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Topic : What are examples of fiction books picked up by publishers after being self-published? I've seen some references to commercial publishers picking up a self-published novel if it's been selling - selfpublishingguru.com

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I've seen some references to commercial publishers picking up a self-published novel if it's been selling well.

Can you point me to a few specific examples of this happening?

Fiction only, please. I'm particularly interested in cases where the author had no popular platform independent of his writing (e.g. not Cory Doctrow, or Machine of Death which was published by several popular webcomic artists). Anything within science-fiction or fantasy would be of particular interest to me.

Thanks!


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Depending on what you are meaning by being self-published I believe that Scott Sigler, Mur Lafferty and Nathan Lowell are examples as well.


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Michael Wallace has just signed a five book publishing deal with Thomas & Mercer, the new publishing imprint from Amazon. He writes mystery/suspense and has been solely self-published until now.

Michael Sullivan has signed a five book deal with Orbit Books. He writes fantasy novels and has been solely self-published until now.

J. Carson Black just signed a book publishing deal with Thomas & Mercer. I don't recall how many books were in the deal, but I believe it was three. I believe she had been previously published but got dropped and then went into self-publishing. Now she's back in traditional publishing.

Of course, everyone has no doubt heard about Amanda Hocking's multi-million dollar deal to publish three new contemporary or urban fantasy novels. In addition, a couple of publishers tried to convince John Locke to sign with them, but he declined. Having sold over a million e-books on his own, I guess he didn't really feel the need to change anything.

There are several others that have done this recently, but these were the ones that immediately came to mind. I may add a couple more later.

Update: Scott Nicholson, another indie author, has just signed a two book deal with Thomas & Mercer. Scott writes primarily thrillers, and he does have a background in traditional publishing. However, he went indie and found success with a couple of his self-published books, and now he is back with a publisher.

Louise Voss shot to the top of the Kindle charts by self-publishing her book after being rejected by literary agents. It attracted the attention of publishers HarperFiction, which offered her a six-figure, four-book deal. As a result, her ebook Catch Your Death will also be printed and stocked in bookshops by a traditional publisher.

Jessica Meigs self-published two zombie novellas and was picked up by Permuted Press for a three book deal.

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JA Konrath has been an openly outspoken proponent of self-publishing for some time. I knew that he had compiled a list at one time of self-published authors with no previous experience or exposure to traditional publishing. I'll let his list serve as a much better compilation of success stories.


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Amanda Hocking's the big name on this one, I'd say. YA supernatural, as I understand it, but I haven't read her work myself.

There's also Eragon, although I recall hearing some debate about just how 'self' published the book was. (I can't remember the details of the debate... anybody?)


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Contest by Matthew Reilly:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contest_(novel)
Once, long ago, I read that Dan Brown's Digital Fortress was originally self-published... but if this is true it has since been excised from the record...


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