If this book doesn ’ t make you get off your butt and write . . . nothing will . excerpt from Chapter 13
If this book doesn ’ t make you get off your butt and write . . . nothing will . excerpt from Chapter 13
Once upon a time , an aspiring writer had to ( a ) jump through hoops , ( b ) sleep with someone , or ( c ) petition the literary gods to get a book published . Okay , I might be exaggerating a bit ( there is no literary casting couch !), but if you ask a few authors who received mainstream deals , I ’ m not too far off the mark .
Over the years , a path less traveled was made readily available : self-publishing . Selfpublishing venues have made it easy for authors to get a book into print and into the hands of avid readers .
Self-publishing affords the author the ability to familiarize themselves with the process of putting a book together from beginning to end , and it helps them gain a better appreciation for what mainstream publishers do on a larger scale . Equally , it allows the author to build a following which they can use as a negotiating point when attempting to go mainstream .
Several authors who started on the self-publishing path eventually made it onto The New York Times Bestseller list . Case-in-point , Louise L . Hay ’ s self-published book , You Can Heal Your Life , was on The New York Times Bestseller list for thirteen consecutive weeks . She went on to start her own house and publish other dynamos such as Wayne Dyer , Deepak Chopra , Suze Orman , Doreen Virtue , Sandra Brown , Tavis Smiley , and many others .
The self-published Romancing the Stone series , written by Catherine Lanigan under the pen name of Joan Wilder , was on The New York Times Bestseller list for several weeks and was eventually made into several movies . Robert T . Kiyosaki was turned down by several major houses before he published his own book , Rich Dad , Poor Dad , then hit it big on The New York Times Bestseller list . That just goes to show that the major houses don ’ t always recognize which books will strike a chord among readers . Most people don ’ t even know that John Grisham ’ s A Time to Kill was rejected ( that ’ s right , I said the “ R ” word ) by several major houses before The Firm was picked up by a publisher who then published A Time to Kill ( which , in my opinion , is his best work !). While he didn ’ t self-publish , he didn ’ t let the “ R ” word deter him either .