What standard of achievement in terms of self-published book sales is the threshold for impressing pros in the traditional publishing world? Major book agent Mollie Glick. provides the answer:

The Book Doctors: What is the threshold for sales of a self-published book that make you go, “Wow!”? And in what time frame are you looking for with these numbers?

Mollie Glick: Good question. I’d like to see someone selling at least 5-10k copies and hopefully more like 20k on their own. And it’s not so much about the time frame as what price they’ve set their novel at. A novel selling hundreds of thousands of copies at a dollar a pop is still intriguing, but you do wonder whether those fans will keep buying once the book costs more like ten dollars.