Rejection is a part of life but it becomes unbearable when you have poured thousands of hours in writing your novel, only for it to be turned down. Facing these constant troubles to set foot in the writing industry by means of traditional publishing has cost budding authors many sleepless nights. But as is the case always, when one door closes, the other opens. When met with failure to publish the traditional way, many writers turn to self publishing. Especially with the digital age, it is becoming a preferred means by many new writers. But often, this unconventional path is looked down upon by many and approached with skepticism. So to quell those fears and help you take the leap, we bring you names of writers who scored big in industry by publishing their own books. Let’s take a look into a few of these self published authors who achieved success just on the power of their books.
1. Amanda Hocking
Desperation to attend exhibition for creator of Muppets drove her to self publish her first novel, My Blood Approves. This paranormal romance novel followed the journey of Alice as she falls in love and has to choose between two vampire brothers, Jack and Peter. Hocking published the novel on Amazon and sold it for only 99 cents. Within just a few days, her sales multiplied after which she went onto publish the second and third novel in series as well.
By 2011, she had sold more than a million copies for her debut series as well as Trylle series, an urban fantasy, which she wrote next. Following her success, St. Martin’s Press offered her a $2 million deal for writing a new series called Watersong. Since then, her career has ascended in full grace. She became the Amazon best seller author. Her name also made appearance on New York Times and USA Today’s best selling author’s lists. Till date, she has written over 25 novels.
2. Jamie Mc Guire
Forced to take the self publishing route after being rejected 14 times, this radiographer turned writer has given New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal best seller novels. She wrote her debut trilogy Providence which didn’t quite hit the mark. But her first novel in the second series, titled Beautiful disaster did wonders for her as within two months it had sold over 30,000 copies.
This massive success struck her a traditional publishing deal with Atria Books, who also took over the rights for Walking Disaster, sequel to Beautiful Disaster. She worked with them for few of her next books. But eventually, returned to self publishing for it was more lucrative to have rights of your novel. In 2015, one year after her return to self publishing, she cracked a deal for shelving her novel, Beautiful Redemption, in Walmart which has been a record breaking feat for any self publishing author ever.
3. Amish Tripathi
Well, if you thought Mc Guire was the only one who switched careers, then you are wrong. Tripathi with an MBA degree worked as an investment banker for 14 years before he shifted to writing. He wrote his first novel, The Immortals of Meluha, a mythological retelling of Hindu God Shiva, and submitted it to publishers. But more than 20 publishers slammed their doors shut on him.
That’s when he took help of his literary agent Anuj and decided to self-publish his novel. And his decision paid off, for, with apt knowledge of marketing and immaculate storytelling, his novel broke all records and became fastest-selling novel in history of Indian publishing industry. Till date, his novel has been translated into 19 languages and sold more than 5 million copies.
4. Michael J. Sullivan
Popular for his debut fantasy series The Riyria Revelations, his journey from self-publishing to traditional one is an inspiration to many. He started his career as a writer for his dyslexic daughter. His novels were just to help her read and write. After which, he submitted his manuscript and faced rejections on several occasions from agents and publishers before finally deciding to self publish.
He self-published four novels in the series with the fourth one selling over 10,000 copies in a single month. Doors to Orbit Books hence opened. After that, there has been no looking back. He, as of today, has listed novels on New York Times and USA Today bestseller and received the long-deserved recognition.
5. robert Kiyosaki
Google best personal finance self-help books and his nonfiction Rich Dad Poor Dad will be among the first few books to pop up in the results. The book provides a lot of valuable information about financial independence, building wealth by investing. But more than anything it is helpful to anyone navigating the financial world for the first time. For this reason alone, it sold over 41 million copies and has been translated into 51 languages. What’s even remarkable is that the book was on New York Times bestseller’s list for over 6 years.
But this best-selling author had to face his own share of struggles before achieving these milestones. After writing the book, his trip to the world of traditional publishing was not fruitful. In fact, no agent, publisher or distributor took his book, worse being the fact that he was given the advice to give up. But despite such critiques, he self-published and finally achieved the success he deserved.
6. Rupi Kaur
The age of digital media gave birth to this Instagram poet. She started sharing her poetry on Tumblr with other South Asian diaspora like her. Soon after, she posted her poems on Instagram with simple illustrations which garnered her with a lot of attraction. She then submitted these poems to various journals, magazines, etc. But, it was not well received. So she self-published her poems in latter half of 2014 on Createspace.
This is how her first poetry collection Milk and Honey came into being. It sold more than 10,000 copies. As a result, Andrews McMeel publishing picked it and re-released the collection. Since then, her work received more than 40 translations and made her New York Times Bestseller poet. Her work resonates with readers of a new generation for its brevity which she states was inspired by Sikh holy texts and scriptures which are often written in poetic verse. Apart from Milk and Honey, her other popular collections include The Sun and her Flowers as well as her latest release Home Body. She is amongst those self published authors that have shown the power of social media to us.
7. Andy Weir
The Martian written by Weir is a beloved novel today. So much so that it received a movie adaptation with the same name which enjoyed massive popularity. But did you know that this novel was self published? Yes, you heard that right! Weir earlier wrote web comics and short story which was well received online.
After this, he wrote his debut Sci-fi novel The Martian and uploaded it chapter by chapter on his website. On request of his readers he compiled those into a full fledged book and put it on Amazon Kindle. Soon, it reached Amazon’s bestseller list. Subsequently, Crown Publishing Group republished it. With its printed version available for purchase, it positioned itself on 12th number in The New York Times bestsellers list. Since then, both the novel and its writer has received tremendous acclaims and appreciations.
8. Lisa Genova
Imagine hunting for a literary agent to help you publish your book, only for them to reject it and advice against going for publication since it can potentially ruin your career. Isn’t it terrifying? Well, that’s how Genova’s journey into self publishing began. Rejection lead to self publication for her novel Still Alice, which was about a professor who was struggling to cope up with Alzheimer’s disease.
Slowly, it rose to popularity. Following this, Simon & Schuster republished the novel in 2009. It instantly made it on The New York Times bestsellers author’s list. After selling a million copies, receiving translations into 37 languages, and producing an Academy award-winning adaptation titled Alice, the novel and its author have achieved a lot of success.
We hope that reading about these self published authors will help you take the first step in the world of self-publishing. So, what are you waiting for? Go and self-publish your book today! Who knows, you might be the next one on this list!
Also Read : What to choose, Traditional or Self-Publishing?
