold by year's end (Dec 2011)
16. Rick Murcer - over 400,000 ebooks in one year (May 2012)
17. Tracey Garvis-Graves - sold more than 360,000 copies of her first novel
18. Tina Folsom - over 300,000 books sold (October 2011)
19. J Carson Black - more than 300,000 books sold (November 2011)
20. Terri Reid - 300,000 sold (May 2012) 
21. Marie Force - 300,000+ sold (June 2012) 
22. Liliana Hart - "my total sales for one year have now exceed 300,000 books (June 2012)
23. T.R. Ragan - 293,202 books sold (May 2012)
24. B.V. Larson - over 250,000 books sold (Dec 2011)
25. Kerry Wilkinson - more than 250,000 books sold (Feb 2012)
26. M. R. Mathias - "I'm up to nearly 250k (in just two years) (June 2012)
27. H.P. Mallory - more than 200,000 ebooks sold (July 2011)
28. Scott Nicholson - Just guessing, I'd put my worldwide sales total between 200k-250k
29. David Dalglish - more than 200,000 (May 2012)
30. Antoinette Stockenberg - total sales stand at 216,686 (June 2012) - private email
31. Cheryl Bolen - 200,000 sold (June 2012)
32. Jennifer Ashley/Ashley Gardner - 200,000 sold mark in early June 2012 - private email
33. Nick Spalding - "I'm lucky enough to be in the 200,000 + total sales club now (June 2012)"
34. Catherine Bybee - nearly 200,000 of the novel Wife By Wednesda (Jan 2012)
35. Jamie McGuire -  hundreds of thousands of copies sold of Beautiful Disaster
36. Hugh Howey- crossed the 200,000 sold mark in June 2012
37. Colleen Hoover

Authors who have sold more than 50,000 self-published ebooks to date  (in alphabetical order)

This list is incomplete.  There are many other authors out there whom I have not found.
An asterisk indicates an author who was traditionally published.

1. Rachel Abbott - "has sold nearly 100,000 copies" (April 2012)
2. *Lara Adrian 
3. Susan Alison - "over 50k at the end of last month" (Feb 2012)
4. Dani Amore
5. *Bella Andre - more than 700,000 books sold (May 2012)
6. Judy Angelo - June 2012 Sales – 20,402
7. Melody Anne - over 150,000 (Feb 2012)
8. Daniel Arenson - sold his 100,000th book on June 28, 2012
9. *Jennifer Ashley/Ashley Gardner -  200,000 sold mark in early June 2012 - private email
10. Kristen Ashley
11. Jake Barton- 83,712 books sold (March 2012)
12. *Brett Battles
13. Stacey Wallace Benefiel - 62,000 sales as of the end of April
14. Robert Bidinotto - 58,260 (Feb 2012)
15. *J Carson Black - more than 300,000 books sold (November 2011)
16. Gia Blue - I've hit 111k from August 2011 through April 2012
17. *Cheryl Bolen - 200,000 sold (June 2012)
18. *Stephanie Bond - over 30,000 sold in the month of June 2012
19. Kathleen Brooks - 50,015 paid books with most coming from the last 2 months (March 2012)
20. Oliver Broudy - “The Saint” 41,826 copies, “The Codex” 5,009 copies (Jan 2012)
21. Ryk Brown
22. Lindsay Buroker
23. Christopher Bunn  - 63,819 as of June 2012
24. Catherine Bybee - nearly 200,000 of the novel Wife By Wednesda (Jan 2012)
25. Sarra Cannon  - 62,400 books as of March 17, 2012
26. Karen Cantwell - 86K as of March 2012
27. Ruth Cardello - with 1st book free, 2nd book sold 50,000 in 6 months (Feb 2012) 
28. Stephen Carpenter
29. *Diane Chamberlain 
30. Darcie Chan - 641,000 ebooks sold (May 2012)
31. Ann Charles 
32. Mel Comley
33. Kristie Cook - 79,000 sales
34. Shelly Crane
35. Martin Crosbie - 66,716 books sold (March 2012)
36. *Blake Crouch - total unknown ("5,000 sales a month")
37. Chris Culver - over 550,000 (Dec 2011)
38. David Dalglish - more than 200,000 (May 2012)
39. Emma Daniels - over 50k (May 2012)
40. Dannika Dark - I've sold 50,000 copies of my two books since publishing last September
41. Susan Denning - To date, I've sold almost 60,000 Kindle copies
42. Thomas DePrima - Over 140,000 Indie Books Sold at mostly $5.99 
43. Saffina Desforges  - Sugar & Spice sold over 100,000 ebooks (Sept 2011)
44. Mainak Dhar - 85,600 (Jan 2012)
45. Rebecca Donovan
46. Sandra Edwards-  about 90K (since July 2010) as of March 2012
47. Daniel Errico - over 45,000 ebooks sold in the last year (Dec 2011)
48. *Donna Fasano - over 100,000 copies sold (April 2012)
49.  Sara Fawkes
50.  Kelly Favor
51. *Ellen Fisher - over 100,000 as of Feb 2012
52. Penelope Fletcher - over 50,000 as of Feb 2012
53. Tina Folsom - over 300,000 books sold (October 2011)
54. *Marie Force - 300,000+ sold (June 2012)
55. Rebecca Forster - sold more than 24,321 for the month of March 2012
56. Melissa Foster - more than 150,000 in the last 9 months (Feb 2012)
57. *Barbara Freethy - over 2 million ebooks sold (April 2012) 
58. Ben Galley - "has sold nearly 50,000 copies of his books at 99p each" (April 2012)
59. Tracey Garvis-Graves - sold more than 360,000 copies of her first novel
60. Eliza Gayle - roughly 65,000 books sold in 2011
61. Jenny Gardiner - over 80,000 ebooks (Dec 2011)
62. Debora Geary - total unknown (1 of the top 10 Kindle Select authors for Jan 2012)
63. Abbi Glines
64. *Lee Goldberg
65. Joel Goldman
66. *Elena Greene - total unknown (sold ~18,500 books for the month of March 2012)
67. Allan Guthrie - sold over 63,000 self-pubbed Kindle books overall (March 2012)
68. *Gemma Halliday - over 1 million self-published ebooks sold (March 2012)
69. *Alexis Harrington
70. Liliana Hart - "my total sales for one year have now exceed 300,000 books (June 2012)
71. D.B. Henson - Deed to Death sold 100,000 copies (June 2011)
72. Vaughn Heppner
73. Michael Hicks - close to 100,000 mark (March 2012)
74. Amanda Hocking - 1,500,000 ebooks sold (December 2011)
75. Sibel Hodge - "in the last 6 months alone I’ve sold over 40,000 ebooks"
76. Debra Holland - over 50,000 books sold (March 2012)
77. Colleen Hoover
78. Sheila Horgan - well over 80,000 as of Feb 2012
79. Hugh Howey- crossed the 200,000 sold mark in June 2012
80. Artemis Hunt / (A.R. Hunt) - I just hit my 50,000th milestone (April 2012)
81. *Delle Jacobs - total unknown - her success is described here
82. Nancy C. Johnson
83. Ty Johnston - sold about 60,000 total e-books over the last year and a half
84. *Lisa Renee Jones - June 2012 Sales – 24,000
85. Andrew E. Kaufman - 53,984 sold in 31 days (during the month of March 2012)
86. Lawrence Kelter
87. Selena Kitt - "With half a million ebooks sold in 2011 alone"
88. Stephen Knight - May 2012 generated Amazon-only earnings of about $10,700
89. *J.A. Konrath - more than 800,000 ebooks sold (April 2012) 
90. Sydney Landon
91. Eve Langlais -  "now 115,00 as of the end of May" 2012 (private message)
92. B.V. Larson - over 250,000 books sold (Dec 2011)
93. *Stephen Leather - "selling close to half a million eBooks over the past 12 months" (Nov 2011)
94. Taylor Lee
95. M. Leighton - surpassed the 100,000 books sold mark at the end of March 2012
96. Jason Letts - almost 50,000 as of Feb 2012
97. Victorine Lieske - more than 100,000 books sold (May 2011)
98. John Locke- more than 1,100,000 eBooks sold in five months
99. Quinn Loftis
100. Terri Giuliano Long - more than 80,000 ebooks sold (Jan 2012)
101. *Carol Davis Luce - 100,000 sold (January 2012)
102. *CJ Lyons - almost 500,000 ebooks sold (Dec 2011)
103. H.P. Mallory - more than 200,000 ebooks sold (July 2011)
104. Michael G. Manning - I've sold over 107k copies of my first two books (May 2012)
105. C.S. Marks
106. Locklyn Marx
107. R.L. Mathewson
108. M. R. Mathias - "I'm up to nearly 250k (in just two years) (June 2012)
109. *KC May - I hit 100,000 sold in April 
110. *Bob Mayer - 347 sold in Jan to over 400,000 total sold by year's end (Dec 2011)
111. David McAfee - 54-56K range as of March 2012
112. Stephanie McAfee - "the e-book sold 145,325 copies from January to August 2011"
113. Carolyn McCray - on track to sell over 13,000 ebooks for the month of March 2012
114. Jamie McGuire -  hundreds of thousands of copies sold of Beautiful Disaster
115. Karen McQuestion - more than 70,000 sold (***September 2010***) 
116. *Courtney Milan
117. *Lisa Mondello - "As of May 31 I have sold 65,641 ebooks"
118. Addison Moore
119. *David Morrell
120. Rick Murcer - over 400,000 ebooks in one year (May 2012)
121. Scott Nicholson - Just guessing, I'd put my worldwide sales total between 200k-250k
122. Anne Marie Novark  - more than 70,000 books sold (Feb 2012)
123. *Beth Orsoff - over 75,000 (April 2012)
124. Mimi Jean Pamfiloff
125. *Jessica Park - Flat-Out Love sold over 75,000 copies (May 2012)
126. RJ Parker - total unknown - "average between 2000-2500 sales per week"
127. Shayne Parkinson - over 50,000 as of Feb 2012
128. Aaron Patterson - total unknown - author's success is listed here
129. Andrew Peterson
130. Paul Pilkington - over 56,000 paid downloads (April 2012)
131. Aaron Pogue 
132. *Michael Prescott - more than 800,000 self-published ebooks sold (Dec 2011)
133. Rose Pressey - over 54,000 since April 2011
134. T.R. Ragan - 293,202 books sold (May 2012)
135. J.R. Rain - more than 400,000 books sold (Sept 2011)
136. Tina Reber
137. *Joan Reeves - sold 126,659 just on Kindle in 9 months as indie author (Dec 2011)
138. Terri Reid - 300,000 sold (May 2012) 
139. Lexi Revellian - over 54,000 (March 2012)
140. Morgan Rice - "has sold over 100,000 copies"
141. Shadonna Richards - 51,790 ebooks as of March 2012
142. *Jeremy Robinson 
143. Imogen Rose - Portal itself has sold over 50,000 copies now (Feb 2012)
144. *Stephanie Rowe
145. *Kristine Kathryn Rusch
146. Nick Russell - over 104,000 of Big Lake (March 2012)
147. *Patricia Ryan/P.B. Ryan - 2012 Sales Total – 70,707 (May 2012)
148. N. Gemini Sasson- finally clicked over that 50,000 notch sold  (June 2012)
149. Jonas Saul - over 50,000 ebooks sold
150. L.J. Sellers - total unknown - author's success is listed here
151. Amber Scott - total unknown - author's success is listed here
152. D.D. Scott - over 100,000 sales (May 2012)
153. *Michele Scott (AK Alexander) - more than 100,000 books sold in two months
154. Tori Scott - 84,772 as of midnight March 15, 2012
155. Mark Sennen - my book (Touch) has sold 50,000 copies in the UK
156. Kathleen Shoop - over 50,000 books sold since May 2011 (as of Jan 2012)
157. Mishka Shubaly - sold in excess of 93,000 copies (March 2012)
158. Lyla Sinclair 
159. Christopher Smith  
160. *Dean Wesley Smith
161. Nick Spalding - "I'm lucky enough to be in the 200,000 + total sales club now (June 2012)"
162. Katie Stephens - fifth best UK kindle seller in 4th quarter of 2011
163. S.C. Stephens
164. *Antoinette Stockenberg - total sales stand at 216,686 (June 2012) - private email
165. *Andy Straka - over 50,000 in the past 10 months (March 2012)
166. Michael J Sullivan - more than 90,000 sold before books retired and republished 
167. Connie Suttle - "Connie has passed a total of 115,000 sales in only eleven months"
168. Denise Grover Swank- almost 60,000 books with my four books since last July (March 2012)
169. Cheryl Kaye Tardif -  sold over 10,000 copies of that book and earned over $42,000 with all my sales in 1 month
170. J. Thorn - sold more than 20,102 for the month of March 2012
171. Mark Tufo
172. Vicki Tyley -  100,000 (January 2012)
173. Kathleen Valentine - over 50,000 sold (May 2012)
174. Louise Voss & Mark Edwards - 50,000 ebooks sold in the month of June (2011)
175. Heather Killough-Walden - over 500,000 books sold (Dec 2011)
176. Michael Wallace -  80,000 (Feb 2012)
177. Tammara Webber
178. Kerry Wilkinson - more than 250,000 books sold (Feb 2012)
179. Nicole Williams - near the 100,000 mark for her trilogy (Dec 2011)
180. Ryan Winfield
181. Zoe Winters - more than 50,000 ebooks sold independently
182. *Laurin Wittig - sold over 75,000 copies of indie books (April 2012)
183. Sarah Woodbury - over 62,000 sold (May 2012)
184. Samantha Young - total unknown - sold 12,000+ for the month of July 2011
185. Rachel Yu - more than 60,000 ebooks sold (Feb 2012)

Encouraging news from Amazon CEO in his annual letter to shareholders (April 2012):

Kindle Direct Publishing has quickly taken on astonishing scale – more than a thousand KDP authors now each sell more than a thousand copies a month, some have already reached hundreds of thousands of sales, and two have already joined the Kindle Million Club. KDP is a big win for authors. Authors who use KDP get to keep their copyrights, keep their derivative rights, get to publish on their schedule – a typical delay in traditional publishing can be a year or more from the time the book is finished – and … saving the best for last … KDP authors can get paid royalties of 70%. The largest traditional publishers pay royalties of only 17.5% on ebooks (they pay 25% of 70% of the selling price which works out to be 17.5% of the selling price). The KDP royalty structure is completely transformative for authors. A typical selling price for a KDP book is a reader-friendly $2.99 – authors get approximately $2 of that! With the legacy royalty of 17.5%, the selling price would have to be $11.43 to yield the same $2 per unit royalty. I assure you that authors sell many, many more copies at $2.99 than they would at $11.43.

This might be useful for finding the next great books to read (from another project of mine):

Top 100 Books Ranking (by genre)

$0.99-$3.99: EBOOKS RANKED BY READERS

Top 100 Fantasy (epic) Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Fantasy (historical) Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Fantasy (urban / contemporary) Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Horror Ebooks Ranking 
Top 100 Humor Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Literary Fiction Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Mystery Ebooks Ranking 
Top 100 Romance (contemporary) Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Romance (historical) Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Romance (paranormal) Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Romance (suspense) Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Science Fiction Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Thrillers Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Young Adult Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Young Adult (fantasy / urban fantasy) Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Young Adult (paranormal romance) Ebooks Ranking
Top 100 Zombies Ebooks Ranking   

$4.99 & UP: BOOKS/EBOOKS RANKED BY READERS

Top 100 Epic Fantasy Books Ranking
Top 100 Horror Books Ranking
Top 100 Mystery Books Ranking
Top 100 Thrillers Books Rannking
Top 100 Science Fiction Books Ranking

For writers who are thinking about self-publishing, I would recommend these blogs/sites



http://www.thecreativepenn.com/publishing/
http://www.lindsayburoker.com/
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/ 
http://kriswrites.com/
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/
http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/
http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/

and this guess post: Michael Sullivan on Self-publishing (highly recommended!)

I just put up a post called "Self-Publishing Resources"  for any writers who are interested.  Some useful info there.

If you're an author who have sold more than 50,000 self-published ebooks but not on this list and would like to share your sales number/estimate, please email me at indieauthorsurvey@aol.com, or leave a comment here or a comment/private message on the Kindleboards.  Thank you.