The Case for Self-Publishing, via Amanda Hocking

Figured I'll start sharing some of Port City Publishing's blog posts over here, too, because like them, I like helping writers find their way.

From Port's blog post today:

The Case for Self-Publishing, via Amanda Hocking

Same as traditional publishing isn’t for everyone, neither is independent publishing. Authors like Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, James Patterson, and on and on the list goes—they wouldn’t be who or where they are without traditional publishing.

But independent publishing today is less stigmatized than ever, and quite honestly, it’s downright business-savvy. J.K. Rowling is self-publishing her Harry Potter series in e-book format. You know she’s going to make a killing off that. Barry Eisler recently rocked people’s minds by turning down a $500,000 two-book deal to publish the books himself. (Barry! Call us!) Seth Godin has said he’ll never traditionally publish again.

These are big names in writing who are shirking the way things have always been done, and again, it just makes good business sense.

Even if you’re not an established author, it can work wonders for you. In fact, especially if you’re not an established author. In our last post, we mentioned Amanda Hocking. She’s 26 years old, she self-published nine books that went on to sell a total of a million copies (mostly e-books), and she recently sold a book to St. Martin’s Press for $1 million.

Here’s the New York Times article about that, and below are a few highlights from it:

“I’ve done as much with self-publishing as any person can do,” Ms. Hocking said in an interview on Thursday. “People have bad things to say about publishers, but I think they still have services, and I want to see what they are. And if they end up not being any good, I don’t have to keep using them. But I do think they have something to offer.”

Amanda is 100 percent correct. 

Read the full article here.