# Self-Publishing Success Stories (authors with more than 50,000 ebooks sold to date)



## BookReader (Apr 6, 2012)

I hope some will find the info useful.  

Keep in mind that it is just as hard to be successful as an indie author as a traditional published author.  

There maybe tens of thousands of self-published authors out there.  Of these, only tiny percentage has sold more than 50,000 ebooks total (to date).



And of the 108 authors listed who have sold more than 50,000 indie ebooks, these 22 have sold the most.  


*Amanda Hocking* - 1,500,000 ebooks sold (December 2011)
*Barbara Freethy* - 1.3 million self-published ebooks sold (Dec 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)
*Chris Culver* - over 550,000 (Dec 2011)
*Heather Killough-Walden* - over 500,000 books sold (Dec 2011)
*Selena Kitt* - "With half a million ebooks sold in 2011 alone"
*J.A. Konrath* - more than 500,000 ebooks sold (November 2011) 
*Stephen Leather* - close to 500,000 books sold (Nov 2011)
*CJ Lyons* - almost 500,000 ebooks sold (Dec 2011)
*J.R. Rain* - more than 400,000 books sold (Sept 2011)
*Darcie Chan* - more than 400,000 ebooks sold (Nov 2011)
*Bob Mayer* - 347 sold in Jan to over 400,000 total sold by year's end (Dec 2011)
*Bella Andre* - more than 400,000 books sold (Feb 2012)
*Tina Folsom* - over 300,000 books sold (October 2011)
*J Carson Black* - more than 300,000 books sold (November 2011)
*B.V. Larson* - over 250,000 books sold (Dec 2011)
*Kerry Wilkinson* - more than 250,000 books sold (Feb 2012)
*T.R. Ragan* - 239,592 books sold (March 2012)
*H.P. Mallory* - more than 200,000 ebooks sold (July 2011)
*Marie Force* - more than 200,000 sold in the last year (March 2012)


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## sunaynaprasad (Apr 7, 2012)

Impressive. I wonder what they did to their books that made them so popular.


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## BookReader (Apr 8, 2012)

sunaynaprasad said:


> Impressive. I wonder what they did to their books that made them so popular.



Their keys to success:

1) low price ($2.99-$3.99 range mostly)
3) great books with great covers
2) have several books 

As indie authors, they get 70% royalties (so $2.04 royalties for a book that is priced at $2.99).  Low price helps get a lot of readers buying.

p.s. I'm adding more authors that I have found to the list.  Should be up to 120+ in a few days.


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## Olly Buckle (Apr 8, 2012)

Any chance of some titles as well, I am curious to know if there is any non-fiction and what sort of subjects they cover, the only one I have heard of before is Amanda Hocking.


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## BookReader (Apr 8, 2012)

Olly Buckle said:


> Any chance of some titles as well, I am curious to know if there is any non-fiction and what sort of subjects they cover, the only one I have heard of before is Amanda Hocking.



to my knowledge, there are no non-fiction authors on the list.

-----

You can find how well none-fiction is selling by going to Amazon. Click on Best Seller for Non-Fiction (and choose a Non-Fiction category).  And see if there are some that are priced "low."  If it is, it is usually indie authors (self-publishers).


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## shadowwalker (Apr 8, 2012)

BookReader said:


> If it is, it is usually indie authors (self-publishers).



If it is, it is usually indie authors self-publishers.  (I'm an indie author - I do not intend to be a self-published author. :wink

Is there a breakdown of genre, and are give aways included in these numbers? I saw on another forum where fantasy seemed to be doing better than SciFi.


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## Elvenswordsman (Apr 8, 2012)

Hmm... I feel like $2.04 at 1.5 million sold is a decent deal. I wouldn't mind making that for my writing.


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## Olly Buckle (Apr 8, 2012)

I don't think profit margins on $3-4 books is quite that high, still even at one cent each it would be $150, 000, that would keep me while I wrote the next one.


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## BookReader (Apr 10, 2012)

Olly Buckle said:


> I don't think profit margins on $3-4 books is quite that high, still even at one cent each it would be $150, 000, that would keep me while I wrote the next one.




Here's what Amazon and B&N pays for self-published ebooks: 

*Amazon Kindle Publishing Royalties:*


$2.99 and above:  70%
under $2.99:  35% 


*Barnes & Noble Pubit Royalties:

*
$2.99 and above: 65%
under $2.99:  40% 



From one of the most successful self-published authors (he was a midlist before jumping to self-publishing).
A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: $100,000



> $100,000
> 
> 
> *One hundred grand. That's how much I've made on Amazon in the last three weeks.*
> ...



he's an exception, not the norm.  But he has done quite well for himself from self-publishing.  He recently posted that he has sold over 800,000 ebooks.


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## shadowwalker (Apr 10, 2012)

I always look at Konrath's claims with a bit (or more) of skepticism. Just the fact he likes to forget he got established through commercial publishers before going to self-pub... But I realize he's God to a lot of people.


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## BookReader (Apr 14, 2012)

According to Amazon CEO, more than 1,000 KDP authors now each sell more than 1,000 copies a month.Amazon CEO Bezos Touts Kindle Direct Program in Shareholders Letter | Digital Book World



> 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.


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## shadowwalker (Apr 14, 2012)

BookReader said:


> According to Amazon CEO, more than 1,000 KDP authors now each sell more than 1,000 copies a month.Amazon CEO Bezos Touts Kindle Direct Program in Shareholders Letter | Digital Book World



Yeah, they like to talk about royalties versus _advances_. Just a little thing...


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## BookReader (Apr 15, 2012)

shadowwalker said:


> Yeah, they like to talk about royalties versus _advances_. Just a little thing...



What's the average/median advance that a new author would get, today?  

1,000 books a month sold at $2 royalties (for book price at $2.99) = $2,000 a month


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## shadowwalker (Apr 15, 2012)

BookReader said:


> What's the average/median advance that a new author would get, today?
> 
> 1,000 books a month sold at $2 royalties (for book price at $2.99) = $2,000 a month



_If _they sell 1000 books a month - and for how long will they sell that number each month? And how long does it take to reach that number? And how much money and time have they spent before they reach that number?

SPs love to put out the possibilities like they were probabilities. It's kinda like watching those real estate investment infomercials.

ETA: Here's a 2009 article from the NY Times regarding average advances for fiction - you'll see numbers like $30K and $40K mentioned, as well as some publishers who give little or no advance but offer instead a profit sharing system. I don't believe I've seen that mentioned recently as a common method. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/books/review/Meyer-t.html


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## BookReader (Apr 16, 2012)

Author Advance Survey (version 2.0) at Tobias Buckell Online



> Summary:
> 
> The typical advance for a first novel is $5000. The typical advance for later novels, after a typical number of 5-7 years and 5-7 books is $12,500. Having an agent at any point increases your advance.



Author Advances: Survey Results « Writerland



> Counting each multi-book deal as ONE deal
> Average advance: $73,897
> Median advance: $25,000
> 
> ...




http://jwikert.typepad.com/the_average_joe/2005/04/whats_the_avera.html



> In our business today, a typical author advance is around $10,000. Some are lower and some are higher. In fact, some authors completely opt out of the advance and choose to delay their earnings till the first royalty payment.​


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## shadowwalker (Apr 16, 2012)

So - an advance is money upfront. No waiting for sales to build, no hoping to reach X number of sales per month, no hoping the sales continue at X number per month. How much the advance depends on the publisher, the author, the book, etc etc. But it's still money in hand. Factor that into the equation, and then see how the difference in royalty rates compares, because what we're really talking about is how much money _in total_ ends up in the author's pockets. And, of course, there are _innumerable possibilities _for the totals here, because no two authors, no two books, are exactly alike. Acting like any author, or group of authors, either self- or trade published, is typical is like saying a bucket of _selected _apples from an orchard is typical of the whole orchard. Anything is possible - that's very different from probable.


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## SeaBee1 (Apr 17, 2012)

Being new to this whole royalty vs advance thing, I am curious: aren't advances sort of tied to the _projected _number of books that might be sold and if that number is not reached, for whatever reason, some or all of the advance may be refundable? In other words, the advance covers the sale of the first X number of books and no royalty is due until that advance has been recouped? Whereas a royalty is money earned on direct sales and belongs to the author outright?

Just curious since I have recently submitted a novel length work to an agent and been summarily rejected. I have a few other agents in mind, but self pubbing may look like an option soon.


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## shadowwalker (Apr 17, 2012)

SeaBee1 said:


> Being new to this whole royalty vs advance thing, I am curious: aren't advances sort of tied to the _projected _number of books that might be sold and if that number is not reached, for whatever reason, some or all of the advance may be refundable? In other words, the advance covers the sale of the first X number of books and no royalty is due until that advance has been recouped? Whereas a royalty is money earned on direct sales and belongs to the author outright?
> 
> Just curious since I have recently submitted a novel length work to an agent and been summarily rejected. I have a few other agents in mind, but self pubbing may look like an option soon.



You're correct that an advance is based on the publisher's estimate of sales. Royalties are paid after the book has earned out the advance. You're incorrect that advances have to be paid back. This only occurs in two circumstances - 1) the writer fails to comply with the contract (doesn't complete the book, for example), or 2) you're dealing with an unscrupulous or vanity publisher. So, as long as the author has signed with a legitimate publisher and fulfills their end of the contract, the advance and any subsequent royalties belong to the author, period. One also has to be careful when signing a contract as to what the royalties are based on (net profit, cover price, etc). Which is one excellent reason to have an agent to explain/negotiate the contract.


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## SeaBee1 (Apr 17, 2012)

Thanks for the clarification, Shadowwalker, that helps.


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## Daesu (Apr 17, 2012)

Not sure if anyone has posted this yet, but what Amanda hocking has said before is she would set her prices at $1 for the first book in the series, then go up to $2.99 for the rest of the series. here is her blog post about how everything happened : Amanda Hocking's Blog: an epic tale of how it all happened

Also, i asked questions about self publishing before, and was linked some articles about how Darcey Chan was able to sell 400,000 ebooks. she only had 1 book, and was able to sell that many, but her strategy was to put her book at $1 also, its still only $1. After thinking about it a lot, i have come to the conclusion that if i self published i would put my book up for $1, because i would use it as grounds to help myself find a traditional publisher with a future book. I'm taking a guess here, but id assume that its way harder to sell 50k self published ebooks than it is to find a traditional publisher to publish your book. Not to be a downer, but if you self publish, you should expect to sell very few copies, but obviously if you spend some money like Darcey Chan did, your chances are most likely better. I cant remember exactly how much she spent/did, but i know that she spent money on advertising, she paid for professional reviews, and im also pretty sure she hired an editor. This could be a lot of money up front, just try to keep that in mind. ^_^


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## BookReader (Apr 19, 2012)

Self-publishing – Guest Post by Michael J. Sullivan « Angels of Retribution
*Michael Sullivan on Self-publishing*




For those unfamiliar with the author, he self-published, made it big and then got a six figure advance from a Big 6 Publisher.

He has been on both sides (self-published and traditional) so his experience is interesting.






> Here is my take on self-publishing…your chances of success are approximately the same as your chances with traditional publishing.  In both cases it all comes down to three things: writing skill, talent, and persistence. The more you have of each the better your chances of success in either approach.


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## shadowwalker (Apr 19, 2012)

BookReader said:


> Self-publishing – Guest Post by Michael J. Sullivan « Angels of Retribution
> *Michael Sullivan on Self-publishing*
> 
> 
> ...



I don't believe I know of any of his books that were self-published, unless he's done so very recently. He started with Aspirations Media, then went to his wife's company (Ridan), and then got a 3 book deal with Orbit. Is "Angels of Retribution" being self-published?


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## BookReader (Apr 19, 2012)

shadowwalker said:


> I don't believe I know of any of his books that were self-published, unless he's done so very recently. He started with Aspirations Media, then went to his wife's company (Ridan), and then got a 3 book deal with Orbit. Is "Angels of Retribution" being self-published?




sullivan_riyria wrote:

_I was asked to write a blog post about my impressionson self-publishing. You can find it here._

_For those not familiar with me or my story, *I self-published five of my six-book series (sold 70,000 books between April 2010 and August 2011) *and then sold the rights to Orbit who republished the six books as a trilogy (Sold 65,000 books between Nov - March)



*Excerpt: * 

_


> In traditional publishing you make 8-10% of list price on print books and 17.5% on ebooks. When self publishing I made about 45% of list on print books sold directly by me, 23% on print sold by online stores such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble, and 70% on ebooks (where the bulk of my sales were found).  I’ve sold about 60,000 books traditionally (1[SUP]st[/SUP] book released in Nov 2011, second in mid December 2011, and third at the end of January 2012). During the months of November 2010 to February 2011 my self-publishing sales were more than 40,000 (across five titles).  * My income for traditionally published books is $1.12 for print and $1.75 for ebooks. When self published I made $3.50 – $6.50 for print and $3.50 – $4.87 for ebooks.*




if you are arguing that he wasn't a self-publisher since he published through a company he and his wife set up (Ridan Publishing), then anyone can be their own publisher by.  

1) Set up a company name and registered it with the government
2) Publish your work under this company name


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## shadowwalker (Apr 19, 2012)

Self-publishers can set up their own company. From a business standpoint, sometimes that's the best way to do it. However, Ridan Publishing does not just publish Michael's books. They publish other authors as well - which means his books were not self-published. 

I really, really wish people could get things straight, instead of mish-mashing facts to make everything glow pretty.


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## BookReader (Apr 19, 2012)

shadowwalker said:


> Self-publishers can set up their own company. From a business standpoint, sometimes that's the best way to do it. However, Ridan Publishing does not just publish Michael's books. They publish other authors as well - which means his books were not self-published.
> 
> I really, really wish people could get things straight, instead of mish-mashing facts to make everything glow pretty.



According to the Author himself, he considered publishing through Ridan Publishing as "self-publishing."

I guess we can agree to disagree.  


Quoting Michael Sullivan who wrote:

_For those not familiar with me or my story, *I self-published five of my six-book series (sold 70,000 books between April 2010 and August 2011) *and then sold the rights to Orbit who republished the six books as a trilogy (Sold 65,000 books between Nov - March)

_*My income for traditionally published books is $1.12 for print and $1.75 for ebooks. When self published I made $3.50 – $6.50 for print and $3.50 – $4.87 for ebooks.*


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## shadowwalker (Apr 19, 2012)

BookReader said:


> According to the Author himself, he considered publishing through Ridan Publishing as "self-publishing."



Well, let's just say, having been in discussions with his wife, their collective set of definitions defies reality on a regular basis.


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## movieman (Apr 20, 2012)

shadowwalker said:


> So - an advance is money upfront. No waiting for sales to build, no hoping to reach X number of sales per month, no hoping the sales continue at X number per month. How much the advance depends on the publisher, the author, the book, etc etc. But it's still money in hand.



I've never understood this argument, which I see on the Internet all the time: 'with trade publishing you can get an advance and then you don't need to worry whether the book sells'.

It's true, so long as the contract allows it. But also irrelevant, because if your book doesn't sell no publisher will buy the next one. You might get lucky once with a huge advance for a book that wouldn't sell if self-published and doesn't sell when trade-published, but that will be the end of your trade publishing career.



> Factor that into the equation, and then see how the difference in royalty rates compares, because what we're really talking about is how much money _in total_ ends up in the author's pockets.



Then read this:

Boyd Morrison: A Detour in the Publishing Journey

Successful self-published author gets contract with trade publisher with decent advance. Writes the books and submits the third in the series... and the publisher says no and demands the advance back.

So much for 'money in hand'. Imagine getting that million dollar advance that most writers dream of, paying $150,000 to your agent, paying huge sums in tax, then having the publisher demand all the money back because they don't like your book.


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## shadowwalker (Apr 20, 2012)

movieman said:


> But also irrelevant, because if your book doesn't sell no publisher will buy the next one. You might get lucky once with a huge advance for a book that wouldn't sell if self-published and doesn't sell when trade-published, but that will be the end of your trade publishing career.



Obviously you need to worry if the book sells, if you indeed want a future in publishing. To say otherwise is a bit ridiculous, and I don't believe I've seen anyone say that. However, you do still have that money in hand, rather than waiting for it to trickle in.



movieman said:


> Then read this:
> 
> So much for 'money in hand'. Imagine getting that million dollar advance that most writers dream of, paying $150,000 to your agent, paying huge sums in tax, then having the publisher demand all the money back because they don't like your book.



Then read this (from that article):

_"They simply declared the manuscript unacceptable because it needed "too much work" and demanded the advance back, a permissible action according to my contract as well as the contracts of most other authors. *I admit the book needed some editorial guidance*..."
_
Which tells me that he did not submit a piece that was up to the standards required of him. Which, depending on the wording of his contract, could very well constitute a breach of that contract, and thus he would be required to refund the advance. Just as I stated earlier.


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## movieman (Apr 20, 2012)

shadowwalker said:


> Obviously you need to worry if the book sells, if you indeed want a future in publishing. To say otherwise is a bit ridiculous, and I don't believe I've seen anyone say that.



Barely a week goes by without my seeing someone say 'you should submit to trade publishers rather than self-publish because you could get a $100,000 advance even if they never sell a single copy,' or words to that effect. It's one of the most common anti-self-publishing memes I see on the Internet.

If the book is popular then in the long run you'll make much more money by self-publishing. If you keep chasing advances to pay yesterday's bills, then you're ensuring that you'll never make enough to stop doing that because most of the money will go to the publisher.

A trade publishing deal only makes sense in the long term if the publisher can make it more popular than it would otherwise have been. Which is quite possible, but far from certain.



> However, you do still have that money in hand, rather than waiting for it to trickle in.



And many contracts spread the 'advance' into multiple payments over a period of time, so you may still have to wait for it to trickle in.



> Which tells me that he did not submit a piece that was up to the standards required of him. Which, depending on the wording of his contract, could very well constitute a breach of that contract, and thus he would be required to refund the advance. Just as I stated earlier.



Yet his UK publisher was apparently quite happy with the book. And editing is supposed to be one of the benefits of trade publishing.

In either case, the point still remains that  'money in the hand' today can become a huge liability in the future.


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## shadowwalker (Apr 20, 2012)

A) Anyone who says " 'you should submit to trade publishers rather than self-publish because you could get a $100,000 advance even if they never sell a single copy,' or words to that effect." is as full of it as the SPs who say you can make more money by self-publishing than you could by going with trade pub. There are no guarantees either way. Period.

B) Yes, advances may be spread over several payments - on acceptance, on completed submission, on publication. Again, versus the money which may come trickling in monthly after the author has sweated their butts off trying to get the word out.

C) And again, the money in hand only becomes a liability if you fail to uphold your end of the contract (such as handing in work that needs substantially more editing than previously) or if you've signed with a shoddy publisher (read 'vanity press') to begin with.

If you're bound and determined to make trade publishers the bad guys, you can certainly come up with enough anecdotal or half-the-story evidence to do so. You don't do writers any service by pulling that, but it certainly helps some justify their decision.


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## BookReader (Apr 26, 2012)

shadowwalker said:


> Well, let's just say, having been in discussions with his wife, their collective set of definitions defies reality on a regular basis.



So according to his wife, he was traditional published.
But according to HIM, he was self-published.

I guess we can agree to disagree.


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## shadowwalker (Apr 26, 2012)

BookReader said:


> So according to his wife, he was traditional published.
> But according to HIM, he was self-published.
> 
> I guess we can agree to disagree.



His wife bounced between self-published and indie-published, depending on who called her on it.


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## BookReader (May 11, 2012)

Lot of indie authors who sold more than 10,000 books a month judging from this:  

Top 42 Indie Authors of 2011 « Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review
Top 50 Indie Seller for the month of March

Top 100 Indie Authors for May + 28 Authors to Watch « Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review
Top 100 Indie Sellers for the month of April



Looking at Kindle Top 100 Best Sellers for Sci Fi, Fantasy, Romance, Thriller etc., there are a lot of self-published books there.


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## BookReader (Jun 4, 2012)

BookReader said:


> And of the 108 authors listed who have sold more than 50,000 indie ebooks, these 22 have sold the most.
> 
> 
> *Amanda Hocking* - 1,500,000 ebooks sold (December 2011)
> ...




It was 108 when I started this thread.
It's at 159 now.


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## BookReader (Jun 24, 2012)

_And of the 108 authors listed who have sold more than 50,000 indie ebooks__, these 22 have sold the most. _



 a total of 32 "found" authors who sold more than 200,000 self-published ebooks  (an increase of 10 when this thread was started)

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)
Selena Kitt - "With half a million ebooks sold in 2011 alone"
Stephen Leather - close to 500,000 books sold (Nov 2011)
CJ Lyons - almost 500,000 ebooks sold (Dec 2011)
J.R. Rain - more than 400,000 books sold (Sept 2011)
Bob Mayer - 347 sold in Jan to over 400,000 total sold by year's end (Dec 2011)
Rick Murcer - over 400,000 ebooks in one year (May 2012)
Tracey Garvis-Graves - 280,480 sold in the two months of April and May 2012
Tina Folsom - over 300,000 books sold (October 2011)
J Carson Black - more than 300,000 books sold (November 2011)
Terri Reid - 300,000 sold (May 2012) 
Marie Force - 300,000+ sold (June 2012) 
Liliana Hart - "my total sales for one year have now exceed 300,000 books (June 2012)
B.V. Larson - over 250,000 books sold (Dec 2011)
Kerry Wilkinson - more than 250,000 books sold (Feb 2012)
T.R. Ragan - 239,592 books sold (March 2012)
H.P. Mallory - more than 200,000 ebooks sold (July 2011)
Scott Nicholson - Just guessing, I'd put my worldwide sales total between 200k-250k
David Dalglish - more than 200,000 (May 2012)
Antoinette Stockenberg - total sales stand at 216,686 (most from B&N) (June 2012)
Cheryl Bolen - 200,000 sold (June 2012)
Jennifer Ashley/Ashley Gardner - crossed the 200,000 sold mark in early June 2012
Nick Spalding - "I'm lucky enough to be in the 200,000 + total sales club now (June 2012)"


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