20BooksTo50K

20BooksTo50K is the defining community for indie authors who treat self-publishing as a business. Founded in early 2015 by prolific genre author Michael Anderle and co-administered by Craig Martelle, the group grew from 80 founding members to 70,000+ globally — making it the largest business-focused author community in existence. The name reflects the founding hypothesis: write 20 books at roughly $7.50/day each in royalties and earn $50,000/year. The formula is a rallying concept rather than a rigid rule, but the philosophy of volume, consistency, and market-awareness is the group's north star.

Philosophy and Focus#

The community operates on a data-first, business-first ethos. Members are expected to back claims with numbers — ad spend, sell-through rates, click-through costs — not intuition. Core strategic pillars include:

• Write to market: Understand what readers in your genre demand and deliver it reliably
• Series over standalones: Series create organic read-through chains; each book sells the next
• Rapid release: Frequent publication maintains algorithmic visibility and reader momentum
• Direct sales: Since 2022, Shopify, Payhip, and Kickstarter strategies are major discussion topics
• AI transparency: Active ongoing debates about AI writing tools; moderators increased oversight on AI-related misinformation since 2024

Discussion spans the full publishing funnel: Facebook and Amazon Ads, cover design A/B testing, metadata optimization, audiobook distribution, pricing strategy, and foreign rights.

Joining#

The group is open to authors at any career stage — beginners to full-time professionals. Applicants must answer screening questions when requesting to join; unanswered questions typically result in rejection. Service providers may join but cannot solicit business in the main group without permission. The group is international and self-describes as "a safe place to discuss how to ethically make money as authors."

Free Resources#

Beyond the Facebook group, the community offers substantial free resources:

• YouTube channel (20BooksTo50K Live Events) — recordings from nearly every conference, including Vegas, London, Seville, Edinburgh, and Bali events; hundreds of hours of content on ads, covers, pricing, series strategy, and direct sales; organized into playlists including "Five-Minute Focus" segments
• Community wiki — a member-maintained knowledge base at 20books.lmbpnwikis.com covering group guidelines, publishing strategy, and advertising basics
• Facebook Files — templates and guides accessible to group members

The Conference: Now "Author Nation"#

The community formerly hosted 20Books Vegas annually (2017–2023), growing from 400 attendees to 1,000+. In July 2023, Martelle stepped back as conference director; the final event ran November 2023. The successor, Author Nation (authornation.live), is led by Joe Solari and Chelle Honiker (publisher of Indie Author Magazine). The 2024 inaugural event drew ~1,500 attendees with 222 speakers and 260 sessions. The 2025 edition ran November 3–7 in Las Vegas; the 2026 event is November 10–14, with early bird tickets from $599.

Who It's For#

• Genre fiction series authors: Romance, thriller, fantasy, sci-fi, urban fantasy, and cozy mystery authors get the most from the community's core model
• Data-driven authors: Members who want peer feedback grounded in numbers rather than gut feelings
• KU and direct sales authors: Strong coverage of both Amazon/Kindle Unlimited and direct-to-reader sales strategies

Limitations#

• Genre fiction bias: Literary fiction, standalones, and most nonfiction don't map well to the community's write-to-market, series-first model
• Group scale: At 70,000+ members, post volume is high and valuable discussions can be hard to surface
• Facebook dependency: The group exists entirely on Facebook — platform changes and account requirements are outside community control

Alternatives#

For craft-focused feedback and writing skill development, Scribophile is a better fit. For wide-distribution and non-Amazon publishing strategies, Wide for the Win is the dedicated space.