- Joined
- Apr 13, 2006
- Messages
- 346
- Reaction score
- 27
- Location
- The Land of Nod
- Website
- www.jamessomers.blogspot.com
I have noted that people do not believe that a self published novel can have success, because it probably is not good enough to be traditionally published, but i would say that is not always the case.
While it is obviously true that most self published novels are not up to snuff that doesn't mean they cannot be....I would site two fairly recent examples of good stories that were self published and both have become quite successful...
1.) The Celestine Prophecy: by James Redfield was originally self published in 1993 and became a hit with readers and must have been read by the right person so that by 1994 Warner had picked it up for publishing and now its going to be a movie....Pretty successful for a self published effort to start with.
2.) Eragon: by Christopher Paolini was also originally self published by this fifteen year old homeschooled high school graduate from Montana. His family invested in self publishing the boys novel and did legwork to promote it until it was purchased by someones child who was affiliated with a publisher and turned the novel over to them for review and then Random House picked it up through Knopf....Now this fantasy novel has a sequel and another on the way and is about to be released as a movie in December 2006....Not bad for a self published novel to start with.
While I realize that their success came with being picked up by Major Publishing houses...they arguably would not have been if they had not self published to begin with and the "Great Story" was read by the right people in self published book form....I know Mr. Paolini says that after it was picked up by Knopf that more rewriting had to be done and so forth, but still...the story was there and people were enjoying it so it got picked up...
This I believe is the hope of self publishers and P.O.D. people, NOT to manage great success through continued self publishing, but to go on and have a great story picked up and read by the right people and seen for what it could be.
It has happened before and can happen again...Perhaps it is a waste for many to self publish, but if you have a great story and are willing to put the maximum effort to polishing it and putting legs on the marketing and distribution and so forth...there is still hope the right person with connections will happen upon it and it might be given the attention it originally deserved from the big boys, but never got.
Not to be coy, (well maybe...) but I would say not many if any of the Traditional authors who post in here have seen this kind of success or have a movie coming out soon from their own book??
be well friends,
James
author: The Chronicles of Soone
While it is obviously true that most self published novels are not up to snuff that doesn't mean they cannot be....I would site two fairly recent examples of good stories that were self published and both have become quite successful...
1.) The Celestine Prophecy: by James Redfield was originally self published in 1993 and became a hit with readers and must have been read by the right person so that by 1994 Warner had picked it up for publishing and now its going to be a movie....Pretty successful for a self published effort to start with.
2.) Eragon: by Christopher Paolini was also originally self published by this fifteen year old homeschooled high school graduate from Montana. His family invested in self publishing the boys novel and did legwork to promote it until it was purchased by someones child who was affiliated with a publisher and turned the novel over to them for review and then Random House picked it up through Knopf....Now this fantasy novel has a sequel and another on the way and is about to be released as a movie in December 2006....Not bad for a self published novel to start with.
While I realize that their success came with being picked up by Major Publishing houses...they arguably would not have been if they had not self published to begin with and the "Great Story" was read by the right people in self published book form....I know Mr. Paolini says that after it was picked up by Knopf that more rewriting had to be done and so forth, but still...the story was there and people were enjoying it so it got picked up...
This I believe is the hope of self publishers and P.O.D. people, NOT to manage great success through continued self publishing, but to go on and have a great story picked up and read by the right people and seen for what it could be.
It has happened before and can happen again...Perhaps it is a waste for many to self publish, but if you have a great story and are willing to put the maximum effort to polishing it and putting legs on the marketing and distribution and so forth...there is still hope the right person with connections will happen upon it and it might be given the attention it originally deserved from the big boys, but never got.
Not to be coy, (well maybe...) but I would say not many if any of the Traditional authors who post in here have seen this kind of success or have a movie coming out soon from their own book??
be well friends,
James
author: The Chronicles of Soone