2012: the year of self-publishing

Of course, this is simply the latest example of self-publishing’s ascendancy, but it’s certainly not the first, nor, we think, the last. In fact, points out NPR, self-publishing has enjoyed a remarkably rapid rise from last-rate reputation to best-seller status.

“They used to call it the ‘vanity press,’ and the phrase itself spoke volumes,” said NPR’s Lynn Neary in a recent broadcast. “Self-published authors were considered not good enough to get a real publishing contract. They had to pay to see their book in print. But with the advent of e-books, self-publishing has exploded, and a handful of writers have had huge best-sellers.”

Writers like Amanda Hocking, the 20-something writer who was rejected by so many publishing houses that she sailed right past them – and straight up the record books when her self-published supernatural romances hit 1 million-plus in sales.

And John Locke, the 60-something businessman-turned-thriller writer who has sold more than 1 million Kindle e-books. And Hugh Howey, whose self-published tales of life after the apocalypse have garnered him hundreds of thousands of fans.

It’s no wonder self-published books have almost tripled in production since 2008, making up 43 percent of print titles released in 2011, as the Monitor’s Molly Driscoll wrote in a blog post this fall.

In fact, so promising does self-publishing now appear, one of the country’s publishing giants, Simon & Schuster, recently teamed up with a self-publishing company to create a self-publishing imprint. That’s like the Boston Red Sox joining forces with Smalltown Little League.

NYT critic Kakatuni’s decision to include a self-published book in her list of the year’s best reads? As the the Guardian put it, it’s just “the cherry on the cake for a stellar year for self-publishing."

Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.

Previous

1 | 2