My Book: The Pathless Path - 25k Sales, $130k Royalties in 500 days (With Details)
I want to convince more people to write and publish books. My experience of self-publishing my book, The Pathless Path, taught me that:
- It is easier than many are led to believe
- The harder parts like editing and formatting are figureoutable (especially by anyone with indie hacking chops) and there are very good markets for these things
- It is more profitable than I expected
- If I had to do it again I would have hired an editor earlier and stopped looking for ways to get "permission" throughout the process
My sales were pretty steady in the first year and I hit 1000 sales within a couple of months (you can see from my timeline on my profile). This is usually a good sign, as that is when any potential word of mouth can kick in (a friend from Scribe said 1k in 100 days is a great benchmark for success). I also sensed something was going on as the e-mails people were sending me were very powerful.
However, I didn't really have any aggressive marketing strategy other than:
- Sending books to people from around the world if they were interested (I gifted about 1k books). A totally underrated thing about self-publishing is you can print and ship your book in Amazon for about $4.50 (way cheaper than traditional publishing)
- Doing podcasts and continuing to write and podcast about the ideas I was excited about slowly over time. I did not really try to do a major launch (50 podcasts in one week) as I just don't like that energy.
The book got a huge spike 11 months into sales from an Ali Abdaal shoutout when he mentioned my book in a top 15 books for 2022 post.
The sales leveled out but appeared to have hit an unlock in the Amazon algorithm, with a higher "floor" of sales. As you can see from above, it seemed to start selling at a higher steady rate.
Penguin Tried to Buy My Book
In March, Portfolio (a penguin imprint) reached out and quickly made an offer (with surprisingly little info) to purchase not only this book but sign me to a second book deal for $200k total.
I decided to walk away and didn't even really negotiate. A few reasons:
- I am indie because I don't want to compromise creative control
- Prestige of working for a publisher is not that exciting for me
- It was $70k for my current book and at my current rate, I calculated I'd earn that on my own MUCH quicker than with a publishers (where royalties would be about 30% of mine)
- It was contingent on a second book which would take 2.5 years to publish and the $130k payouts for that would pay out over 3-4 years. I asked myself, can I make that on my own?
I have more detail in this tweet thread. - Again, I just don't want a boss. I like writing and want to self-publish and write more on my own. I see it as a way as making money not using it as a "business card" as they tell you to think about it in the publishing world.
Detailed Stats & Pricing
I you adjust for two periods where Amazon nominated my book for Kindle sales (they adjust the price for a month and promote it more), my average price per book is probably closer to $6. But I'm still surprised that it's about $5-6 a book and $4 per audiobook. The numbers can add up pretty quickly.
Comparison To Traditional
In deciding not to sell the book I thought a lot about the comparison between the two modes of publishing and I think the key thing is: THEY ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT GAMES. You should pick the one that is aligned with the way you like to make a living and create in the world. I did a tweet thread comparing the two but most people are interested in the royalty information.
The BEST example I could find was from Jenny Blake who did an amazing podcast sharing all her information. Here were her stats for the book Pivot:
- Advance: $150k
- Hardcover: 13,500 - $37k - $2.74
- Paperback: 21,200 - $19.8k - $0.93
- Ebooks: 10,000 - $23.4k - $2.34
- Foreign Rights: $40k
Source: This was from her podcast
She still hasn't "earned" out her advance, meaning she won't get royalty checks until she does. This is different compared to self-publishing as you earn money every month you sell a book and get paid that month.
What's Next
I don't really know what comes "next" - I'm going to continue sharing the ideas that I liked writing about in the book in my podcast and newsletter. The topic, of reimagining our relationship with work, is still resonant to me and exciting to explore.
I'm actually trying to lean into using my experience to inspire others to write and create books. I want to help others make sense of this and don't really want to build a business or make money doing it. I just think the future is indie publishing and NOT traditional publishing and want to help make that happen.
Ultimately, I think books should be ways to make money and support indie hacker lives and careers. And if we get some great books that otherwise wouldn't have gotten produced? Even better.
Happy to answer questions!
Let me know, I'm an open BOOK 🤣
Damn, I love it, had no idea that book was written by an Indie. I've heard about it from Ali too, saw that video last month and at that point, I bought it for Kindle (still haven't read it, finishing something from Asimov, but bumping it in the list to read it soon).
Are you doing some sort of marketing now or it's just word of mouth?
Ha thanks! In terms of marketing not much. It seems to have won some favor from the Amazon algorithm and I mostly just re-share peoples comments when they talk about it. I run some basic Amazon auto ads but that doesn’t drive many sales. I probably should be leaning into it more but sort of unsure of what to do.
Very insightful man, i'm just about to launch my first Amazon book (written two novels, first self-help book in English)
I will face some trouble with the title, F*ck the slides, as Amazon won't let me put up any ads, so this post is very cool, i will keep working on the word of mouth.
Quick question, u didn't do any big sales, launch, best seller lists and stuff. any tips on how to get the initial traction then?
TNX man
A very interesting success story. Good for you. Thanks for sharing details.
This is very cool, I'm very happy for you.
😍 Congrats, this is awesome!
Great read! Congratulations Paul!
Hey Paul! Congratulations on the success! I would love to have you on my podcast, let me know if you are interested?
PS: Ordered the book and will read soon!
dm me on twitter - i just had a baby so not doing a ton but in the future i can!
Thank you so much for sharing. The chart and gifting idea were incredibly helpful.
Two q’s:
Wondering about #2 too
he actually started reading my stuff after I went on his podcast in 2020, not overthinking. his brother actually set it up and then I think he was intrigued because he was going through his own work transition. he was one of the 100-200 pre-sales and gave me like $50 through gumroad. I didn't really ask him to promote it, he just kept shouting it out.
I've generally been shy to ask directly for press. Something about me likes waiting for the world to ask for something before I take action. Probably not the right approach if I'm optimizing for money, but fun to see what emerges
Amazing. Where can I find that podcast episode?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxPJWry2TC0
Great post! Big thanks for sharing your experience and know-how. Stay fine!
thank you!
So glad to have found you here and see you sharing your insights so transparently! I was super inspired after hearing you in Ali Abdaal's podcast.
Thank you - that was a fun convo!
Eye-opening. I thought books typically paid about 1/10th of what you are showing for the same volume. I need to take a closer look at this "write a book thing"- thanks for sharing!
Yeah I underestimated it too. My goal in year one was to break even. Basically the traditional publishers have supported the idea that you don’t make money from books. It gets a lot of people to write them as a means to another end.
What would break even be?
$17k but probably 5k was spent after
So first 17k on mostly design/editors/publishing and +5k after publishing, on mostly advertising? Something like that?
Costs $17,691
Editing + Coaching $3,900
Book Cover $742
Publishing $250
Gifted Books $5,000
Self-Purchases $994
Ads $5,200
Marketing Consultant $325
Audiobook $1,280
Total Spend $17,691
Excellent breakdown, thanks!
Wow, what an awesome success. As a fellow self-published author it's gratifying to see others being successful at this and that there's a silverlining :-)
I have some questions about marketing like others here. It seems most of the impact was due to publishing this over to a big distribution channel like Amazon and the ecosystem around it (amazon books, kindle, etc).
Did SEO and book landing page drive any significant impact for you, Paul?
I don't know how I came to this post but man I am inspired by you. I recently started creating simplified series on various topics & I was wondering I will be successful or not. But now I will not worried at I will be just keep going with my plan.
Unfortunately I did not received any good response but I will not give up..
Congratulations! BTW, I am one happy customer! Your book is basically me although I have not left my job (scared to when I have a family and need to provide)
I definitely had the pathless path itch for many many years. One thing I noticed is the more you wait the harder is it so leave. Working at my company for over 20+ years now...
Nonetheless, my personality is a super curious one. Creative itch and jump from thing to thing often trying to quench my thirst for learning something new.
I started a newsletter because of this and hope to help myself and others in the process. Currently exploring productivity and using that to hone in on my curios tendencies. I realized I need to relieve my mental bandwidth otherwise I spin my wheels too much.
Anyway, thanks for the book it made me re-contemplate my life in a positive way.
ah thank you! love to hear you started the newsletter. took me years to take the leap so don't rush it too!
market validation? more like market crazy validation!
lol
Still have an unanswered q below!
Also how do you think tools like chatGPT will change indie publishing?
Not qualified to answer this, but as writing or information in general will become a commodity, I'd guess it's the authenticity of the writer's story that will become important in the future.
The popularity of influencers and vloggers confirms this for me. People want to hear and read the life and work experiences of people they identify with.
Very cool. Good subject, glad to see it working for you.
Do you have a post anywhere walking through the steps to self publish? I'd be interested in that, or link to resources/guides you used.
yeah here: https://think-boundless.com/blog-to-book/
Sweet, thanks!
This is so very cool! Congratulations on your success and your decision to follow your own creative path. It's such a shift in thinking that you need a big publishing house to become a published author and I am here for it. I'll definitely check out your book. Thanks for the inspiration!
its been funny to see otherwise indie people do everything solo and then still seek out permission from a traditional publisher. I think if you can get 200k it might be worth it but I have had enough bosses in my day
Super cool! Yeah, I think writing books might be a better path for a lot of indie hackers than publishing app/software. For one, you don't need to maintain a book!
yeah i wouldnt say its all upside. i think it works well for me for two huge reasons:
Your post came at the perfect time for me. I was in dilemma till now on whether to write a book about my own experience of launching a start-up.
This gave me reassurance that it is worth writing for sure. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience with all of us.
This was a really inspirational post, and I was psyched to see this book on Audible. Just purchased and looking forward to it!
Hi there
Great job. I've just started writing something myself.
I'm wondering, did you already have a following before you published this? Did you have free ebooks before and a mailing list etc? I'd like to know a bit more about how you got the traction you did.
Congrats
I had a few thousand newsletter subs but it was all very similar to my book. I wrote for that audience and really, I poured my own years of curiosity and research into it. I also rode the increased interest of 2020 in reimagining our relationship with work.
Thanks for sharing ! you made me think to start writing a book that I've been thinking about for a long time .
Hell yeah. This makes me happy! Hit me up if I can help
This is really impressive! I did venture into the KDP publishing a little bit, but didn't get much results (probably the market I tried is low-content book and it's very competitive with journals and stuff).
Did you have an existing audience base built before you publish? if so, how much do you think it contributes to your success? I feel like the hardest part of publishing a book is marketing.
I had a decent audience 3k newsletter and 2k twitter. But I had had hundreds of convos about work with people and had a very high quality relationship with them.
People have said that I should write a book based on my writing style and dark humor, and I've got a few topics in mind that seem to be hot topics at the moment. My struggle is understanding what platform to use to write a book, as writing everything in separate Google Docs seems intimidating and messy. Do you have suggestions for platforms that are good for writing books?
I wouldnt overthink this - I used Microsoft Word and then transitioned to google docs once i was working with an editor. I suggest just putting your head down and writing for a few months before really worrying about it. I did a thread here about it: https://twitter.com/p_millerd/status/1655665988996591616?s=20
Valid points, sounds like a plan then. Thank you!
ongratulations on your incredible success with self-publishing! Your story is inspiring and a testament to the opportunities available for indie authors. Keep sharing your experiences and encouraging others to pursue their writing dreams.
DIY DOJO
thanks!
Something pretty cool I came across was PathFinder where they have curated videos and online courses for anyone to upskill on UI/UX - http://thepathfinderproject.co.uk
As you go along the path you even create projects alongside the community to make yourself more recruitable!