Self-published author sold 450,000 books in January

Amanda Hocking sells a best-seller quantity of her books, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch discusses the implications.

I'm surprised-- I'd assumed that self-publication wasn't all that viable because people generally won't read slush unless they're paid for it. Obviously, there are ways of crowd-sourcing the slush reading which go beyond the efficient methods developed for fanfiction. Anyone have the details?

Links thanks to haikujaguar.