# How many true 'Breakout' novels have you seen?



## Morgan Jameson (Sep 16, 2014)

I guess my real question is, do you guys know of more than one or two examples of breakout novels on Kindle that enabled the writer to work at writing full time? They happen in mainstream publishing, but what about Kindle? Anyone know of any examples?


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## Amanda M. Lee (Jun 3, 2014)

I don't know about any specific one novel. I would say there are numerous people who have found a solid following and have a large enough body of work to quit their day jobs and write full time.


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## MarilynVix (Jun 19, 2013)

I've watched a few authors on the board have a book series take off. Hugh Howey was one of them. He did the short stories, and finished the serials into a book. Many other writers on the board have had successes. It really depends on the genre too. H.M. Ward also has done quite well. Again, it didn't seem to be just one book, but the fact they both wrote series books and a lot of books. You have to be a writing fool to do well. Write a lot, and write well. I think Hugh said it was like his 10th attempt or something before Wool came out.


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## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

Tracey Garvis Graves comes to mind. On the Island was a huge hit.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Are you talking about making a living off the sales of a single debut novel? Because that's a very rare thing in both the indie and trad worlds. Most full-time writers have lots of books out there earning them money.


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## Morgan Jameson (Sep 16, 2014)

Carol (was Dara) said:


> Are you talking about making a living off the sales of a single debut novel? Because that's a very rare thing in both the indie and trad worlds. Most full-time writers have lots of books out there earning them money.


I realize that, and although my 'first' novel is about to come out (a WWII thriller) it's really my 2nd finished novel, and I have 3 more 1/2 way there - 2 thrillers and another literary novel. I don't see any reason I can't have them all done and out in the next year truthfully, but I do not knock out a novel in a month. Despite being fairly prolific, I spend a lot of time editing. My goal is $1000 / month. Believe it or not, I can live on that. Anything else is gravy, but that's my nut. I'm well familiar with Hugh's story - just wanted to hear other similar stories...for inspiration.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

Morgan Jameson said:


> I guess my real question is, do you guys know of more than one or two examples of breakout novels on Kindle that enabled the writer to work at writing full time? They happen in mainstream publishing, but what about Kindle? Anyone know of any examples?


When things like that "happen in mainstream publishing" it is usually a bit of a stretch... Often it will be the first book that makes in a big genre, their first book with that particular publisher, the first book under a new name, and the list goes on, it's A first book, but usually not their FIRST book.
Very very very few ever have their first published novel be their break out novel, usually it's just how it's marketed.
An author can have published with smaller publishers or even on their own, and when they sign on with a Big 5 publishers they have their "break out first novel" while in reality, it's not their first novel.


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

Verrrrrry few indie breakout successes are true debuts. They are new pen names of established authors.

So there is almost no way to validate this unless you know an author personally.

Authors do break out in a way that SEEMS sudden. But many have a lot of miles on their shoes when it happens. Hugh had a lot of stories out. HM Ward had been publishing for quite a while. Bella got rights reversions to a bunch of romance.

I can only think of a couple genuine out of the box breakouts. Viola Rivard (who is here but no longer uses her name) is one. Jay Crownover is another. She got an agent during week two of her indie debut and sold to trad.

I'm not aware enough of sci fi/fantasy or thriller hits to know of any that broke out.

Most first books open to crickets. If it's truly a first book. I have so many pen names, I don't even know which one came first any more.


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## Guest (Sep 24, 2014)

Morgan Jameson said:


> I realize that, and although my 'first' novel is about to come out (a WWII thriller) it's really my 2nd finished novel, and I have 3 more 1/2 way there - 2 thrillers and another literary novel. I don't see any reason I can't have them all done and out in the next year truthfully, but I do not knock out a novel in a month. Despite being fairly prolific, I spend a lot of time editing. My goal is $1000 / month. Believe it or not, I can live on that. Anything else is gravy, but that's my nut. I'm well familiar with Hugh's story - just wanted to hear other similar stories...for inspiration.


If all you need is $1,000 a month, you can do it. I started at the end of May 2014, and I reached that last month. This month is down, but I'll be back up. Just be willing to go with the flow, because you may have bad months mixed in with the good months. Have a backup.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

_Slammed _was Colleen Hoover first novel. The reason it did so well is because she was well known in, I believe, music circles and sold a lot of books to them. Read her story on her author page. It' s good book and one of the few I've read since I started writing.


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## Morgan Jameson (Sep 16, 2014)

I was very fortunate and found a great agent with my first novel, but she shopped it in NY right after 9/11 and although people liked it a lot, it didn't sell. I will be re-editing it as soon as I get this one out on Amazon. I decided to go indie because she said that traditional publishers wouldn't even look at something over 100,000 words, so screw them. I'm not cutting 1/3rd of the book at this point, and my beta-readers all agree with me...rabidly I might add. What worries me is writing both thrillers and literary fiction - Kimberley doesn't think I should use two different names, but I'm wondering if I should. 

Sorry I got OT. I've been reading a lot of the articles here and there's a lot to take in. Wish I'd found this forum sooner. I am very excited yet apprehensive about putting this novel out there, but it's ready, or it will be after this weekend. Making final line edit changes and giving it a final going over. I guess I could just use some more inspiration is all. Love hearing about the success stories in Hugh Howey's thread.


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

I've always thought of "breakout novel" as meaning a novel that takes a writer to a whole new level of success and helps them break out into being well-known, not necessarily the first novel they ever wrote or published. If that definition's correct, a number of self-published authors have reached that level of success. If you're also defining "breakout novel" as a novel that finally allows an author to write full-time, you'll hear many of those types of success stories rather frequently here on KBoards.  A few especially successful self-published authors here on KBoards: Hugh Howey, Wayne Stinnett, Amanda Hocking (not sure she's still on KBoards).


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## J.L. Dickinson (Jul 12, 2014)

There is only one indie author that I'm aware of that essentially knocked the ball out of the park (I would estimate high 6 figures in gross) with their first book. A.G. Riddle. http://www.amazon.com/A.G.-Riddle/e/B00C32LQBK/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

His first book was massively successful. However, as far as I know he had already quit his day job (he'd had success as a website start up guy) before he even published his debut book.


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## David Wisehart (Mar 2, 2010)

How about _The Martian_ by Andy Weir?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_%28Andy_Weir%29


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## Dolphin (Aug 22, 2013)

As some have already suggested, the bulk of indies who've been able to make writing into their day job have done so through writing breakout _series_ instead of novels. Hugh is quick to warn that he's an outlier, but one way that he's not is that he succeeded only after having several books in print, and after stumbling across much of the formula for indy success. For starters: write genre, write series, publish quickly, prioritize writing the next book. You'll find many more pointers here that are relevant to cranking out thrillers than literary fiction.

Best of luck!


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## Anna Drake (Sep 22, 2014)

What about Darcie Chan and the Mill River Recluse? I believe it was her first self-published novel. Whether it was also the first book she'd ever written, I don't know. But that's the only example of a break out self-published novel I can think of. I believe it sold in the neighborhood of 300,000 copies.

Edited to remove a typo.


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## Guest (Sep 24, 2014)

There are a few authors that had early success and it changed their financial situation quite quickly.

Yes *Darcie Chan* is one, she's sold over 700,000 copies of Mill River Recluse. She broke out with one book.

*Jasinda Wilder* (a pen name) managed to save their home and support their family after writing 20 romance and erotic eBooks in 6 months and selling around 1 million copies

*Kendall Grey* made $10,000 in two weeks from her erotic story 'Strings'. Kendall previously wrote fantasy/paranormal but erotica has been a huge immediate success for her.

*Colleen Hoover* sold thousands of copies of the Slammed series and the Hopeless series before signing with Atria. According to Simon and Schuster, Hopeless sold 700,000 copies in 6 months. _Colleen Hoover found success through free promotions, making the book free for a few days, giveaways, goodreads and bloggers. And obviously writing in a hot genre -romance _

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/how-colleen-hoover-found-readers-on-goodreads_b60810
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/bestseller-colleen-hoover-how-i-did-it/

*Cora Carmack * (romance) sold over 32,000 books in 12 days. 
http://www.usatoday.com/story/happyeverafter/2012/12/04/cora-carmack-interview-losing-it-new-adult/1747343/

Most of the success stories I have seen, are romance, erotica romance or erotica authors.


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## Writerly Writer (Jul 19, 2012)

SevenDays said:


> Tracey Garvis Graves comes to mind. On the Island was a huge hit.


And what an excellent book that was.


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## Cheryl Douglas (Dec 7, 2011)

It can happen without the breakout novel, but it usually requires several books before you start having four figure months. At least that was my experience. I released three books my first month. After studying these boards for several months, I decided that was the best strategy for me. My books are only 60-65k and I do write full-time, so a book a month was reasonable for me the first year. That was the ticket for me. Popular genre + series + perma-free + monthly releases. It allowed me to go from four figure months to five figure months within the first year. Good luck with your new release!


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## Chris Culver (Jan 28, 2011)

My own book, The Abbey, has sold somewhere around a million copies worldwide since 2011. That includes some trade published sales, but breakout debut novels do happen. I don't know how they happen, but they can.


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## JeanneM (Mar 21, 2011)

Amanda Hocking


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## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

Wayne Stinnett is probably a more typical tale of author success - in that it took several books before he really started seeing decent numbers. Or Russell Blake. Both of them had slow sales at the start, and kept on publishing, and over time they built up their audience and their sales.

To the OP:  breakout success with your first book would be marvelous, and I hope you have one, but trying to plan for that puts a lot of pressure on you.  

If you publish your first book, get some good reviews, and start to build up a following, that's a success right there. It's a foundation that you can build on, and with every new book that you publish, you'll be building your audience and hopefully your sales numbers. 

I make my living writing romance novels (under a pen name). It took me about a year to get to the point where I could quit my day job.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

In SF, along with A.G. Riddle and _The Martian_, Jennifer Foehner Wells put out her first book (Fluency) in June and wound up in the top 100 for weeks. It's very rare, but once in a while, a first novel does catch fire in Amazon's recommendation system to become an instant bestseller.


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## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

Elizabeth made $4k the first month (Dec 2012) off of her first 99c novella--the first thing she ever published. Her second novella did almost as well. But the market is a LOT different now.


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## heidi_g (Nov 14, 2013)

Chanda Hahn continues to have great success with her _Unfortunate Fairy Tale_ series. Currently the first book in the series is #1 on the Teen & Young Adult Fairy Tale Free charts  and the pre-order of her fourth book which will be out in November is #1 on the Teen & Young Adult Fairy Tale paid charts .

It's a very clever series, perfect for the young adult readers it's targeted f0r.

She's my hero and I'm looking forward to meeting her in October when I go to IndieRecon.


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

I still feel there needs to be a serious intifada against traditional publishers who swindle their authors out of well-earned cash and pay a pittance instead.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

I did it. My first book broke out five months after I published it, and I've been making a living at writing ever since. Although, I guess it depends on your definition of "make a living." The more books you have out, the more likely you are to break out.

Also, cover-blurb-sample page. All three need to be in top form, or you won't be doing yourself any favors. 

And I was a total unknown in the literary world.


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## Jennifer Lewis (Dec 12, 2013)

Just to reassure you that you don't need a breakout novel to make $1000 a month. That's about $33 a day, which is about 16 sales of a $2.99 book. I would highly recommend having a freebie that leads into it, like a gripping short story you can give away to hook readers.

And if you can figure out a way to make your books a series, that is a HUGE help as you can send readers from one to the next.

Most writers who make a living from their work (including me) do it by the "drip" method rather than the HUGE SPLASH method, though that would be lovely too


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## wtvr (Jun 18, 2014)

Yeah, how about just a breakout career. One novel can go up and down. A bunch will rise more reliably but slowly.


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## Sharlow (Dec 20, 2009)

I put out my first book Dec. 2009 and sold 6 books. I continued to put out a book or two each year and by March 2011 I was making around $4,000 a month. That July I almost died after getting blood and bone poising. I ended up in a wheel chair for 7 months. For some reason I lost the will and the ability to write. Add the numerous bad things that just happen to us in our live since then and I put out maybe one novella since then.

Once I stopped writing my sales literally cut in half each month until they were gone. I mean you could look at my ledger and it would half the cash and sales each month. It's been several years since I wrote, but the itch finally came back and now I'm scratching it again. But it's like I'm starting all over again from scratch.

Anyways for me, I didn't pass the magical $1000 a month barrier until early 2011. It took me a few years. Doesn't mean you have to take that long, but that's just my example. Hope that helps at all.


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

I put out 20 titles before I had a breakout. I was past the $1000/month barrier at that point, but this was a deal changer to five-figure months. Next week is the one-year anniversary of that happening. Been an amazing year.


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## wtvr (Jun 18, 2014)

TexasGirl said:


> I put out 20 titles before I had a breakout. I was past the $1000/month barrier at that point, but this was a deal changer to five-figure months. Next week is the one-year anniversary of that happening. Been an amazing year.


What changed? Was it one title or a series/serial? Did it hit right away?


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## Amber Rose (Jul 25, 2014)

Sharlow said:


> It's been several years since I wrote, but the itch finally came back and now I'm scratching it again. But it's like I'm starting all over again from scratch.


Good luck! I'll bet that you are going to jump right back into four digit earnings quite quickly....Maybe you can promote your 4 books while you write something new?


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## heidi_g (Nov 14, 2013)

TexasGirl said:


> I put out 20 titles before I had a breakout.


That is awesome! Good on you for persevering!!!!!


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

LisaGloria said:


> What changed? Was it one title or a series/serial? Did it hit right away?


I wrote a new adult book with a mail list sign up in the back. When the book sold quickly I started getting hundreds of signups a week. So it was sort of preparation + luck. I was able to capture all those people, who bought the next book too. I wasn't planning to write a series, but I ended up doing one. I knocked out another full length novel (70K) in five weeks.

Which about killed me. But then -- goodbye credit card debt!

KU has impact my sales a lot, and I'm trying to decide how to adjust.


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## Guest (Sep 28, 2014)

TexasGirl said:


> I put out 20 titles before I had a breakout. I was past the $1000/month barrier at that point, but this was a deal changer to five-figure months. Next week is the one-year anniversary of that happening. Been an amazing year.


These types of statements are the most inspirational for me! Congratulations! I hope my self-publishing future is just as bright!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

KB member Michael Hicks quit his day job and now writes full time after his book/now series In Her Name took off....

Betsy


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## wtvr (Jun 18, 2014)

TexasGirl said:


> I wrote a new adult book with a mail list sign up in the back. When the book sold quickly I started getting hundreds of signups a week. So it was sort of preparation + luck. I was able to capture all those people, who bought the next book too. I wasn't planning to write a series, but I ended up doing one. I knocked out another full length novel (70K) in five weeks.
> 
> Which about killed me. But then -- goodbye credit card debt!
> 
> KU has impact my sales a lot, and I'm trying to decide how to adjust.


That's fabulous! Great to hear. Congrats.


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