Too Cool for Words: Self-Publishing Success Stories Featured on CNN

This is neat.

On Wednesday, September 12, CNN ran an article on self-publishing, inspired primarily by Amazon’s latest series of kindles. In the article, author XX talks about indies—and their successes.

Amazon apparently mentioned that 27 of its top-100 books are by indies. One of the indie authors Amazon mentions is Hugh Howey, who is best known for his Wool series. While I personally hadn’t heard of him until yesterday, he’s doing pretty well—he says he usually makes six figures a month. He’s apparently been approached for book deals with traditional publishers, and he has no interest in them because he wants to keep the rights to his work. And hell, it’s not like he needs the help.

When asked about digital publishing, Howey apparently said:

“The stigma is gone…Publishers will pick up a self-published work if it does well. Readers are really just interested in good stories.”

Success stories like Howey’s occur more and more in the indie world. While not everyone rakes in that sort of cash, it is possible. Success as an indie author is all about learning the ropes, writing quality work, using targeted (not blast) marketing, and—the most important part of all—taking the time to do it right.

This won’t be an overnight adventure, but each of us has the potential to one day say, “I’m a full time author, and I love what I do.”

You. That can be you.

Stay awesome.

—Boyce