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How I Made $500,000.00 Self-Publishing Romance eBooks

92K views 397 replies 134 participants last post by  Michelle Hughes 
#1 ·
In the spirit of Annie B's post showing us the tale of two approaches to writing, I thought I'd share my story. I will likely pass the $500,000.00 in career income next month, unless Amazon implodes or an asteroid strikes. ;) (And I'm not really a big seller or big name author in my genre)

Here's my chart, chronicling my income from the start of my self publishing career in June 2012 (data for 2012 and 2013 are combined in the first row, with December 2013 average for comparison, because I didn't start keeping monthly income records until 2014):



How I did it:

1. I started planning in April 2012, when I read JA Konrath's blog and decided to quit submitting to agents because no one wanted to represent me with my vampire romance novels. So, I read several books and blogs on self-publishing and researched book blogs that reviewed and promoted paranormal romance novels.

2. I started working on my social media platform, creating a Twitter and Facebook account under my future pen name. I cultivated readers and authors who were in my genre, and spent most of my time talking about television shows and movies. At the time, I was polishing my first novel and finishing my second.

3. I hired a cover designer and got two covers for $99 each, plus two $5 stock photos, so $104 each.

4. I had someone edit my books for typos and obvious grammatical mistakes. I didn't pay my editor until I made serious money and then I went back and paid her for her earlier work. I have paid her for each book since, costing between $600 - $1000 per book depending on length.

5. In June 2013, I published the first book on Amazon, listing it for sale for $4.99 and signed up for KDPS.

6. I submitted my book to several book review blogs and lucked out, getting a couple who gave my book decent reviews.

7. I announced that I had released my first book to my several hundred Twitter and Facebook followers and friends and had 6 sales in June and then 26 sales in July.

8. I ran some free days in KDPS and gave away several hundred copies of book 1. I listed my books at Goodreads and created a blog and profile.

9. I released my second book in July, listing it for $4.99 and had 59 sales.

10. I released book 3 in the series in December, listing it for $4.99 and had sales of 2800 books in total for the year and made $9,750.00

11. In 2013, I released 2 more novels in a new contemporary erotic romance series. All were in KDPS.

12. I released the first novel in my contemporary romance series in April 2013, deciding to try my hand at another romance category since my paranormal romance series was selling fairly slowly, at least in my opinion. I had my first 5-figure month that release, earning $17,642. The previous month I had earned under $1,000.

13. I released the second book in the contemporary romance series in September, and had another solid month in sales, selling 12,000+ books.

I FORGOT TO ADD THAT I QUIT MY DAY JOB IN NOVEMBER 2013!!!

14. I had my first 99c Bookbub in November 2013 and broke $20K for the first time. My book hit #5 in the Kindle store and was #2 in Romance. An agent wrote me and offered representation. ;)

15. I wrote book 3 in the contemporary romance series in January 2014, then released the boxed set two months later.

15.5 I went into a 99c boxed set with several other romance authors and hit the USA Today list. My book was the headliner. I was in three other 99c boxed sets in 2014 /2015. This required that I pull out of KDPS with that book and over the summer, I pulled the other books as well and went into wide distribution.

16. I had my second Bookbub for book 2 in the contemporary romance series in February 2014. I hit #12 in the Kindle store and #8 in romance. I ran two more 99c Bookbub promos in 2014 and released a novella and a short story as well as Book 4 in the paranormal romance series.

17. You can check on the graph what happened after Kindle Unlimited 1.0 struck in July 2014. My income dropped considerably and consistently due to loss of visibility. I put my books into KU in response and saw no benefit. In fact, my income kept falling relative to my average monthly income.

18. I pulled out of KU 1.0 at the end of February, went permafree with the first books in my series, and went into wide distribution.

20. I released several books this year and have had 3 Bookbubs so far. I will have 12 full length novels, 3 boxed sets, and 2 novellas and a short story self published in total since I started by the end of the year.

21. I started to advertise on Facebook in April and Apple promoted me in March and again this month.

You can see my income has increased considerably over what it was while I was in KU 1.0.

I made $107,286 in 2012 and 2013 combined. I made $154K in 2014. So far in 2015, I have made $212.406 and am on track for $300,000 for the year.

Glad I found Joe Konrath's blog in April 2012 and followed his advice. :)
 
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#6 ·
Thanks Sela - I love these threads. And so interesting to see different approaches. The common ground seems to be that the writers who plan, study, strategise, and adapt have a better shot at this than those that don't. Not to mention an understanding of genre and the ability to write a great story.

Lots to think about!

Thanks again for being so generous.
 
#10 ·
This is great to read. Thank you for posting this.

I think there's no perfect secret formula. It is all about taking tips from other authors who are selling like hot cakes (JA Konrath, Mark Dawson, Hugh Howey, H.M. Ward, Jasinda Wilder who reveals a lot in her interviews) and experimenting yourself.

I am a very private person but I am always interested in reading how someone else achieved their success. It makes me smile to read success stories.
I am always interested in how romance authors stand out in such a crowded genre.
 
#11 ·
Hi Sela,

This board has sent me on an alternate path as well. I have turned to romance writing under a pen name. Book 2 of 4 was just released this week and doing slow, but steady sells. I just completed a holiday romance and tomorrow I'll begin my paranormal/sports series.

Posts like yours are so appreciated. It gives us hope that we too can not only make a living, but exceed our dreams, if we just tweak our efforts.

Thank you for sharing.
 
#15 ·
Thanks for sharing.

Did I miss the links to the books/author page or are these not revealed?

Edit: No offense intended, but I honestly don't see the point of these type of "here is my strategy to mega success" threads without revealing the actual books.

It's like a car manufacturer who is anonymous releases a successful sales report detailing how they sold a billion cars, but we never get to drive or even see any of the cars, or know exactly which car(s) are selling/most popular.

Disclaimer: I am not saying the information isn't helpful or truthful, but I am sure you can understand my point of view.

 
G
#22 ·
Sela, thank you for sharing your information.  However, I'm waiting for someone to post their success story that does not include Bookbub help.  As you know, they reject far more people than they accept.  Plus, I didn't become a self-published author to have to rely on getting accepted by a Bookbub.

I do, however, feel good about the information I've learned about Facebook ads, particularly Mark Dawson's info.  There are people, such as you, who have had success with Facebook ads, and Bookbub doesn't have anything to do with that success. 

In any case, I'm returning to novellas.  So I'm going to be one of those people who gets to where I want to be without a Bookbub ad.  (As you know, Bookbub doesn't accept novellas.)  Boyd, for example, is one of those authors I look to for inspiration.  He's a successful novella author.
 
#24 ·
JessHayek69 said:
Thanks for sharing.

Did I miss the links to the books/author page or are these not revealed?

Edit: No offense intended, but I honestly don't see the point of these type of "here is my strategy to mega success" threads without revealing the actual books.

It's like a car manufacturer who is anonymous releases a successful sales report detailing how they sold a billion cars, but we never get to drive or even see any of the cars, or know exactly which car(s) are selling/most popular.

Disclaimer: I am not saying the information isn't helpful or truthful, but I am sure you can understand my point of view.
I understand what you are saying about authors not revealing their books but there are always good reasons why an author does not reveal their real name/pen names or their books.
I used to be on another forum and there were some members who did not appreciate it when someone revealed their success story, I got backlash from revealing some sales figures.
I write romance and not everyone in my family knows what I write. Some would not appreciate that I write steamy books. I write under a pen name.

I think Sela's advice or tips on this forum have been good.
I have watched Jasinda Wilder's career from the beginning and I have picked up some good tips from her.
 
#25 ·
Congratulations on your success, Sela! Thank you for sharing your journey!!

WOW!

You must be very proud :)

Sela said:
In the spirit of Annie B's post showing us the tale of two approaches to writing, I thought I'd share my story. I will likely pass the $500,000.00 in career income next month, unless Amazon implodes or an asteroid strikes. ;) (And I'm not really a big seller or big name author in my genre)

Here's my chart, chronicling my income from the start of my self publishing career in June 2012 (data for 2012 and 2013 are combined in the first row, with December 2013 average for comparison, because I didn't start keeping monthly income records until 2014):



How I did it:

1. I started planning in April 2012, when I read JA Konrath's blog and decided to quit submitting to agents because no one wanted to represent me with my vampire romance novels. So, I read several books and blogs on self-publishing and researched book blogs that reviewed and promoted paranormal romance novels.

2. I started working on my social media platform, creating a Twitter and Facebook account under my future pen name. I cultivated readers and authors who were in my genre, and spent most of my time talking about television shows and movies. At the time, I was polishing my first novel and finishing my second.

3. I hired a cover designer and got two covers for $99 each, plus two $5 stock photos, so $104 each.

4. I had someone edit my books for typos and obvious grammatical mistakes. I didn't pay my editor until I made serious money and then I went back and paid her for her earlier work. I have paid her for each book since, costing between $600 - $1000 per book depending on length.

5. In June 2013, I published the first book on Amazon, listing it for sale for $4.99 and signed up for KDPS.

6. I submitted my book to several book review blogs and lucked out, getting a couple who gave my book decent reviews.

7. I announced that I had released my first book to my several hundred Twitter and Facebook followers and friends and had 6 sales in June and then 26 sales in July.

8. I ran some free days in KDPS and gave away several hundred copies of book 1. I listed my books at Goodreads and created a blog and profile.

9. I released my second book in July, listing it for $4.99 and had 59 sales.

10. I released book 3 in the series in December, listing it for $4.99 and had sales of 2800 books in total for the year and made $9,750.00

11. In 2013, I released 2 more novels in a new contemporary erotic romance series. All were in KDPS.

12. I released the first novel in my contemporary romance series in April 2013, deciding to try my hand at another romance category since my paranormal romance series was selling fairly slowly, at least in my opinion. I had my first 5-figure month that release, earning $17,642. The previous month I had earned under $1,000.

13. I released the second book in the contemporary romance series in September, and had another solid month in sales, selling 12,000+ books.

I FORGOT TO ADD THAT I QUIT MY DAY JOB IN NOVEMBER 2013!!!

14. I had my first 99c Bookbub in November 2013 and broke $20K for the first time. My book hit #5 in the Kindle store and was #2 in Romance. An agent wrote me and offered representation. ;)

15. I wrote book 3 in the contemporary romance series in January 2014, then released the boxed set two months later.

15.5 I went into a 99c boxed set with several other romance authors and hit the USA Today list. My book was the headliner. I was in three other 99c boxed sets in 2014 /2015.

16. I had my second Bookbub for book 2 in the contemporary romance series in February 2014. I hit #12 in the Kindle store and #8 in romance. I ran two more 99c Bookbub promos in 2014 and released a novella and a short story as well as Book 4 in the paranormal romance series.

17. You can check on the graph what happened after Kindle Unlimited 1.0 struck in July 2014. My income dropped considerably and consistently due to loss of visibility. I put my books into KU in response and saw no benefit. In fact, my income kept falling relative to my average monthly income.

18. I pulled out of KU 1.0 at the end of February, went permafree with the first books in my series, and went into wide distribution.

20. I released several books this year and have had 3 Bookbubs so far. I will have 12 full length novels, 3 boxed sets, and 2 novellas and a short story self published in total since I started by the end of the year.

21. I started to advertise on Facebook in April and Apple promoted me in March and again this month.

You can see my income has increased considerably over what it was while I was in KU 1.0.

I made $107,286 in 2012 and 2013 combined. I made $154K in 2014. So far in 2015, I have made $212.406 and am on track for $300,000 for the year.

Glad I found Joe Konrath's blog in April 2012 and followed his advice. :)
 
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