Curiosity Answered

[blairmacg]

Thank you for the responses here and by email.

To answer the questions:
Hugh Howey is, as alecaustin said, a self-pubbed writer who turned his successful novella "Wool" into a series.  He also contracted with numerous overseas publishers on "Wool," signed a movie deal with Ridley Scott, and then signed a print-only deal with S&S.  Here's the Wall Street Journal article.  I asked because I saw two instances today of folks in the publishing news biz surprised by this--which surprised me.

Author Solutions and all its houses (Xlibiris, iUniverse, etc.) were purchased by Penguin's parent company last July so Penguin could have its own "self-publishing" division, which the CEO called the "fastest growing" segment of the publishing economy.  When Penguin and Random merged, Author Solutions was brought into the larger fold.  And since November, Simon & Schuster has run Archway... which is also part of Author Solutions.  As always, Writer Beware has the details.  The latest dust-up about the Hydra contract happened at the same time S&S was sending letters to writer-bloggers asking them to be affiliates--referring writers to Author Solutions in return for a $100 bounty.  I asked about this one because, again, I was surprised by the reactions of people who I would have thought already knew about it.

I've had similar "I thought you knew" experiences talking with folks who operate mostly in the self-publishing world.  The division--particularly when it comes to what information is sought and shared--is only hurtful.  Personally, I like straddling the two.

Comments

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

From the WSJ article:
Four independent authors have sold more than a million Kindle copies of their books, and 23 have sold more than 250,000, according to Amazon.

I'd like to hear about a sales level that has more than 23 authors on it.

[blairmacg.livejournal.com]

That's pretty easy information to find. Most folks sell next to nothing. Then there is a smaller group making a little side income. An even smaller group makes a living at it. Pretty much like any writing path.

The "chance" of success in self-publishing can, in my opinion, be summed up the same way Tor answer writers looking for their "chance" of landing a contract. If you write a good book, the chances are excellent. If you write a terrible book, the chances are poor.

I just think it's too bad that news within the genre gets ignored, and people who are succeeding get discounted, because some folks believe the self-publishing label makes derision acceptable.