Amanda Hocking: self publisher with the last laugh
Yeah, this self-publishing lark is just for losers. Vanity Press, they call it. Imagine if you’re a college drop-out and you’re a self-publisher too – a double loser.
Oh…. $2 million off the self-published books and here comes another $2 million in the form of a book deal from St Martin’s Press after a bidding war.
No-one’s laughing at Amanda Hocking now. It looks like she’s just beaten the system.
Categories: AbeBooks
Interesting, but I think you’re confusing self-publishing and vanity publishing. Vanity publishing is where you pay a so-called publishing house to produce your book for you. Self-publishing is where you do it all yourself.
by Felicity Heaton on Mar 26, 2011 at 1:59 am
With self-publishing, you still have to pay for a company (Lulu, Authorhouse, Trafford, Blurb etc) to print the book you have prepared. They usually charge according to how many of their services you want. I’ve used Lulu to produce a photo book for my family. I did everything on Lulu’s internet site – placed in the copy, the pictures and then placed my order for a handful of copies. I could have paid extra to get an ISBN or to have the placed on to internet marketplaces for sale. With Trafford, it’s a different – you can just send them your copy and they’ll do everything else for you..lay out the copy, do the cover. I’ve been to Trafford’s offices/printing press and it’s fascinating.
If you talk to any traditional publisher, they are not very kind about self-publishing and it won’t take a moment before the words ‘ vanity press’ slips out. However, you should check out the books by Elle Newmark – she self-published and then won a deal from a traditional publisher and a major marketing effort conducted entirely by herself.
by Richard Davies on Mar 27, 2011 at 10:10 am