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Fwiw my dad has written a non-fiction book and he told me that in the first year, he sold 500 copies of it---and his publisher was very happy with this result and considered the book a success.
I had someone tell me that they resented being told they were greedy for expecting a greater slice of the pie of their own book. I responded that I absolutely did not think they were greedy---but I did think they were being perhaps a bit unrealistic if they truly thought they could pay their bills off a handful of indie books. I think the real threat is not piracy, it's that not enough people read very seriously. Part of that is competition from other forms of media part of it is that it's a much larger time commitment. Even someone who reads one book a month (which is a lot, comparatively) is only looking at a dozen books a year...
I'd love to see something on Smashwords (for example) where every author who uploads a book is given a screen of choices---check up to 3 boxes for genre, up to three boxes for mood, up to 3 boxes for best adjective to describe your book etc. And people could run a search for things like 'mystery AND humour' or 'paranormal AND NOT vampire' to see various choices. It would help readers find new authors and books they might enjoy.
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