TikTok Made this Author Huge. Publishers Are Scrambling.

This article in the New York Times was going to be written sooner or later. TL;DR: first-time author Keila Shaheen has sold more than 700,000 copies of her self-published book, The Shadow Work Journal, primarily through TikTok influencers and TikTok’s store.

That success earned her representation by United Talent Agency and a five-book, seven-figure deal with Simon & Schuster that includes a 50-50 profit share (compared to the typical 15 percent author royalty).

Shaheen’s book is the latest in a series of successes for self-published authors. I was about to call this “norm-busting,” but these successes are becoming more common. Perhaps you’ve heard of The Martian, FiftyShades of Grey, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Can’t Hurt Me or You Are a Badass. All of those titles were self-published. Many of their authors then chose to leverage that success into lucrative deals with traditional publishing houses.

But not all of them made deals with traditional publishers. The reality is that self-publishing can make you a lot of money if you sell even a modest number of books. Typically, your self-published book on Amazon nets you about 40 percent of the retail price (say, $12 on a $30 book), versus the traditional 15 percent of wholesale that is in a typical royalty offer from a publisher ($2.25 on the same book). I’m sure Shaheen realized that, which is why she held out for a much better royalty split with S&S.

“It became very obvious that in traditional publishing, we were all well behind what Keila was doing,” Albert Lee, Shaheen’s agent, told the Times. 

Indeed. Keila Shaheen was making millions of dollars before agents and publishers spoke with her because she found a niche and an audience on her own, and she mastered a powerful marketing approach. Anyone can do this now—not to her scale, probably, but still successfully. 

The balance of power in publishing continues to shift toward authors. Expect that trend to continue.