We talked recently about the possibility of your self-published or pay-to-publish book being picked up by a traditional royalty publisher. Well, it happened again to one of my clients. This time it is a children’s picture book—can you believe it? Instead of illustrations, this author used photographs. It is a charming book. Delightful. I will reveal more once it is produced.
And I had an email conversation with Debbie Allen yesterday. She is the author of Confessions of Shameless Self Promoters, Confessions of Shameless Internet Promoters and others. She self-published her first book in the series and did so well with it—appeared on the Howard Stern Show, became a bestseller at amazon—and Mc Graw-Hill recently picked it up.
I met another young man this week—under thirty. He self-published his story, and sold 12,000 copies of it before being picked up by an agent and then HarperCollins. He managed this by landing some pretty serious media and a chance meeting with a major agent.
I’m currently revising one of my self-published books for a publisher.
And I think I’ve told you about my client who sold so many copies of her young adult fantasy that Scholastic Books picked it up.
You’re actually hearing about this phenomenon more and more often. So if you know you have an excellent book idea and you are confident that you can write something that is meaningful or highly entertaining to a large audience, why not go for it? But it could take an enormous amount of time, energy, strategy and belief in yourself to take that book to that next level. Everyone of these authors will tell you that and all of them are highly motivated powerhouse promoters.
I’m here to encourage you. But I don’t want you to delude yourself. It will take a whole lot of savvy and work to go from point A (writing a worthy book) to point B (experiencing thousands of sales through a traditional publisher).
For more about how the whole publishing thing works and how to navigate within this industry, read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
Need editing? Would you like a free evaluation of your manuscript? Check out this site: http://www.patriciafry.com