Most self-published authors sell fewer than a dozen copies. Almost all of them to people they know. Not because the book is bad. Because writing it was only half the job, and nobody told them about the other half.
Richard Lowe left a six-figure corporate career at 53 and spent the next three years publishing and ghostwriting over 113 books. He built a catalog that generates income across multiple formats and platforms, landed ghostwriting and coaching clients through a blog he started with no audience, and figured out through trial and expensive failure what actually works in self-publishing and what is an elaborate waste of time.
This is the book he wished had existed when he started.
Make a Living as a Self-Published Author is not a book about how to write. It is a book about how to build a publishing business. The difference matters. It covers market research before you write a single word, the metadata and category decisions that determine whether Amazon shows your book to anyone, cover design that works at thumbnail size, descriptions that convert browsers into buyers, platform building that generates real leads, the legal basics that most authors ignore until something bites them, and the business structure that turns sporadic royalty checks into predictable income.
It also covers artificial intelligence honestly. What AI does well in a writing workflow, where it fails, why full AI-generated manuscripts produce crap, and how to use it as a digital assistant without letting it replace the thing that makes readers come back for the next book: your voice, your experience, your specific way of seeing things.
The 2026 edition includes a new chapter on AI, updated guidance on wide distribution and direct-to-reader platforms, and the hard-won perspective of someone who has been doing this for nearly a decade. The fundamentals have not changed. The tools are better. The opportunities are bigger than they were in 2017.
There has never been a better time to be a self-published author. This book tells you how to take advantage of it.
