Self-Publishing Fiction After a Career with the Big Five: A Case Study

by Eugene Linden

This article is reprinted from the Winter 2026 issue of The Authors Guild Bulletin.

I’ve published a dozen nonfiction books with the Big Five. None of that prepared me for my experience with fiction. A nonfiction author publishing his first novel might as well have dropped in from the planet Zardoz. So, when I made the switch, I quickly learned that the traditional path wasn’t available to me and turned to self-publishing.

The laws of self-publishing, particularly within the vast ecosystem of Amazon, are entirely different from those that prevail when working with traditional publishers. Self-published authors sacrifice most of the non-material feedback that allows an author to judge success—mainstream and literary media reviews, awards, best books lists—but they can reach very large audiences and get paid far more rapidly. There’s always a catch, of course, and the catch is that it’s exceedingly difficult to reach readers without a publisher’s support system, particularly when ten million other self-published authors are trying to do the same thing.

Here follows an account of how I did that.

The Setup

Back in 2019, I published my first novel with a hybrid publisher, Rosetta. It’s a sci-fi novel, and it got some very nice reviews (starred review in Publishers Weekly, e.g.), but sales were modest to say the least. The publisher folded a couple of years later, and the rights reverted to me. I really enjoyed writing fiction after so many years of journalism, so I decided to write a sequel. Given the sales of the first book, going to a mainstream publisher was a non-starter. Apart from the numbers, my agent basically told me I was the wrong gender and the wrong age. So, I went directly to KDP. Or rather, I put together a team to go to KDP.

Brian Skulnick, who had shepherded the publishing process at Rosetta, agreed to help handle the mechanics as a consultant. Art Klebanoff, the publishing entrepreneur who founded Rosetta, put me in touch with David Wilk, a long-time veteran of the book business, who gave me a list of websites that (for a fee) could help get a novel to curated lists of readers—book club members, various interest groups. Art also introduced me to Sarah Elizabeth Hill, who founded Bobi Media and helps with social media promotions. One of Sarah’s team did the cover design. One of David’s most valuable introductions was to Vincent Davis, who helped me navigate the byways of Amazon. David, Sarah, and Vincent regularly work with self-published authors. While it sounds like this requires a lot of introductions and people to know, their services are accessible to all, and there are others who also do similar work.

I started with Bobi Media in the spring of 2024 to chum the waters before the launch. The sequel had a soft launch in late March and April of 2025, but the real launch came when BookBub chose to promote the first novel in late April.

For those unfamiliar: BookBub is a book discovery platform with millions of subscribers who have opted in to receive deals in specific genres. Its readers are voracious. More than half its readers say they read at least one book per week, and they are more open to new authors precisely because the financial risk is low; paying less than two bucks for a book is not a gamble for them. BookBub also rejects about 90 percent of submissions, which means readers trust that even a deeply discounted book has cleared some kind of quality bar. The platform is particularly popular for genre fiction, including romance, mystery, and thrillers.

The Results

To set the context: the first book had been in what might be called a publishing-induced coma for about five years. It was listed on Kindle Unlimited, but sales wouldn’t have kept an abstemious ant alive. Then everything changed.

The first couple of days after BookBub launched its promotion, the two books sold about 6,800 (discounted) copies—almost entirely ebooks. At the same time, page downloads on Kindle Unlimited started to take off, as shown at right. The original BookBub ad only lasted a few days. I’ve also done some social media, and Amazon has offered Kindle Deals on both books, but (knock on wood) the biggest recent driver seems to be word of mouth from all the ad activity.

While I don’t have mainstream reviews, the enthusiasm of everyday readers more than fills that void. A novelist friend once told me that with nonfiction, readers will keep going because they’re interested in the subject matter, but with fiction, you have to give the reader a reason to turn the page every single page. Kindle Unlimited allows authors to test that assertion in real time.

Strategy: Focus on the First Book

A key part of my strategy was to focus promotion on the first book in the series. My logic: if readers liked the first book, they’d be more likely to want the sequel. That logic seems to have been vindicated. From April until this writing, royalties from both books have amounted to about $39,000.

Since August, monthly royalties have averaged about $3,500, mostly from Kindle Unlimited, bolstered by six Amazon All-Star bonuses. This means that the books have earned back the publishing and promotion expenses in eleven months.

What I Spent on Promotion

Before the books started earning meaningful royalties in April, I spent about $39,500 on publishing and promotional expenses. Here’s where it went: By far the largest expense was the $31,000 I spent on social media promotions through Bobi (the number also includes cover design and other services Bobi provided). The purpose was to lift my online profile (previously non-existent on TikTok and Instagram). Bobi succeeded: over 500,000 views across scores of videos, with one garnering 66,000. They also got the books out to 50 influencers. I did not see significant bumps in sales, but another part of my strategy was to build cumulative impressions—and that seems to have worked, as people are buying the equivalent of about 2,200 books a month with minimal ongoing promotion.

I should note: I spent over $30,000 on social media because I’m a complete novice in that world. Authors with the time and expertise to do it themselves could drastically cut that expense.

What Actually Worked

I can say without equivocation that BookBub was the only promotion for which I could see significant, immediate, monetary returns. For $613, the promotion went out to 1.2 million members on their science fiction list—and the spike came immediately.

As this article goes to press, BookBub is in the middle of a promotion for the second book. With the first book, BookBub offered discounted books, while for the second, the promotion involved a giveaway, and it cost me $450. As of this writing, there have been orders for over 9,000 ebooks in the first 36 hours, a wave that skyrocketed the second book’s Amazon rankings. While these orders produce no royalties, if the past is prologue, they will generate substantial and durable downstream orders.

This is not to say I regret spending on other efforts. It’s entirely possible that they prompted readers to start downloading on Kindle Unlimited. Some percentage of downloads is coming from word of mouth, but some percentage has to be coming from people prompted by ads or the videos Bobi continues to produce. I just don’t know the breakdown.

The Bigger Picture

Admittedly, my downloads and sales are not blockbuster numbers, but they amount to the equivalent of about 35,000 books so far. Sales continue, and I suspect many authors would be happy to find that size readership. I’m sufficiently happy that I’ve started writing a third book in the series.

Anyone who’s previously published through the Big Five can see the stark contrasts. The most obvious one involves the sales and marketing cycle. With KDP there’s none of the elaborate prep work of a catalogue listing and a sales force fanning out to bookstores. You’re also unlikely to have book readings or media appearances. Instead, what a friend called “the calm before the calm” very much applies.

On the plus side, most publishers give authors only about a three-month window after publication for promotion before moving on to the next phase of the catalogue. If a book hasn’t generated sales by then, it’s likely headed for the remainder table. As I discovered, with online publishing, given a push, a book published six years earlier can be treated as a new publication and find an enthusiastic audience.

Land vs. Ocean

Maybe the best metaphor for the differences between traditional and self-published online publishing is the difference between terrestrial life and life in the oceans. Think of gravity as an analog for time. On land, a book can defy gravity for only so long before it gets pulled back to earth (or, rarely, achieves exit velocity and stays in orbit). But in the oceans, gravity is less of a constraint. On land, distribution must overcome geographical and logistical barriers; in the largely homogenous oceans, denizens can extend their reach over vast distances. The online audience is not constrained by bookstore hours, time zones, or trucking expenses.

Despite the advantages of online, most authors would prefer to publish through mainstream outlets. This is completely understandable. The validation of editors, critics, live audiences, and the media means more to most authors than material returns. But what authors want most is to strike a responsive chord with readers. Mainstream publishing offers a way to do that. So can self-publishing.

My Advice

If you’re thinking about trying this, here’s what I’d distill from the experience.

• BookBub delivered the only clear, immediate ROI. For $613, the promotion reached 1.2 million readers and generated 6,800 sales in two days.
• Promote the first book in a series, not the new one. If readers like book one, they will find the sequel themselves.
• Social media builds brand but don’t expect a direct sales bump. The returns are cumulative and hard to measure.
• A book that’s been quiet for years can find a new audience online. Traditional publishing doesn’t give you that runway. This ecosystem does.
• Paid consultants and services are accessible to any author. You don’t need industry connections to assemble a team.
• Don’t go at it alone. Guild members and AG webinars are resources you already have at your disposal for this.
• Know your genre. BookBub works best for science fiction, thrillers, romance, and other genre fiction. If you write literary fiction, memoir, or poetry, your mileage may vary.
• There is more than one path up the mountain. Some experts on self-publishing recommend only periodic use of Kindle Unlimited because authors get more royalties from other formats. I’ve stayed with Kindle Unlimited under the reasoning that if you have a book that gets a strong, positive reader response, it’s in your interest to get that book in front of as many readers possible.

Eugene Linden is the author of 12 nonfiction books, two novels, as well as many articles, opinion pieces, and essays. eugenelinden.com.