What is your opinion on self-published books? have you ever read one?
Do not confuse the books on this list with poor, unedited, grammatically flawed imitations of other books.
You are reading: Self published books best sellers
this list is the best of the best, the best self-published books of all time. this list will change your mind about self-publishing forever. Chances are you’ve already read a self-published book without knowing it.
and you will read many more in the future. According to Bowker, the official source for International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) in the United States, more than one million books were published in 2017. two-thirds of them were self-published.
This year, up to 500,000 people will participate in National Writing Month (NanoWrimo), and hundreds of these book projects will end up on Amazon. you will buy them for your kindle.
why these books
Although I am convinced that there are unpublished masterpieces that languish in total anonymity, a reader cannot fall in love with a book that he cannot find.
I have been fascinated with the self-publishing model for over 10 years. I found these books on 4chan, reddit, smashwords and internet forums. these have been pushed to the top through clever marketing, strong fan bases, dumb luck, and simple, stubborn doggedness.
I measure the success of these books by readership, sales, social impact, entry into the meta of a generation, and my opinion of their merit.
Your responses to this book list will proceed in order from “wow I didn’t know it was self-published” to “really? you put that on the list? it only has 2 reviews on amazon and one of them is yours!”
a reason to read self-published authors
self-published writers are accessible. I have corresponded with several authors on this list. they write back. they are accessible. if you ask questions, they will answer.
The next time you read a self-published book, send the author an email. tell them you loved their book. then leave a review on amazon. it really helps them bring you more reading material.
beatrix potter loved peter rabbit, but at first she couldn’t get any publishers interested in her “rabbit books”, so she published 500 black and white copies of peter rabbit. the rest is history and we’re better for it.
the bbc brought these enchanting stories to life in the beatrix potter collection.
This narrated animated series closely follows the books and the soundtrack will have you playing the videos in the background just to hear the music. your children and grandchildren will love them, and so will you.
I first heard about the Martian when it was still a blog, and geeks and nerds like me were talking about the science of “could this really happen?” then weir published the book himself and the martian began to have a wider audience.
next thing you know matt damon is mark watney and everyone knows about the martian.
You get extra credit points if you heard about the Martian on Science Friday or Quirks and Quarks for our Canadian friends.
fifty shades of gray began as a twilight fanfiction under the title master of the universe. James used the pseudonym Snowqueens Icedragon. Doesn’t that sound like fan fiction?
There are several fan sites with games where the visitor must decide if a particular quote is from Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey.
by the way, fifty shades of gray has 73,000 reviews on amazon!
Still Alice is the powerful story of a woman with early-onset Alzheimer’s and her struggle to maintain her own identity.
The book will leave you emotionally stunned as you suffer with Alice. So far, I have lacked the courage to watch the movie.
related: the stages of emotional response to a loved one with mental illness
I bet you didn’t know that this was originally a self-published book with the 1st books library, which later became an author. maybe you didn’t know it was a book before it was a movie.
The backstory on Legally Blonde is a riot. Amanda Brown went to Stanford Law and began writing letters to her friends about her remarks of “kind of law school.”
if you think of legally blonde as brown did, as an “anthropological study”, it will be even more fun.
People are harsh with the matchmaker prophecy because there are Mayans in Machu Picchu. Since when do we require precision in our great adventures?
The Celestine Prophecy mixes adventure, philosophy and a bit of religion in just the right proportions so that the reader feels “enlightened” afterwards.
The nine ideas in the book should make you do a good self-assessment.
Related: 9 self-improvement tips for a better life
When this book went viral, I was teaching high school English. my students came to me. “Messrs. C., have you seen this book?” they asked.
every teenager in the country was consumed by eragon. why? because christopher paolini was 15 years old when he wrote this. it’s an entertaining read.
See Also: 10 Amazing Mystery Books for Kids – Hooked To Books
if you’re a certain age, you got at least one of these as a wedding present.
For years, it was one of my favorite cookbooks. her flourless gingerbread recipe made the house smell wonderful. and for 15 minutes it tasted fabulous. cornstarch will let you down in that regard.
The joy of cooking used to be famous for incomplete recipes. key ingredients such as flour would be missing. people used to make typos to fix recipes.
This book was self-published in 1997 before it was purchased by a commercial publisher.
Kiyosaki has made it to the TV talk show rounds. she has even been on the oprah winfrey show. he is a fascinating guest, but not without controversy.
The One You Love is a fast-paced suspenseful mystery that seems short at around 300 pages. if you like mysteries with a British London twist, you should try this one.
mcguire posted a beautiful mess. he thought it was “fluff” but readers loved it and it sold. Atria, a division of Simon and Schuster, offered her a two-book deal that she couldn’t refuse. she then she went back to desktop publishing.
miguel j. Sullivan has a complicated posting history. It started with a small publishing company that fell on hard times during the great recession. he bought back his rights and later self-published. he was successful and was picked up by another publisher, and then another, and then self-published again. complicated.
sullivan is a tireless follower of the self-published writer. you can find him all over the “r/fantasy” subreddit (/u/michaeljsullivan) where he has a 21.2k post karma and 51.8k comment karma. as I said, he is active.
lana was originally self-published before simon and schuster took over. Lana was also bought by 20th Century Fox with Ridley Scott as producer, but nothing has come of it so far. amc may be developing lana into a tv series.
Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels Mysteries is a good read because Jack is fun and funny, but don’t mix whiskey sours with a sweet and cozy mystery. The bad guy, the gingerbread man, dismembers his victims and dumps the bodies.
Did I mention that he intends to make a victim out of Jack?
15. worm by wildbow
This is the least traditional “book” on this list. It’s a web series. it has 1.6 million words. the worm ranks 152,674th in global internet engagement with an average user staying 5 minutes. his current series, ward, is doing even better.
has 1374 followers on patreon and is the simplest patreon page I’ve ever seen. there is no video. no levels no extras.
why is the worm so attractive? because wildbow creates the most immersive world ever! I’m an inveterate reader.
e.g. cummings, or should i say e e cummings, made the poetry look on the page part of the poem.
When buying his poetry, no one wanted anything to do with the weird-looking stuff, so he published no thanks himself and dedicated the book to the 14 publishers who had rejected the book.
the path of the swan may be my favorite book on this list. It is the story of the courtship of Charles Swann with Odette de Crecy.
Graham Greene and Somerset Maugham considered Proust the greatest novelist of all time.
Don’t forget the new graphic novel, In Search of Lost Time: The Path of the Swan.
This book went completely viral and caused a whirlwind of controversy in its wake. if you can avoid the non-standard version of the christian trinity, the book is surprisingly compelling.
The book’s narrator, mack, took his children camping 4 years before the events of the shack. while he rescues a son from drowning, his daughter missy disappears.
mack finds the shack while revisiting the scene of his grief and you need to read the rest. there’s a twist at the end that leaves you wondering how “real” the experiences in the shack were.
I love how my blood ok was posted.
Amanda had bought her books from many agents with no luck. She was short of money, she needed to pay her rent and she wanted to go to the Jim Henson puppet show in Chicago.
so I put my blood endorsements into smashwords in hopes of winning $300. he made $20k and landed a publisher and a multi-book deal.
upton sinclair was a pot stirrer. he went after the corrupt business practices of his day with a vengeance.
in the jungle he exposed the labor and sanitary practices of the refrigeration industry.
but he saved the best for the journalists of his time. the brass check was a powerful indictment of “yellow journalism.”
He wanted to make sure the whole world heard about the “free press,” so he published the check copyright-free and encouraged people to make copies and spread excerpts.
In 4 years, we had our first code of ethics for journalists. If you are interested in the history of the United States, you need to read his books.
The recent film, The Man Who Saved Christmas, perfectly showed why Dickens had to pay the costs to publish a Christmas carol himself.
Nicholas Nickelby and the Old Curio Shop had been a flop and his publisher wasn’t sure Dickens still had him in it.
See Also: 6 Books Like The Selection Series That You Will Love to Read – Bona Fide Bookworm
started a carol in October 1843, published it on December 19, and sold out by Christmas Eve.
Most of his best books follow a Christmas carol. may have saved his career.
When you’re an ambitious young Julius Caesar and you’ve set your sights on being the first emperor, you need a good PR team.
Caesar wrote the Gallic Wars to remind the Roman people how successful he was as a general and how much loot he sent to Rome.
crossed the rubicon and the rest is “veni, vidi, vici”.
john milton published paradise lost by subscription, which is like a kickstarter version of the 17th century. he published advertisements in local newspapers describing his project. when the book was published, he included the names of the more than 500 people who subscribed to the book.
paradise lost is a contender for my favourite. I have a beautiful “pocket edition” that was sold by subscription and printed in 1789. They had bigger pockets than we have today.
Instead of linking to her book, the link provided is to a biography of her that contains many of her illustrations. the book would be a nice addition for a homeschool student.
related: the best books for homeschooling parents
merian began drawing butterflies in 1660 when he was 13 years old. Then, in 1699, he traveled to Suriname with his daughter to study tropical insects. His art was used by scientists in Europe, including Linneaus, to classify insects.
Today his art and prints hang in museums around the world.
This may be the most unique book on the list and it won’t be to everyone’s taste. the asylum is an interactive novel full of clues and puzzles with additional content and music.
These books have the best covers. that’s the only reason I downloaded them the first time.
The first in the series, Nikolas and Company Book 1: The Forgotten Merman and the Moon: A Mid-Grade Fantasy Adventure, is free, but buy the game. It costs less than $5.
nikolas is a super genius kid with a motley crew of friends. His children will find someone to identify with in the group.
nikolas is working on an invention when he discovers it’s actually from the past. He is the new protector of the merfolk and the Huron lunar city.
renegade is a classic space opera. the characters are wonderfully real. The narration has a good rhythm. even the aliens are well developed.
The book begins with the court-martial and murder of Captain Pantillo, a hero of a long war of survival. the attachment of it is framed. then the plot kicks into gear with political intrigue and the truth is revealed.
don’t start this book too late because you will definitely have one of those “I can’t believe it’s 3 am. I have to go to bed” situations.
This book needs to be better known. Begin your experience by reading Madson’s biography on his author page. you’ll like it immediately.
we ride the storm follows three characters in very different circumstances as the kisian empire falls.
As I read that we rode the storm, I found myself wondering what decisions I would have made given the circumstances.
The best part of the book is how the magic system works. magic is very subtle and powerful. this is not a world where magic is carelessly cast with a “snap and flick”. this is deeper magic that needs to be experienced.
This is an example of a deep sleeper in the desktop publishing world.
When I found this book several months ago, it had been languishing on amazon for 3 years. I never would have found it if fairbairn hadn’t released it on smashwords in January.
I regularly check out recent releases on smashwords. they make it easy and there are not so many new books that sink into the abyss, like on amazon.
I liked the cover, so I tried it. I loved it.
The setting is a future where humanity has been exploring space for decades and has found nothing. nothing, until an ocean liner jumps through a wormhole and encounters a religious and militaristic society that seems familiar.
As the plot unfolds, the reader begins to realize that there are several timelines that build on each other (rather than the more usual alternate timelines) creating depth. these timeline hints provide character insights that will leave the reader wanting more from this series.
dogs with bagels by sandovici is a book that deserves a wider audience.
The main character, Iliana, is a disappointment to her immigrant parents. illiana wants the luxury that she sees around her in new york city.
his mother, maria, does not accept help from anyone, especially her husband. Maria is nostalgic for her past in Romania, from which she never wanted to leave.
This is the story of broken people facing life the best way they know how. read it.