How Many Books Will You Sell?

Atomic Habits has sold 20 million copies. Your book won't. (Probably.)

If you write a business book, sales will likely be far lower than you imagine:
📚 4,600 copies = average sales for a traditionally published book
📚 1,600 copies = average sales for a hybrid-published book, where the author pays for publishing services
📚 700 copies = average sales for a self-published book

Those figures might seem low. But the same survey that reported them also reported that over 90 percent of business authors were still happy with their book.

Why?

Because their book helped them accomplish their goals. It shared their knowledge, boosted their reputation, and elevated the topics they felt were important.

A book doesn't have to be a bestseller to be successful. Instead, it needs to be laser-focused on the readers the author *needs* to reach in order to get their ROI.

Even a couple of hundred readers is fine as long as they are the readers you need:
✅ the patient looking for a surgeon
✅ the client who needs a lawyer
✅ the investor who’ll fund your next start-up
✅ the CEO who'll hire you as a coach

That’s where a business book gets its ROI. Not from book sales.