What constitutes a best seller? How many sales?
Back in the day, Doc Savage Magazine sold in excess of 200,000 copy an issue. In paperback reprint, it was once claimed that they had sold (in aggregate) more than 11 million copies.
Define a bestseller.
Now, I'm not saying Doc Savage novels are elegant literature, but they certainly seemed to sell. Made Conde Nast very happy (no royalties had to be paid, they were written as work for hire).
The indie market may never make the bestseller list. I'm not certain it would ever be recognized to be put on the list. Doesn't mean they may not sell. They are the new pulps. And the pulp market has historically been a high volume business. Low margin, but high volume. If you make a buck a book, and sell 50,000 copies of a title, you can make a living off of it. Not a fancy one, but a living. At least if you product a title a year.
And quite frankly, most midlist authors, in the agency model, don't do as well as that. So if you are a serious midlist author, how do you choose...
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