Successes of Self Publishing
You may have heard of a few.
Fifty Shades of Grey
EL James
Perhaps the best known self-publishing success story, EL James’ Fifty Shades of Grey series began as Twilight fan fiction. She published it on fan sites and eventually decided to turn it into an original erotic trilogy. She self-published the first book, and it took off. The rest of the story you surely already know.
The Celestine Prophecy
James Redfield
Redfield managed to sell 100,000 copies of The Celestine Prophecy out of the trunk of his car before it was finally published by Warner Books. Since then, the book was adapted into a film, expanded with three sequels, and spent 165 weeks on the NYT Bestsellers list.
Wool Trilogy
Hugh Howey
Howey’s Wool Trilogy began with a short story he self-published through Amazon. He decided to expand on the series and eventually sold it to Simon and Schuster for half a million dollars. He also sold the film rights to the series.
Still Alice
Lisa Genova
Genova self-published Still Alice through iUniverse. In 2009 it was reissued by Simon and Schuster. Since then it has been translated into twenty languages, been on the New York Times Bestsellers list for over forty weeks, and been made into an Academy Award winning film starring Julianne Moore.
Riyria Chronicles
Michael J. Sullivan
When Sullivan wrote the Riyria fantasy series, he found an agent but couldn’t find a publisher. So he decided to self-publish through a company his wife started. His sales were so good that traditional publishers took note, and he sold his next novel for six figures.
The Wealthy Barber
David Chilton
In 1989 Chilton published his financial planning advice book, The Wealthy Barber, out of his basement. It went on to become one of Canada’s all time bestselling books, spawning a sequel in 2008.
Ten Tiny Breaths
K.A. Tucker
Another Canadian success story, Tucker self-published a YA fantasy series, which gave her enough of a following that she was able to sell her adult novel, Ten Tiny Breaths, to Atria Books in 2013.
Damaged
H.M. Ward
Ward self-published her first book, Damaged, as an eBook on Amazon and it went on to become a #1 Bestseller in the New Adult category. She has continued writing the series and has sold over 4 million copies, all without signing on with a traditional publisher.
My Blood Approves Series
Amanda Hocking
Hocking was one of the first self-published YA authors to make over two million dollars simply with eBook sales. Though already very successful, Hocking signed a 2 million dollar deal with St.Martin’s in 2011.
Self Publishing by Self Publishers
Here are what some best-selling Self-Publishers say about what they'e done and some sage words they are:
“Be confident in your work, but be careful not to put a book out into the world until you are sure that it is your very best work and professional in all respects (writing, editing, cover design, format- ting, etc.). As with anything, you get only one chance to make a first impression, and every reader deserves a quality product.”
Darcie Chan
“Anyone who says it’s easy to self-publish a book is either lying or doing a shitty job.”
Nan McCarthy
“Whatever you may have heard, self-publishing is not a short cut to anything. Except maybe insanity. Self-publishing, like every other kind of publishing, is hard work. You don’t wake up one morning good at it. You have to work for that.”
Zoe Winters
“At heart, self-publishing is kind of like a bake sale. The end product does not need to resemble the one that comes from a commercial bakery, but it must taste good. No-one wants the lumpy under baked oatmeal cookies with spinach and alfalfa flavoured chips.”
D. C. Williams
“You are a start-up … The next great business is you.”
Hugh Howey
“The free charts on Amazon are constantly trawled by people with voracious reading appetites. Getting read is an obvious way to sell more copies via word of mouth.”
Ben Galley
“The best self promotion is your next book. And the book after that and after that …”
Bella Andre
“Writing a book makes you an expert in the field. At the very least, when you hand someone a book you wrote, it’s more impressive than handing a business card.” James Altucher
“The good news about self-publishing is you get to do everything
yourself. The bad news about self publishing is you get to do everything yourself.”
Lori Lesko
“For a long time now, self-publishing has been dismissed as an act of vanity – mainly by frightened executives in publishing houses, who hold up terrible examples of self-published works and say ‘See? This is why we exist.’”
Hugh Howey
“Authors today need a publisher as much as they need a tapeworm in their guts.” Rayne Hall
“Some books and authors are best sellers, but most aren’t. It may be easier to self-publish than it is to traditionally publish, but in all honesty, it’s harder to be a best seller self-publishing than it is with a house.”
Amanda Hocking
“I’m outselling a bunch of famous, name-brand authors. I couldn’t touch their sales in print.”
Joe Konrath
“Traditional publishers aim to publish hundreds of thousands of copies of a few books, self-publishing companies make money by publishing 100 copies of hundreds of thousands of books.”
David Carnoy
And that's it for this brief taster to our series.
Get stuck into Part 2 and read about "The Learning Curve"
Take care, big hugs and adios.
