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The Pathless Path (2022) Good Work (2024) Premium Hardcover (2025) Pathless Store

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Open data · Updated September 25, 2026

The Pathless Path sales & royalties

Every copy and every dollar since the book came out in January 2022: formats and stores, Kindle deals, the premium hardcover, and editions around the world.

Copies sold, every edition and language

86,707

79,750 in English and 6,957 in translation (Traditional Chinese and Russian), through September 25, 2026.

Earnings
$403,391

Royalties and direct sales from the English editions

Copies a month
1,417

Lifetime average · 696 over the last 12 months

Earnings per copy
$5.53

Main English edition, all formats

Premium hardcover
$54,114

384 copies since October 2025

Foreign rights advances
$15,029

From 9 rights deals, after agent commission and taxes

Kindle promotions
10

9 Kindle Deals and one BookBub feature

Sales over time

Copies each month
Running total of copies

September 2026 is shown lighter and left out of averages: it's month to date through September 25, 2026, and Audible and IngramSpark report a month or more behind Amazon. India and Malaysia partner copies are spread evenly across each publisher's reporting period.

Every month as a table
Month eBookPaperbackAudiobookOriginal hardcoverPremium hardcoverIndia & Malaysia editions Copies Running total Earnings
Sep 2026To date 33262——7— 401 79,750 $2,217
Aug 2026 225263281—9— 778 79,349 $4,799
Jul 2026 18422719075— 613 78,571 $3,737
Jun 2026 209234237232— 705 77,958 $3,742
May 2026 150180194116— 541 77,253 $3,457
Apr 2026 170160215106— 561 76,712 $3,209
Mar 2026 1681741731810— 543 76,151 $3,898
Feb 2026 212161119178— 517 75,608 $3,324
Jan 2026 244269220949— 791 75,091 $9,768
Dec 2025 216311265255716 890 74,300 $18,589
Nov 2025 2523032383211316 954 73,410 $18,271
Oct 2025 288218175911216 818 72,456 $19,340
Sep 2025 21120619410—16 637 71,638 $3,212
Aug 2025 33928834518—17 1,007 71,001 $5,039
Jul 2025 4552121657—16 855 69,994 $3,395
Jun 2025 25718922312—16 697 69,139 $3,378
May 2025 2361941616—16 613 68,442 $2,954
Apr 2025 35628417214—16 842 67,829 $3,973
Mar 2025 73534328327—701 2,089 66,987 $5,379
Feb 2025 98737829110—701 2,367 64,898 $5,706
Jan 2025 1,60349437049—701 3,217 62,531 $7,388
Dec 2024 46560431234—702 2,117 59,314 $6,030
Nov 2024 30717117041—701 1,390 57,197 $3,317
Oct 2024 30521421933—701 1,472 55,807 $3,806
Sep 2024 30516115427—701 1,348 54,335 $3,083
Aug 2024 28016817822—— 648 52,987 $3,204
Jul 2024 38821939423—— 1,024 52,339 $4,714
Jun 2024 25620120131—— 689 51,315 $3,667
May 2024 37321425334—68 942 50,626 $4,195
Apr 2024 1,04525527153—67 1,691 49,684 $4,876
Mar 2024 45728625619—68 1,086 47,993 $4,664
Feb 2024 53729128140—68 1,217 46,907 $5,221
Jan 2024 82246741227—68 1,796 45,690 $7,769
Dec 2023 82059044874—67 1,999 43,894 $9,325
Nov 2023 87946947839—68 1,933 41,895 $8,013
Oct 2023 63132333823—— 1,315 39,962 $5,915
Sep 2023 1,35457148026—42 2,473 38,647 $9,177
Aug 2023 1,10658959551—78 2,419 36,174 $10,988
Jul 2023 1,6779651,13642—144 3,964 33,755 $17,649
Jun 2023 1,5078471,08743—148 3,632 29,791 $17,702
May 2023 1,3621,0011,14672—177 3,758 26,159 $19,792
Apr 2023 1,9311,3011,92871—200 5,431 22,401 $27,817
Mar 2023 1,85051763534—82 3,118 16,970 $10,470
Feb 2023 86254858332—100 2,125 13,852 $11,283
Jan 2023 1,01072662765—130 2,558 11,727 $14,472
Dec 2022 1,26297584332—93 3,205 9,169 $18,322
Nov 2022 207117954—6 429 5,964 $2,470
Oct 2022 31573632—8 461 5,535 $2,183
Sep 2022 19081853—12 371 5,074 $1,912
Aug 2022 20896849—20 417 4,703 $2,158
Jul 2022 77114010115—7 1,034 4,286 $3,057
Jun 2022 349154—6—12 521 3,252 $3,293
May 2022 277137—18—8 440 2,731 $2,727
Apr 2022 400207—13—6 626 2,291 $3,974
Mar 2022 332187—17—9 545 1,665 $3,390
Feb 2022 415207—26—— 648 1,120 $4,139
Jan 2022 351119—2—— 472 472 $3,846

Where the copies and the money come from

Paperbacks are 24% of English copies and 36% of earnings. The premium hardcover is 0.5% of copies and 13% of earnings.

  • eBook
  • Paperback
  • Audiobook
  • Original hardcover
  • Premium hardcover
  • India & Malaysia editions
Copies
42%24%23%
Earnings
31%36%17%13%

What a copy earns

Edition Copies Earnings Per copy
Main English edition, self-published
eBook 33,435 $123,386 $3.69
Paperback 19,341 $144,726 $7.48
Audiobook 18,364 $69,390 $3.78
Original hardcover 1,417 $11,776 $8.31
Premium hardcover Store sales before printing, shipping and production costs 384 $54,114 $140.92*
All main-edition copies 72,941 $403,391 $5.53
India & Malaysia English editions
India · Pothi (self-published) Sold at cost from 2022 to 2023 to test the Indian market. 1,282 — At cost
India · Think Tank Books (hybrid) A short hybrid publishing experiment, Nov 2023 to May 2024. Royalties started at the 101st copy (₹24,548 on 374 copies) and went toward buying back the 310 unsold copies, so Paul paid ₹57,912 (about $700) net and kept those books. 474 — Hybrid
India · Manjul (licensed) $5,500 advance ($3,256 after agent and taxes). ₹150,634 in royalties so far, still short of the advance. 4,795 $3,256 $0.68
Malaysia · AcePremier (licensed) $1,500 advance ($1,200 after agent and taxes). RM 1,545 in royalties so far, still short of the advance. 258 $1,200 $4.65
Translations with sales reports
Taiwan · Traditional Chinese Come Together Press. $4,000 advance ($1,994 after agent and taxes). NT$154,589 in royalties have earned it out; the latest statement shows NT$17,128 more to come. 4,894 $1,994 $0.41
Russia · Russian Eksmo. $2,000 advance, no agent. $709 in royalties so far, still short of the advance. 2,063 $2,000 $0.97

Partner editions are paid through advances, so their earnings here are the advance actually received, after agent commission and taxes. *Premium hardcover figures are what customers paid through the Pathless Store, so they aren't comparable to the royalties above them.

Premium hardcover

$54,114 in sales

384 copies since the launch in October 2025, about $141 a copy. That's 0.5% of English copies and 13% of all earnings.

Sold through the Pathless Store. These are store sales, not profit: producing, printing and shipping the edition cost a lot more than a print-on-demand paperback. How it was made

Copies each month
As a table
MonthCopiesSales
Oct 2025112$15,933
Nov 2025113$13,436
Dec 202557$14,047
Jan 202649$5,454
Feb 20268$857
Mar 202610$958
Apr 20266$572
May 20266$664
Jun 20262$193
Jul 20265$475
Aug 20269$855
Sep 20267$670

Kindle promotions

9 Kindle Deals

Plus one BookBub feature. Together they moved 23% of all Kindle copies but earned 8% of Kindle royalties.

Regular price
$4.32 a copy

20,941 copies

Kindle Deals
$1.20 a copy

4,083 copies

BookBub
$1.48 a copy

2,220 copies

Kindle only, every Amazon store, across 27,244 copies. A deal month counts as promotional only in the stores the deal ran in. More in the price analysis.

  • Regular month
  • Kindle Deal month
  • BookBub feature
Kindle copies each month

Kindle royalties each month

Every promotion
WhenPromotionPriceCopies
Jul 2022 Kindle Deal, Amazon.co.uk £0.99 552
Oct 2022 Kindle Deal, Amazon.com $4.99 208
Mar 2023 Kindle Deal, Amazon.co.uk £0.99 1,153
Sep 2023 Kindle Deal, Amazon.com $2.49 371
Sep 2023 Kindle Deal, Amazon.co.uk £0.99 638
Apr 2024 Kindle Deal, Amazon.co.uk £0.99 676
Jan – Feb 2025 BookBub Featured Deal $2.33 / £1.35 2,220
Jul 2025 Kindle Deal, Amazon.co.uk £0.99 199
Feb 2026 Kindle Deal, Amazon.co.uk £0.99 78
Sep 2026 Kindle Deal, Amazon.co.uk £0.99 208

Foreign rights

$15,029 in advances

9 deals worth $24,500 before agent commission and taxes, which took $9,471.

Translations
$10,573

7 deals

India & Malaysia English
$4,456

2 deals

Partner publishers have reported 12,010 copies so far. Advances are paid up front, against future royalties. Every deal

Advance per deal, after agent and taxes
  • EnglishIndia $3,256
  • Chinese (Simplified)Worldwide $2,656
  • RussianRussia $2,000
  • Chinese (Traditional)Worldwide $1,994
  • SpanishSpain · launch date TBD $1,382
  • FrenchWorldwide $1,200
  • EnglishMalaysia $1,200
  • PolishPoland · launch date TBD $750
  • Hindi, Malayalam, MarathiWorldwide $592

Sales by platform

English-language copies, lifetime. Amazon sells 55% of them.

Platform Format Copies Earnings Per copy Latest report
Kindle eBook 27,244 $98,685 $3.62 Sep 2026
Audible (ACX) Audiobook 18,364 $69,390 $3.78 Aug 2026
Amazon paperback Paperback 16,496 $124,769 $7.56 Sep 2026
Manjul (India, licensed) India & Malaysia editions 4,795 — — Mar 2025
IngramSpark eBook eBook 4,057 $12,044 $2.97 Aug 2026
IngramSpark paperback Paperback 2,815 $19,430 $6.90 Aug 2026
Pothi (India, self-published) India & Malaysia editions 1,282 — — Sep 2023
IngramSpark hardcover Original hardcover 997 $8,242 $8.27 Jul 2026
Apple Books eBook 990 $4,057 $4.10 Sep 2026
Gumroad eBook 743 $6,291 $8.47 Aug 2026
Think Tank Books (India, hybrid) India & Malaysia editions 474 — — May 2024
Amazon hardcover Original hardcover 420 $3,534 $8.41 Apr 2024
Pathless Store premium hardcover Premium hardcover 384 $54,114 $140.92 Sep 2026
Google Play eBook 343 $1,957 $5.71 Sep 2026
AcePremier (Malaysia, licensed) India & Malaysia editions 258 — — Dec 2025
Direct store eBook eBook 37 $351 $9.50 Sep 2026
Pathless Store paperback Paperback 28 $492 $17.58 Sep 2026
Kobo eBook 21 — — Sep 2026
Direct store paperback (via Lulu Direct) Paperback 2 $34 $17.20 Sep 2026
Total 79,750 $403,391 $5.06

A dash means the edition pays through an advance (Manjul and AcePremier), was sold at cost (Pothi), was a hybrid deal whose royalties went toward a buyback (Think Tank Books) or hasn't reported earnings yet (Kobo). IngramSpark eBook includes 1,927 paid library checkouts.

By format

  • eBook $123,386 earned 33,43541.9%
  • Paperback $144,726 earned 19,34124.3%
  • Audiobook $69,390 earned 18,36423.0%
  • India & Malaysia editions $4,456 in licensing advances 6,8098.5%
  • Original hardcover $11,776 earned 1,4171.8%
  • Premium hardcover $54,114 in store sales 3840.5%

By distributor

  • Amazon$226,988 earned 44,16055.4%
  • Audible (ACX)$69,390 earned 18,36423.0%
  • IngramSpark$39,717 earned 7,8699.9%
  • India & Malaysia partners$4,456 in licensing advances 6,8098.5%
  • Other retailers$6,014 earned 1,3541.7%
  • Direct from Paul$61,283 earned 1,1941.5%

Sales by year

Year English copies Share A month Earnings Translated copies*
2022 9,169 11.5% 764 $51,471 —
2023 34,725 43.5% 2,894 $162,601 —
2024 15,420 19.3% 1,285 $54,546 555
2025 14,986 18.8% 1,249 $96,623 6,402
2026Through Sep 5,450 6.8% 631 $38,150 —
All years 79,750 100% 1,417 $403,391 6,957

Monthly averages count complete months only. *Translated copies come from publisher statements and are split across calendar years by how much of each reporting period falls in each year; a statement that only gives a cumulative total goes to its final year.

Foreign rights deals

9 deals, $24,500 in advances. Publishing a new edition? Here's how to reach Paul's agent.

Language Territory Publisher Formats Advance Agent & taxes Net to Paul
English India Manjul Publishing Print Only $5,500 $2,244 $3,256
Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi Worldwide Manjul Publishing Print, Ebook, Audio $1,000 $408 $592
French Worldwide Les Éditions La Comédie Française Print, Ebook, Audio $1,500 $300 $1,200
Chinese (Simplified) Worldwide (excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao) Beijing Hanzi Workshop Culture Media Print, Ebook, Audio $5,000 $2,344 $2,656
Chinese (Traditional) Worldwide (excluding Mainland China) Come Together Press Print, Ebook $4,000 $2,006 $1,994
Russian Russia Eksmo Print, Ebook, Audio $2,000 — $2,000
English Malaysia ACE Premier Print Only $1,500 $300 $1,200
SpanishLaunch TBD Spain Ediciones La Llave Print, Ebook, Audio $2,500 $1,118 $1,382
PolishLaunch TBD Poland Freedom Publishing Print, Ebook $1,500 $750 $750
Totals $24,500 $9,471 $15,029

Copies sold by partner publishers

Period Territory Language Publisher Print eBook Audio Copies Royalties earned Advance
Dec 2024 – Dec 2025 Taiwan Traditional Chinese Come Together Press 3,159 1,735 — 4,894 NT$154,589 Earned out
Apr 2024 – Mar 2025 India English Manjul Publishing 4,791 4 — 4,795 ₹150,634 Not yet earned out
Through Dec 2025 Malaysia English AcePremier 258 — — 258 RM 1,545 Not yet earned out
Jul – Dec 2024 Russia Russian Eksmo 455 14 5 474 $113 Not yet earned out
Jan – Dec 2025 Russia Russian Eksmo 1,463 67 59 1,589 $596 Not yet earned out
Totals 10,126 1,820 64 12,010

The India (Manjul) and Malaysia (AcePremier) English editions are also counted in the English totals above; the translations are not. Royalties are in each publisher's reporting currency.

Royalty math

How a list price on Amazon turns into a royalty. Move the price, or click anywhere on a curve.

Amazon paperback

— to Paul per copy

  • Amazon keeps —
  • Printing —
  • Paul earns —

Royalty per copy at every list price

KDP pays 60% of the list price at $9.99 and up, 50% below it (since June 2025), minus printing ($3.64 for this book). The dashed line is the real average across every Amazon paperback sold.

Kindle eBook

— to Paul per copy

  • Amazon keeps —
  • Delivery —
  • Paul earns —

Royalty per copy at every list price

KDP pays 70% from $2.99 to $12.99 (the ceiling was $9.99 until July 2026), after a delivery fee of $0.08 for this file, and 35% outside that band. The dashed line is the real average at regular prices, across every Amazon store.

Notes on the numbers

Source
Paul's sales ledger, built from each platform's own reports (KDP, Audible/ACX, IngramSpark, Apple, Google Play, Kobo, Gumroad, the Pathless Store and the direct eBook store) and from partner publishers' statements. The page refreshes itself from the ledger every day; these numbers are as of September 25, 2026.
What counts as a copy
Paid sales, gifted copies (counted once) and paid library checkouts. Free giveaway copies, Kindle Unlimited reads and merchandise don't count.
Earnings
Royalties as each platform reports them, plus sales through Paul's own stores, with other currencies converted to US dollars at fixed rates. They're reported earnings, not bank deposits, and they come before tax and costs like editing, design, ads and printing the premium hardcover.
Recent months
Amazon reports daily, Audible and IngramSpark monthly and later, and partner publishers once or twice a year. The latest month fills in as the reports arrive.
India & Malaysia
Pothi printed a self-published Indian edition and sold it at cost from 2022 to 2023, to test the market. Think Tank Books followed with a short hybrid experiment whose royalties went toward buying back the unsold copies. Manjul (India) and AcePremier (Malaysia) license the English edition and pay through advances, so their copies count here but their money shows up under rights.
Kindle promotions
A promotion month counts as promotional only in the stores the deal ran in (plus the European stores Amazon discounted alongside UK deals). The BookBub feature cut the price everywhere for two months.

More on the business of this book: 50k sales, $200k profit · eBook price analysis · Making the premium hardcover · Self-publishing