The short answer is that some are, and some aren’t! This is also true of books that have been traditionally published. Only the top few percent of traditionally published authors earn enough from book sales to earn a full-time living. Self-publishing is similarly a pyramid-shaped market: a few authors will be at the top, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars/pounds, while many will be at a lower tier. If you can sell 1000 copies of a book, you should consider that a success in most markets.
There are certainly plenty of headline cases where a self-published author has sold even millions of books – a famous example is E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey series, although as soon as these went viral they were picked up by a traditional publisher! There are also many very successful self-publishing authors who do not feature in the limelight – some are authors writing in popular niche genres of fiction; others write bestselling how-to guides or business leadership books, for example.
Things that will help the success of your self-published books include:
- being produced (i.e. edited and designed) to a professional standard
- being part of a portfolio of titles: the more you publish, the more you are likely to have success (this is the entire business model of most traditional publishers too)
- treating your writing/publishing as a business: define your costs, take it seriously, track your results, rinse and repeat.
Also, what does success mean to you? It might mean zillions of sales… but it could mean one of these too:
- establishing your authority or thought leadership as an expert in your field
- fulfilling a lifelong dream
- having a marketing tool to generate leads for your business
- recording the story of an interesting life (your own or someone else’s)
- bringing joy, entertainment or education to others.
How do you define success?