The Indie Ebook Scene Is Growing: Here's Over 170 Authors Who've Sold More Than 50,000 Copies

Business Models

from the success-stories dept

We’ve written a lot about the incredible new ecosystem of independent, self-published ebooks, which in a few short years (with the help of huge success stories like Amanda Hocking and Joe Konrath) has largely eliminated the stigma of what we once called “vanity publishing”, to the point that even traditionally published authors are deciding to go it alone.

Though Hocking and Konrath were some of the first names to get some serious attention with their impressive ebook sales, today there are lots of other examples. An anonymous submission points us to a blog dedicated to tracking self-published ebook success stories, which has put together a list of over 170 independent authors who have sold more than 50,000 ebooks, including 33 who have sold more than 200,000. Hocking and Konrath still make the top ten, but they have plenty of company:

Barbara Freethy – over 2 million ebooks sold (April 2012)
Amanda Hocking – 1,500,000 ebooks sold (December 2011)
John Locke- more than 1,100,000 eBooks sold in five months
Gemma Halliday – over 1 million self-published ebooks sold (March 2012)
Michael Prescott – more than 800,000 self-published ebooks sold (Dec 2011)
J.A. Konrath – more than 800,000 ebooks sold (April 2012)
Bella Andre – more than 700,000 books sold (May 2012)
Darcie Chan – 641,000 ebooks sold (May 2012)
Chris Culver – over 550,000 (Dec 2011)
Heather Killough-Walden – over 500,000 books sold (Dec 2011)

The post also points out some encouraging statistics from Amazon:

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.

Under the old system, many of these authors would likely still be sending out manuscripts, hoping for the lucky convergence of circumstances that puts it in the right pile in front of the right reader when they’re in the right mood. There’s still some disdain for self-publishing in some circles—but with the open playing field that has been created, the increasing number of authors flocking to it, and a growing roster of success stories, it won’t be long before that too starts to change.

Filed Under: amanda hocking, ebooks, joe konrath, kindle, publishing
Companies: amazon