I recently went over the advantages of self-publishing, and the post garnered quite a few responses and emails. One of the things I really want to highlight is that I’m not an exception to any rule; I’m only an outlier by degree, not kind. I have watched hundreds if not thousands of lives get turned rightside up this past year by hanging out on writing forums like KindleBoards’ Writers’ Cafe. Today, author H.M. Ward shared her amazing story over there.
Two years ago, H.M. had an agent and a book on submission. Editors wanted to change the tone of the book to match what was currently selling. Instead, she took the book and self-published it. It went on to sell 25,000 copies. More importantly, she kept writing and publishing and used her freedom to skip genres with a romance novel.
Two years later (with a baby born during the interim), she has sold her 200,000th book! This is a remarkable achievement, and many other authors are on their way. Because their books are published and available forever, there’s a great chance that someone selling a few thousand copies this year will hit hundreds of thousands over their lifetime, especially if they keep writing.
If you approach this as a hobby and something you love doing, anything can happen. It’s happening to people right now and more than you think. It’s the feel-good story of our age, I believe. Not since Guttenberg has the dream of writing and publishing reached so many. And even if it’s only so that 13-year-old Kelsey Day Marlett can craft a book with the help of her grandmothers and hold it in her hands for the first time, this is something to cheer.
Leave a Reply