The 2025 Spring Based Book Sale After-Action Review
The Top-20 Based Books and Plans for Upcoming Sales
The final numbers are in.
Amazon reports the Spring Based Book Sale moved 176 Kindle Free E-books and 2476 Kindle Paid E-Books for a total of 2652 books. And, there were many additional books sold outside the sale. That’s more than half the total from last year from the first of our quarterly sales, which suggests we’re on track to more than double last year’s results.
This post will review some of the interesting news to arise from the sale, present detailed results for the top twenty, offer a comprehensive list of the top two-hundred sellers, provide a sale traffic analysis, and conclude with our future plans.
Based Book News
It was a particularly dramatic Based Book Sale. Just before the latest Based Book Sale launched, Hugh Howey’s Self-Published Science Fiction Competition banned Devon Eriksen when a woke cancel mob objected to his online posts.
Other authors then withdrew from the competition in solidarity with Eriksen.
We were delighted to include several of those authors in our Based Book Sale. But the drama was just beginning. Participation in the Based Book Sale proved to be enough justification for one of our participating authors to be cancelled from a BookFunnel promotion under the excuse that another participating author, M.S. Olney, was a “known racist/homophobe.” Olney’s work, The First Fear (The Empowered Ones Book 1), was featured in our sale.
When I reached out to them for details, BookFunnel confirmed that any of their participating authors can organize a promotion and include or exclude any other authors at the organizer’s discretion. This cancellation should not be taken as any indication of their corporate policy. In fact, we have a volunteer who will be organizing a BookFunnel promotion for Based Authors in conjunction with our next big sale. Based Readers should note that Olney is currently promoting Heir to the Sundered Crown for $2.99, first of six books in the Sundered Crown Saga.
There was a time when shrill harpies with aposematic hair screaming “racism” would give readers second thoughts about an author and his works. Such cries have become so common, however, that they have lost their effectiveness, except as an indication that an author must be quite based and principled to have so triggered them.
To be clear, the Based Book Sale “bans” SJW authors. We explicitly aim to exclude diversity-checklist works by social-justice warriors playing at being novelists. We don't care if social-justice warriors want to boost their own books on their own platforms or with their own promotions. Segregating works into well-defined and distinct niches is to the benefit of authors and readers, alike. But pretending to promote science fiction and fantasy in general while ambushing Based Authors after the fact for their posts or affiliations is unprofessional and loathsome. If Based Works and Based Authors aren’t welcomed, they should say so in advance, so we can all stay clear.
One of our Based Authors, Gregory Michael, aptly summarized the contemporary fiction business:
The traditional publishing world isn’t the romantic dream many imagine.
First, wokeness. It’s not just a buzzword—it’s a gatekeeper.
Big publishing houses are obsessed with optics. Your manuscript better align with the latest social justice checklist or risk rejection.
A friend of mine pitched a gritty historical novel—accurate to the period, no punches pulled. The rejections? “Too triggering” and “Not diverse enough.”
Authors twist themselves into knots to appease this machine, watering down their voice. If you don’t play ball, good luck getting through the door.
Then there’s the timeline. You think you sign a deal and your book’s out in six months? Try 18 to 24. Lead times in traditional publishing are glacial.
After you land a contract (which can take years of querying), your manuscript sits in an editing queue, then a production queue, then a printing queue.
I’ve seen authors miss trends they nailed perfectly because the industry moves slower than a sloth on sedatives.
Meanwhile, you’re expected to stay relevant—tough when your book’s locked in a vault.
Oh, and marketing support? Ha! Unless you’re well established and proven, you’re on your own.
Publishers pour budgets into their A-listers, leaving debut authors with a shrug and a “build your platform” pep talk. You’re handed a $500 budget—if you’re lucky—for a book tour, ads, or promo. The rest? Your dime, your time.
One debut author I know spent thousands on Instagram ads because her publisher’s “support” was a single press release that went nowhere.
And don’t get me started on royalties. After that advance (if you even get one—median’s about $10k, spread over years), you’re earning pennies per book. A $20 hardcover? You might see $1.50 after the retailer, publisher, and agent take their cuts. Oh, and you don’t see a cent until you “earn out” that advance, which most books never do.
Traditional publishing’s a casino where the house always wins.
Other dirty secrets: Agents reject 99% of queries, often based on leftist ideology or market whims, not quality.
Editors will rewrite your book to fit their vision, not yours. And if your sales tank on debut, you’re branded a flop—good luck selling book two.
The industry’s a meat grinder, chewing up newbies while recycling the same big names.
So why do people still chase it? Prestige, mostly. But at what cost? Your creative soul? Years of your life? A stack of unsold hardcovers in your garage?
There’s a better way: indie novels.
Self-publishing is the wild west, but it’s where you have the power.
You control everything—your story, your timeline, your branding. No woke filter; write what you want. No two-year wait; publish in weeks. No begging for marketing crumbs; you build your audience direct.
The catch? It’s hard work. No one’s holding your hand. But the ceiling’s yours to break.
Readers don’t care who published you—they want a good story.
Indie’s flooded with garbage, true, but quality rises.
Trad pub’s bloated with overhyped duds anyway. The data backs it: indie ebook sales outpace traditional in genres like romance and sci-fi.
Traditional publishing’s a relic, clinging to gatekeeper clout while the world moves on.
Indie’s not perfect, but it’s real. You keep your voice, your pace, your profits.
If you’ve got the grit, ditch the query letters. Write the damn book, publish it, and let readers decide.
We were delighted to feature Gregory Michael’s Chloe's Kingdom: The Koin Vault Heist in the most recent sale.
The Sale is for BASED Books
I’m responsible for choosing the books in the sale. I include books that I think qualify as “based” that already happen to be on sale, and I allow authors to self-identify whether their books are based and enter them in the sale. I judge the book by glancing at its cover and description. I might read a few reviews. Unless there are obvious red flags, I include it in the sale. I prefer to give my authors the benefit of the doubt, and allow novice or first-time writers the opportunity to place their works in front of readers and let the readers decide.
Opinions may differ, and this high-trust, open-door policy has sometimes been abused by authors of questionable basedness. Readers should beware, and if you buy a book, start reading it, and discover it is not to your liking, please take advantage of the ability to return it for a refund and leave a review to warn off the rest of us.
I do not include books categorized as erotica, or harem fiction, or LGBT-related, or other books that I, in my sole discretion, think are inconsistent with the Based Book mission. It's certainly possible that we might include LGBT-related books, provided they address the subject in a based way. In fact, one of my own novels, The Wise of Heart, is a courtroom drama of biological science versus transgenderism that updates the Scopes Monkey Trial for the twenty-first century. Feel free to reach out to me through DMs here or on Twitter in advance, if you have a similarly questionable book you’d like included.
Sales Results
On to the detailed sales results!
Ryan M. Patrick's The Martian Incident took the honors as the top based book in the Spring 2025 Based Book Sale. Classic works by Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and G.K. Chesterton were very popular, followed by John C. Wright’s One Bright Star to Guide Them, to complete the top five.
Steven G. Johnson’s Operation Vampire (Murphy's War Book 1) was the number six seller. E.J. Fisch’s Dakiti, lead novel of the Ziva Parvan series, came in seventh. In eighth was Rob Kroese’s Starship Grifters, Kevin Bates’ Quarantine was ninth, and the five-volume Exile War boxed set by Bowen Greenwood rounded out the top ten.
Our eleventh-place seller was Russell May’s long awaited Solarvoid, sequel to Eta Cancri. Michael F. Kane’s After Moses was twelfth. In thirteenth was Kevin Bates’ Even if by Fire. Lag Delay: A Technothriller (Grace Parkowski Thrillers) by Ryan M. Patrick was the fourteenth best seller, and Asterius (Timelessness) by Susana Imaginário came in fifteenth.
John C. Wright’s Somewhither was sixteenth. The Shoot the Devil 3: Militia of Martyrs anthology, by a host of talented authors came in seventeenth. The Mayor of Christ Mountain by Zaklog the Great earned eighteenth place. Christopher G. Nutall’s Ark Royal was nineteenth. Richard Paolinelli’s Sea Dragon was the final book in the top twenty sellers.
Check out these top sellers, some of which are still bargain priced. And support all our extraordinary Based Authors and Creators.
The top two hundred sellers are in the table below, although you should be warned that the final listings have a few random non-Based-Book items people also purchased in conjunction with their Based Books. Many thanks to whoever it was who spent $900 on gun sights in conjunction with your Based Book purchase. You are a truly Based Reader, and I salute you!
The Based Book Sale has long been funded by the 4% Amazon Affiliate kickback the sale receives when readers purchase a book through one of our links. $0.04 per book isn’t much, but over thousands of books sold, it begins to add up. We've always allowed non-Amazon links (from which we make no money), if authors prefer, so as to help authors and readers escape the Amazon monopoly. Since our move to Substack last year, generous patrons have supported our mission by upgrading to paid subscriptions. This has grown to such an extent that the subscription revenue is on par with the Amazon affiliate-link revenue. Speaking of which…
This alternate revenue stream will help us better decouple the sale from Amazon and explore alternate distribution channels - to be discussed further in future plans.
Traffic Report
As might have been anticipated from the sale results, traffic to the Spring 2025 sale page notably exceeded that of the Black Friday Sale post with 5.83k vs 4.66k total post views. In each case, the first three days got the most attention, with the sixth day also being exceptionally strong.
It’s also interesting to see how Based Book Readers get to the sale. About 60% of traffic is organic to the sale itself - through the sale emails and through Substack. About 40% is from outside referrals. Vox Day’s Vox Populi blog was the biggest and best outside referrer. His A Sea of Skulls took the honors as the Top Based Book of 2024. And Based Authors should be aware Castalia House does low-volume leather-bound editions perfect for crowdfund premium offerings. Email voxday@gmail.com for more information.
Vox Day’s digital influence was followed closely by the referral traffic from the site formerly known as Twitter. The Spring Based Book Sale post earned 47.9k impressions compared to 18.7k views for the Black Friday sale. Our Based Author community was particularly active in spreading the word and boosting the sale on Twitter. Every bit helps.
Participating author, John C. Wright’s blog, drove significant traffic. His One Bright Star and Somewhither were top sellers. Another major booster was Anonymous Conservative, who contributed the free selection, American Stasi, about the ubiquitous physical surveillance network. Fandom Pulse, Arkhaven, Facebook, and Gab also drove significant traffic.
The Ace of Spades HQ Sunday Morning Book Thread, posts every Sunday Morning at 8am CT and is a great way to see what books people are talking about and maybe add your thoughts in comments. Perfessor Squirrel, proprietor of the Sunday Morning Book Thread, was kind enough to give us a shout out.
Jacob Airey, author of Blessed Child, posted about participating in the Based Book Sale, and Periapsis Press not only posted about the sale, but also recommended some of their favorites. And Wombat-socho over at The Other McCain gave us a shout out. His The Anti-Tank Dog and Other Stories was in the sale.
A particular shoutout to editor, Book Doctor, and marketer, Elaine Ash and her team, for their excellent promotional video and for their work on Facebook advertising.
The YouTubers who produced videos on the sale may not have had a direct and measurable impact, but their efforts to raise awareness are also appreciated. A fundamental rule of marketing is you rarely make a sale on the first ad. It’s repeated impressions that raise awareness and get the audience to pay attention, and videos like this are a good way to do that.
I spent a half-hour chatting with Based Author, Jonathan Shuerger, about the sale in particular and community networking and marketing in general.
I also spoke with Michael Finney Based Books and on my work in general. Finney is one of our more imaginative and creative Based Authors. His short story, The Fall of Tartaria, was in our most recent sale, and he’s been using AI-assisted video in his own story telling.
Zaklog the Great was kind enough to produce a short video promoting the sale as well.
Zaklog the Great’s The Mayor of Christ Mountain was one of our top-twenty sellers.
What Next For the Based Book Sale?
First, here’s the schedule for the remaining 2025 sales:
Summer Based Book Sale: Wednesday, June 18, 2025, 12:00 AM PDT through Wednesday, June 25, 2025, 12:00 AM PDT.
BasedCon Based Book Sale: Wednesday, September 3, 2025, 12:00 AM PDT through Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 12:00 AM PDT.
Black Friday/Cyber Monday Based Book Sale: Wednesday, November 26, 2025, 12:00 AM PST through Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 12:00 AM PST.
Be sure you are signed up to get the call for authors a couple of weeks in advance of each of these sales.
Second, we’re going to have some more targeted and niche specific sales. The first one, coming up in March will be on alternate history. DM @aetherczar on Twitter to be added to the Based Book discussion group.
That’s it for now. Thanks for being part of the Based Book community.
Appreciate the Based Book Sale, but maybe not quite enough to spring for a paid subscription?
Then click on the button below to buy me a coffee. Thanks!
Thank you for giving a shoutout to our podcast session and the Tartaria project.
I always tried to keep my novels fairly neutral, i.e. giving readers of all stripes something sci-fi they might be interested in, but in my latest novel, Above Dark Waters, outlines the possibility of algorithmic gaslighting. Meaning the computational infrastructure knows exactly what triggers you, and feeds you more of it. The way people were simply "X be bad. Now hate X," on Devon Erickson (for posting a picture of a catapult and saying no immigrants), was so ridiculous and at the same time absolutely indicative of our modern age that I was more than happy to join the based book sale. I also purchased three of them!