1. Adam Nevill
Adam Nevill was already a successful traditionally published writer. He switched to self-publishing for financial reasons and so he could have control over how his books were packaged and marketed. As a supernatural horror author, he knew he couldn’t write what publishers sell best.
In 2016, he spent a year studying indie publishing and self-published The Reddening in 2019, which out-sold some of his traditionally published books, some of which had elaborate marketing campaigns.
One part of his strategy included producing free books and linking them to his website and newsletter. He saw his email subscribers rise and one of his free ebooks was downloaded 30K times in a couple of months. Nevill said he hoped to write a new book every 12 to 18 months and promote and launch his books consistently.
He is reaching more readers than he could through traditionally published books in the UK.
2. Louise Hay
Before launching the Hay House empire, the late Louise Hay took Science of Mind Classes in the 70s and became a master at helping others through affirmative prayers or “treatments.” Louise published Heal Your Body in 1976 as a pamphlet at 50 years old, just before being diagnosed with cancer.
She reversed her diagnosis and was inspired to self-publish You Can Heal Your Life in 1984 at 60 using her own publishing imprint, Hay House. Not long after, Reid Tracy joined her mission. Heal Your Body was republished as a full book, and over the past 4 decades, Tracy has helped grow the publisher into the home of some of the most influential authors of our time.
Both of Hay’s books became, and remain, international bestsellers, with You Can Heal Your Life selling over 35 million copies.
3. Lawrence Watt-Evans
Lawrence Watt Evans, who also writes under Nathan Archer, read sci-fi and comics at a young age. He got his first book deal at 24 and went on to publish many more titles with eight different publishers.
When he wrote his second online serial, The Vondish Ambassador, he promised that anyone who donated $25 or more would receive a copy of the book in finished form as soon as possible. He expected Wildside to pick it up and publish a trade paperback edition fairly quickly, but it didn’t.
He didn’t want to deal with yet another publisher, so decided to self-publish a trade edition with just 400 copies for donors and people who couldn’t wait for the paperback. He created a joint venture with Wildside called Misenchanted Press, where he handled the financing and editorial end, while Wildside handled production. Wildside published a trade paperback, hardcover, and ebook, but not the mass-market edition.
When Watt-Evans got into self-publishing with One-Eyed Jack, he revived Misenchanted Press and turned it into a micro-publisher with more authors on the roster.
4. Francesca Catlow
During the pandemic, Francesca Catlow was at home looking after a two-year-old, a newborn baby, and her husband, who has seizures. She announced to her family that she would write a novel.
After six months of writing and revising, she was ready to put The Little Blue Door out into the world. She didn’t have the time or the energy to research and work out a proper plan, and delivered her manuscript to a vanity press in 2021.
The publisher got her cover completely wrong. It was as if they hadn’t even bothered to read the story or they didn’t know the reader market. In her words, she wasted “thousands of pounds” with the publisher.
When she discovered the publisher had accidentally printed and published an unedited version of her manuscript, she got her rights back to re-publish the book months later, with the cover she’d dreamed of.
Catlow went from selling a few hundred books to thousands of copies with the new cover and marketing plan. She’s since published seven more titles.
After becoming a finalist in the Kindle Storyteller Award in 2023, she signed a three-book deal with Lake Union Publishing (under Montlake, its romance imprint), an Amazon Publishing imprint. More than a few booksellers now also stock her books.
5. Ashwin Sanghi
In 2007, Ashwin Sanghi self-published his first novel, The Rozabal Line, under the pen name Shawn Haigins. He used Lulu, which had come before Amazon KDP existed.
Sanghi designed his own book cover, hired a freelance editor, and created a YouTube trailer for the book. He sold 900 copies in the first year, becoming one of Lulu’s bestselling authors at the time.
When his titles were not available in India and his attempts to get published the traditional way in India hadn’t come to fruition, his mother introduced him to Vivek Ahuja, who had worked with a large book distribution entity in India, UBSPD, who provided Sanghi with a list of 75 Indian distributors.
The founder of Landmark Book Stores had just created a joint venture called Westland with East West Books and had loved The Rozabal Line. But it would be impossible to import the book from the US and then expect to sell it in the Indian market, so she asked if he would republish it in India.
The CEO of Westland liked the book but was not sure about its commercial viability. He created a target group of ten readers and the majority opinion was favourable. They signed a contract two weeks later, under the condition that Sanghi drop his pseudonym.
The first print run was 2000 copies, which sold in a month. Sanghi has since published over 15 books.
Source: Jaya Bhattacharji Rose
6. Elaine Calloway
As a child, Elaine Calloway knew she wanted to tell stories and bring her imaginary friends to life. She eavesdropped on her parents and made up stories using her notes on them. I love that!
In 2013, she self-published Water’s Blood (the first in The Elemental Clans Series). In a Quora AMA from 2021, she said even though Amazon sees the most sales, she doesn’t like being exclusive to one platform, so she puts her books everywhere. She’s used Draft2Digital to distribute to Barnes & Noble vs. dealing with B & N directly. Also, the Apple dashboard takes some getting used to, but the sales there have been decent.
After incorporating years of writing experience, speaking at conferences, testing various methods to write books and get readers, and self-publish the Elemental Clan and the Southern Ghosts Series, she went from having no readers to becoming a bestselling author with over 1500 readers and fans in less than a year.
Every one of her books has earned out its costs, and her ebook royalties have paid for numerous writing conferences and retreats in places like New York City, San Francisco, and more.
Calloway is a sought-after speaker on self-publishing and marketing and writes paranormal romance, romantic suspense, and urban fantasy books for adults.
7. Chris A. Baird
Chris A. Baird started his publishing journey in 2015 with Kindle books. After a year of going it alone, he wasn’t making progress. He took several courses and started reading as much as he could about the industry.
Within a few months, he had a spike in sales after testing out a few strategies. The internet says his PowerLists™ series on productivity, goal-setting, and habit-breaking is what made the biggest difference.
Since then, he’s published over 200 books, resulting in over 30,000 sales, using the strategies he teaches his students and clients at Self-Publishing Made Easy Now.
8. Colleen Hoover
A married mother of 3 young boys in rural East Texas, Colleen Hoover worked 11-hour days as a social worker when she decided to self-publish Slammed on Amazon in 2012. The ebook was free for a week, but people bought it even after it went on sale for a fee.
She self-published the book’s sequel, Point of Retreat, a month later (Slammed and Point of Retreat are books 1 and 2 in the Slammed series). By June, both books hit Amazon’s Kindle top 100 bestseller list. By July, both were on The New York Times bestseller list for e-books.
Soon after, Atria Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint offered a deal. By fall, she had sold the movie rights (the option period expired, and the rights reverted to her).
When she finished Hopeless in December (Book 1 in the 5-book Hopeless series), she initially turned down an offer from Atria and self-published again (because, why not?). By January 2013, that book too was a NYT bestseller. She signed with Atria to publish the print version, but kept control of the ebook.
In 2020, #BookTok found her and rediscovered It Ends With Us. Sales surged, backlist titles exploded, and Hoover became a household name. By 2022, she occupied five of the top 10 spots on TNYT bestseller list, outselling James Patterson, Nora Roberts, even the Bible at Walmart.
The 2024 film adaptation of It Ends With Us grossed over $350 million worldwide and was the centre of the Blake Lively x Justin Baldoni controversy. Hoover likely landed a seven-figure licensing deal. Her thriller, Verity, has also been optioned, with Anne Hathaway as its star.
As of 2025, she’s sold over 35 million books worldwide.
Resources:
9. Blake Crouch
Blake Crouch got his first book deal in 2001 with St. Martin’s Press, which continued to publish 3 subsequent titles.
He said in an interview: “My sales were never great at St. Martin’s; they were kind of diminishing, and basically I thought my career was dead or dying. And then the Kindle came along and the ability to publish on not just Kindle but on the Nook and Kobo and Smashwords. I got the rights back to some of my early novels and released those on the e-book platforms.”
Crouch updated the covers and republished them independently. Within 3 months, his earnings from Amazon KDP exceeded the $6,000 advance he had received for his first novel.
With Amazon, he published Run in 2011, which was re-released by Ballantine Books in 2024. After publishing the international bestseller Wayward Pines (Book 1 in The Wayward Pines Trilogy), he sold the rights to make a TV show, which was directed by M. Night Shyamalan and aired on FOX in 2015–2016.
His subsequent works, Dark Matter, Upgrade, Recursion, and the Letty Dobesh novellas, have been developed into screen projects.
10. Natalie Barelli
We know little about psychological thriller author Natalie Barelli, but just six months after publishing Until I Met Her in 2017, Amazon Publishing’s imprint Thomas & Mercer signed her.
She’s published 9 more titles. (Her website is the best author website I’ve come across too.)
Click here for Part 4 in my successful self-published authors series!
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