Sarah Jules Writing

A couple of days ago I hit a HUGE milestone… I hit 200,000 Kindle Page Reads. Kindle Page Reads (or KENP) are the pages read when a book is read on Kindle Unlimited (KU). All of my books (including BLOODY HELL) are included on KU, which means that readers who subscribe to KU can read my books ‘for free’. As an author, I get paid royalties per page they read. There’s a lot of debate about whether indie authors should include their books in KU – that’s a blog post for another day. The point of this post is to celebrate this MASSIVE milestone. As an indie author, it can be easy to get bogged down by comparing yourself to other more successful authors, and so I’m determined to celebrate every milestone I achieve. 200,000 page reads is just a mind-blowing number to me. I am sincerely grateful to every single person who has picked up one of my books (in any format).

As you can see, I had a slow and steady start…

Many days, I had no purchases or page reads, but that all changed when YOU INVITED IT IN was released. In the aftermath of YOU INVITED IT, I feel like my books are finally gaining some traction. Readers seem to be finding them, and the coolest thing is that new readers are then going back and checking out FOUND YOU and DON’T LIE.

For me, the priority has always been to put out books that I am proud of, that I think are good/solid books, and to grow readership as organically as possible. Short of going viral, this is the nature of self-publishing. I am so incredibly giddy about how both YIIN and BLOODY HELL launched, and being able to see readership grow with each release tells me that I’m doing something right.

As a disclaimer – the pre-orders for YOU INVITED IT IN and BLOODY HELL went through a different publishing platform (INGRAM SPARKS) so these sales are not represented on this Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) chart.

The point of this post is, first of all, to say thank you to every single person who has chosen to pick up one of my books (no matter what format – whether paperback, KU, eBook, or a hardback of BLOODY HELL). You’re all amazing – taking a chance on an indie author, and supporting indie authors, makes you the coolest people in my eyes.

Second of all, it’s to show indie authors that are where I was back in November 2022, or even March 2024, that if you continue to put out books that you’re proud of, and that you continue to learn and grow and develop, you will continue to move in the right direction. Getting your books in front of readers is the hardest part of being indie authors, and short of exploring adverts and marketing, the best thing you can do is focus on creating good books and putting them out into the world.

I’m a small indie author, compared to many other indie authors. However, I’m moving in the right direction. I’m not where I want to be yet, but I’m incredibly proud of where I am. Celebrate those wins – be grateful for your growth – but keep progressing!

I wrote a blog post a couple of months ago about what I’ve learned as an indie author. If you want to learn more about how I launched YIIN, and what I learned from that launch, check that out here: