How To Find Success In Self Publishing

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Success in self-publishing starts with defining what success means for you. Start with a goal you can reach, such as getting a book on the market, and raise it in small steps. Focus on one thing at a time, enjoy the process, and compare yourself only with where you were last month. Here is how that played out for me.

What should my first goal be?

A small one. My first goal was to get a book on the market. I wasn’t sure it would be easy. Could I write it, format it, make a cover, write the description and metadata? All of that is confusing when you start. I did it, and then I saw no sales. What’s the point of writing a book if you only put it on the market?

Many self-publishers set success as selling thousands of copies and earning as much as J.K. Rowling. That is too high to be achievable at first. Realistic numbers are lower. In a Written Word Media survey of 1,346 authors published on 2-Dec-25, about 44% earned $100 a month or less.

So my next goal was a dollar a day, then a sale a day. It sounds ridiculous, but small, reasonable goals are far more powerful than “a hundred or a thousand dollars a day.” You move closer to success slowly, and the definition changes over time. Read traditional vs self-publishing if you are still choosing a path.

Which strategies worked best?

Most of the hundreds of strategies I tried failed. Some would get you in trouble with Amazon today. A client of mine tried hiring a click farm to download thousands of copies of her book, and Amazon punished her. Others swapped reviews in large numbers and had them removed, put the table of contents at the back of the book, or bundled copies to inflate pages read, and had accounts banned. I learned it is more strategic to stay within what Amazon wants and push the limits only in marketing and optimizing. Don’t put your account at risk.

The two strategies that worked best were keyword optimization and paid ads. I started with ads, then saw the importance of keywords: your categories, and your title and subtitle. Read top 3 book marketing strategies and Amazon is shutting down my ads.

Who should my book be for?

A specific group. A coaching client and I talked about the subtitle: say who the book is for. If your answer is everyone, it is for no one. One size fits no one. “Fun for the whole family” is hard, because how does everyone enjoy every activity? Choose a group, such as children or young adults, and the rest can join in.

I had never thought about this. I assumed I should write a book lots of people would like, and the answer is no. Write for a specific group that will love it. Watering down your brand to reach more people can lose the core group that made it work.

Where did my goals go next?

After a sale a day, I used content marketing, better covers and descriptions, and wide distribution. I became enthusiastic about self-publishing, other authors asked me how I did things, and that led to this site. My new goals changed what success meant: on YouTube my first goal was a thousand subscribers. Many writers want someone who can break it down simply and coach them, someone who has been where they are. That is why I offer coaching. If you’d like to talk first, book a free 25-minute discovery call.

How do I stay on track?

Focus on micro successes. If you want to climb Everest, your first target is base camp. If you haven’t written the book, your first goal is writing it. Don’t look 16 steps ahead. I keep the process simple, and my kids even published their own books on Amazon because it was so easy when broken down.

How can I tell if my goal is working?

Check your numbers on a schedule, not every hour. KDP’s reports page lists a Dashboard that is updated every 15 minutes, Orders that can take up to 24 hours for ebooks and up to a few days for print books, and Prior Month’s Royalties updated near the 15th of every month (KDP Reports). That is why a dollar-a-day or sale-a-day goal is best judged over a week or a month. Write down the number once a week, and compare it with last month’s number, not with anyone else’s.

Celebrate what you have done. Students often say they have a book on Amazon but no sales. Slow down: you have a book on Amazon, and most people never get that far.

The process matters more than the destination. Celebrating “I spent 30 minutes today and wrote a thousand words” keeps you from burning out. If you can’t enjoy the practice, you fail before you reach the goal.

Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Look at how far you have come since last month or six months ago. I find most people overestimate what they can do in three to six months and underestimate what they can do in three to five years. Keep going, and your knowledge, revenue and email list grow. Keep producing content. The more books you have, the more sales you get on older books.

How do you define success for your book? Tell me in the comments.

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