Andy Weir serialized The Martian on a blog, then sold it for 99 cents on Kindle

david_perell · x · 2026-10-02

Andy Weir recounts how The Martian began as free serialized blog posts, Sherlock Holmes-style. When readers loved the story but hated his website, he published via Kindle Direct Publishing at the 99-cent minimum — and fans who had already read it for free paid anyway, with Amazon's automation scaling it into a bestseller.

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