I think the answer is to use online distribution - ebooks cost hardly anything to produce and very little to distribute. Selling one for a small amount - £1 or £2 - means that buyers will risk it if it's an unknown author, because it's hardly anything to spend, and means that the author gets a larger cut of the sale price because there's no money spent on printng. Then once you've sold a few, readers who liked it will recommend it to their friends because it's cheap and good, and then you can make some money from high numbers of low cost sales.
But as with any form of making money, I think it depends on several factors - skill, luck, publicity, but also going about things the right way.
But as with any form of making money, I think it depends on several factors - skill, luck, publicity, but also going about things the right way.