Can You Make Money Self-Publishing

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Yes, you can make money self-publishing, but most authors don’t make much. The Authors Guild’s 2023 survey of 5,699 published authors found a median of $2,000 from books in 2022 for all authors, and $12,800 for full-time self-published authors (Authors Guild, 27-Sep-23). I started with a first sale to a stranger and have since passed 50,000 sales. Here is the order I followed, what to expect on the way, and why you shouldn’t go it alone. If money is tight right now, read how to self-publish in a recession.

What should my first goal be?

Start with organic sales: sales from people you don’t know, not friends and family. I call the friends-and-family sales sympathy sales. They give you a nice spike when the book first appears, and then for most books almost nothing happens.

I was excited when I saw my first organic sale, from someone I didn’t know who had read the book. I could even see when they joined my newsletter. People around the world were reading my books while I slept. It took a week to see that first sale. My second goal was one dollar a day, which might make you laugh, but it showed me the books could sell while I slept. Once I started running ads against them I reached a thousand dollars a month. I wrote more about those early stages in how to find success in self-publishing.

What order did I follow from the first sale to 50,000+ sales?

1. Get the books on the market at all.
2. Get past friends and family to organic sales.
3. Run ads.
4. Add content marketing and build a brand.
5. Get readers onto my email list.
6. Improve covers and keywords.

I used KDSpy to find the right keywords, covers, niches and genres: underserved or hungry markets. Putting books there made my sales jump.

After 50,000+ sales I can say what works and what has no impact. Posting your books in groups of other authors is useless. Learning to run Amazon ads is among the most important things you can do, second only to fixing your cover, keywords, title and description, getting reviews and building your email list. Books I published years ago still fund the employees who help me make YouTube videos, podcasts and blog posts.

You can learn something useful and teach it. Suppose you love dog training. You write a book, create video, podcast and blog content, run ads, and keep putting out books. The market grows, your audience grows, and they buy more of your books. You can add affiliate sales for products you use, and sell your own products.

That is an ecosystem: a book, then marketing off it, so you build a business and not a side hobby. We don’t start by selling a million copies. The best way to find out your results is to put your book on the market and see. If you are still at the stage of getting the book out at all, start with 3 self-publishing know-hows to get your book distributed worldwide.

Why do my sales flatline after friends and family buy?

Usually the book can’t be found, or nobody is sending readers to it. Ask how your ads are doing, how your content marketing is doing, and whether the book is optimized so people find it. If your book is about cartoon ninjas for preschoolers, do the subtitle and metadata say so? Titles should tell the reader what the book is, what kind and who it is for, because that is what people type into Google and Amazon. A clever title nobody searches for won’t be found, and nobody is searching for an unknown author.

Many writers get demotivated on the first book because they don’t realize the game is about building an audience while collecting organic sales that give you money for ads. I used to wait for my paycheck each month to afford the next books and ads. After a while the engine started and the books kept producing.

Use a cover that looks like the best sellers in your niche. I’ve used designers from contests where several designers submit covers and you choose the best.

Do I need to run ads?

Yes. With ads in a profitable niche you get bumps instead of a flatline. Years ago I saw cryptocurrency was a profitable niche, wrote books of about 100 pages each, and they sold. Never go below 24 pages, the minimum for most KDP paperbacks (KDP trim sizes), so a paperback is possible. Niches rise and fall: indoor gardening, vertical gardening, the paleo diet.

Non-fiction is easier when you are starting, because people search for it. Fiction can pay more, but it takes longer to build an audience. Once you have the audience, a new book sends them to your older books too. That long tail works like a music album: when a new one comes out, the old albums sell too. If you are still weighing up a publisher, see traditional vs self-publishing.

Can I still make money, or did I miss the Kindle gold rush?

You can still make money. The formula I use has worked for a decade and is still working. People say they missed the gold rush. I don’t think so. Content marketing, podcasts and YouTube keep growing as ways to drive traffic to books.

Your books must be on the market, but they don’t need to be perfect, only good enough for the average reader. If readers point out errors, go back and fix them. Some people hesitate because of what others will think. Press the button. I know authors I work with who still haven’t put their books on the market. Do your best at editing, publish, and move to the next phase: content marketing and ads.

Keep your expectations under control until the marketing is in place. Don’t expect to sell millions. Expect a flatline with a blip here and there unless you are in a hungry market with good marketing.

Who should I take advice from?

Stay in regular contact with someone who has done what you are trying to do, not someone who only talks about it. I remember a fake guru who gave advice on making money self-publishing and had never published a single book. Many of them don’t currently publish at all. Look for someone with results who has been around a while and is enthusiastic about the subject.

The best way is a coach who looks at your situation and builds a plan. That is why I work with authors one to one and in a group, with a 7-day money-back guarantee. If you aren’t ready, interact with me on YouTube, or find Facebook groups, but be careful: many group members have failed at what they advise on. Take advice only from people who have done what you want to do.

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Have you started making money from self-publishing? Write “yes” or “no” in the comments.

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