Five Authors Who Self Published And Nailed It

© Karen Bayly

Snobbery toward self-publishing abounds in literary circles with the notion that if a publisher won’t touch a book then it shouldn’t be published. Authors, understandably, don’t quite feel the same way. Only recently, Kirsten Lamb’s blog post Real Writers Don’t Self-Publish called bullish!t on most of the myths dragged out to belittle the self-publishing author.

However, Ben Galley suggests that this attitude finally may be fading, with some publishers realising that the successfully self-published author is a prize worth snagging. He may be on to something.

Here are a few self-published authors who are laughing all the way to the bank:

• Lisa Genova - Still Alice
  Lisa Genova’s debut novel, Still Alice, about a woman learning to cope with an early onset form of Alzheimer’s, was self-published her book in 2007 with iUniverse then picked up by Simon & Schuster in 2009, and published by Pocket Books. It spent over 40 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into 25 different languages and was adapted into a film with Julianne Moore. Ms. Moore won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as the titular character.
  

• James Redfield – The Celestine Prophecy
  James Redfield’s debut novel in which main character undertakes a journey to find and understand a series of nine spiritual insights in an ancient manuscript in Peru was self-published in 1993. Red field sold the first 100,000 copies of the the trunk of his car, before Warner Books agreed to publish it. As of May 2005, the book had sold over 20 million copies worldwide, and spent 165 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. It was also made into a movie - but no-one won any awards for this one.
  

• Amanda Hocking - My Blood Approves series and Trylle Trilogy
  By 2011, Amanda Hocking has made over $2 million publishing only YA e-books. She chose to sign a conventional publishing contract with St. Martin’s Press in March 2011 to give herself more time to write instead of spending 40 hours a week handling e-mails, formatting covers, finding editors, etc. Valued at $2 million, the contract included a four book YA paranormal series called Watering. The Trylle Trilogy was optioned for a film or TV series but, as is so often the way with things Hollywood, was not picked up.
  

• John Locke - the Donovan Creed thriller series, the Emmett Love Western series
  John Locke was the eighth author—and first self-published author —to sell over one million eBooks on Amazon. He is also a New York Times best-selling author. So take that self-publishing naysayers. He has resisted a traditional publishing contract, but has negotiated a mass-market paperback distribution agreement with Simon & Schuster so as to sell physical copies of his novels at large retailers. The deal allows him to retain all editorial rights, plus control of design, content, and pricing. No talk of a film or TV show yet.
  

• Hugh Howey - the Silo series, the Sand series, The Bern Saga
  Although the first story in the Silo series, titled Wool, was published by a small traditional press, High Howey decided to self-publish so as to gain greater control over his work. It worked. He was awarded with “#1 Bestseller on Amazon Winner of Kindle Book Review’s Best Indie Book of 2012”, and with a film for Wool currently in development with Ridley Scott producing and J Blakeson directing and adapting the screenplay.
  

Self-publishing success may not be easy, but it is not impossible.