The all-stars and up-and-comers in a new era of publishing,

and how they’ve made serious cash

In just the last two years, self-publishing has seen a whole new level of successes. This is mostly due to e-books and the lack of
barrier-to-entry for authors to upload their content to Kindle and iPad devices at the click of a button. This is not to say that everyone who has self-published over the last two years has been successful, but a lot has been learned about the industry – what’s possible and what is still up in the air. The industry is still finding it’s footing, but since 2010 there have been quite a few Cinderella stories, as well as many inspiring stories that allowed authors to follow their dreams and quit their day jobs.

These 25 authors are the movers and shakers of self-publishing. They have shown that it can be done – authors can be successful without major publishing houses. Each one of these trail-blazers has done it a different way and they have all started out at different places in their careers. The idea that you can put out a book and watch your bank account grow is still, and forever will be, a pipe dream, except in one of the cases below.  These authors have used social media, appearances, speaking, film, journalism and just plain great content to market their books, and anyone aspiring to be on this list should be doing the same.

Without further ado, I give you the 25 Self-Published Authors to watch…

1. Mark Cuban @mcuban

Mark Cuban is no stranger to success. He owns the Dallas Mavericks as well as several other large profitable ventures and he can be seen on ABC’s Shark Tank giving advice, and startup capital, to entrepreneurs. Cuban has been approached by several large publishers offering him deals to publish his memoir, but ultimately Cuban decided to self publish his recent book How to Win at the Sport of Business. Cuban has used only “Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and email lists” to promote his book, and he proclaims that his foray into self-publishing is a learning experience for him. His main reason for choosing self publishing, other than the fact that he already has a semi-household name, was time. He was unwilling to commit the time for book tours and other promotional ventures that would solely make money for his publisher. He found self publishing his book to be much more flexible, being able to change things right up until hours before the release. When people like Mark Cuban start self publishing, it is one step closer to leveling the playing field of publishing for everyone.

2. John Locke @donovancreed

John Locke made history when he became the first self-published author to sell over one million eBooks. His crime series focuses on a former CIA Assassin named Donovan Creed. Locke has put his book-selling strategy to paper in a popular industry-handbook called How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months. After joining the Kindle Million Club, Locke has decided to sign on with Simon and Schuster. However, a major shift occurred, making Locke another first in the publishing industry – when he negotiated his deal with Simon and Schuster he mandated that he maintains control (and therefore profits) of all his digital sales, and that he maintains the print rights. He has basically contracted S&S to help him with national distribution to bookstores. Now that’s what I call taking the bull by the horns…

3. Amanda Hocking @amanda_hocking

Until 2010 Amanda Hocking was just writing as a hobby. She wrote 17 novels in her spare time until April 2010 when she decided to self publish her books to the Kindle store. By early 2011 she had parlayed those books into $2 million in sales, and was averaging selling 9,000 units per day. The subjects of her books range from zombies, to vampires to fantasy worlds. Not long after hitting the Kindle Million Club, she signed on for a 4 book deal with St. Martin’s Press, earning a $2 Million advance, something completely unheard of for self published authors. Some of her stories have also been optioned to film. The New York Times characterizes her writing as “part quirky girl-like-Hocking characters, part breakneck pacing, part Hollywood-style action and part bodice-ripping romance – they are literature as candy, a mash-up of creativity and commerce.” Hocking’s sales reached a point where she could no longer be ignored by mainstream media, which only continued to fuel her success further.

4. J.A. Konrath @jakonrath

Dubbed the “Mouthpiece for the Self-Publishing Movement,” Joe Konrath is a name newbie authors need to know. Through his blog The Newbie Guide to Publishing he gives tips, opinions and advice to new authors looking into the self publishing option, as well as those who are well on their way. Konrath isn’t just an empty tipster though, as he lives being a self-pubbed author every day. In fact, he shared with his blog readers how his new book has earned him $100,000 in just 3 weeks. Konrath is a no-nonsense, straight from the hip authority on the industry, and another convert from traditional publishing. After garnering almost 500 rejection letters from traditional publishers (a bragging right in itself), Konrath broke the seal in 2003 with his debut novel from Hyperion, Whiskey Sour. Though he is considered controversial in a lot of his views, Konrath tells newbie authors of the importance of self-promotion – his blog should not be ignored for those looking to publish.

5. Boyd Morrison @boydmorrison

Boyd’s story today reads like many others that have turned to self-publishing, but in 2009, it was still considered risky and “low brow” to self-publish your books. It’s hard to believe that was just three years ago. So much has changed since then. Boyd is technically the first person in history to parlay a self-published eBook into a traditional publishing deal – paving the way for many other authors on this list. Boyd told Joe Konrath (#4) about publishing on the Kindle, which led him to create a living by self-publishing his eBooks. Boyd’s goal from the beginning was to be self-published, so he turned his numbers into an imprint of Simon and Schuster getting him a deal. In exchange he sold the rights to all his printed content as well as all the rights to his digital content. Boyd’s thriller, The Ark, has made history for self-publishing and proven to many aspiring authors that hearing “no” from the traditional publishing industry doesn’t always mean no, sometimes it means “not yet.”

6. Michael J. Sullivan @author_sullivan

Michael’s road to publishing is a varied and exciting one. He is a fantasy writer who, like Amanda Hocking, can’t stop writing even if it means there is no market to publish. When Michael finished his series Riyria there were six books in total. He was met with resistance from agents and publishers, and felt his only way out was self-publishing. Even though it carried a big stigma at the time, Michael and his wife formed their own publishing house, Ridan Publishing. They published the eBooks for Michael’s series and priced them at $4.95, which is high compared to other successful eBooks. After the release of the fifth book, things began to take off and the Sullivans approached major publishers again. This time they were offered a large advance by Orbit, Hachette’s fantasy imprint. Michael’s titles have been switched over to Orbit and he now has major distribution, and by October 2011 he was selling 10,000 units/month.

7. Michael Prescott @m_prescott2011

Michael Prescott has published twenty books under various names with large publishing houses. When he submitted his thriller, Riptide, for consideration he was sure the game was over when 25 publishers passed on publishing it. He had met good critical acclaim with many of his previous books, but his financial successes had been spotty. On a whim he decided to publish Riptide as an eBook, which he listed for just 99 cents. To date Prescott has sold more than 800,000 copies of the book, and made more than $300,000 before taxes. Prescott is able to publish his backlist of titles, which have gone out of print, and add those to his eBook offerings.

8. Barbara Freethy @barbarafreethy

This list would not be complete without a romance writer, and that romance writer is Barbara Freethy. After a long and successful career as a romance novelist, Freethy took her backlist to the eBook format. She has seen enormous success, more interestingly with self-publishing as an avenue for readers to enjoy her older titles. The eBooks have breathed new life into these titles that she formerly thought were of no more use. Even after her recent success, Freethy plans to self-publish all future titles in all eBook formats. Eight of her books have hit the New York Times Bestseller List, and her most recently published books are currently climbing the bestseller charts.

9. Charles Orlando @charlesorlando

Charles Orlando is a relationship guru who wrote The Problem with Women…is Men. He decided to self publish after seeing the breakdown of profits and how much he would receive per book sold in a traditional publishing deal. There would be very little marketing and PR from the publisher and the timeline to get the book out was about 18 months. Orlando dropped his agent and turned to self-publishing. He focused a lot on making sure the book looked credible – professional design and layout, as well as great quotes for the back cover. He then turned his focus to Facebook, growing his audience with engaging Facbook notes and posts. He saw an astronomical increase in fans, and used the fans to convert to sales of his book. Orlando doesn’t purport that his journey was easy, or that social media is a catch all for all self-published authors. He stresses that he put in a lot of hard work, did a lot of testing and checking his insights to see what worked.

10. James Altucher  @jaltucher

James Altucher is a blogger, writer, entrepreneur, trader and much more, depending on the day. A few weeks ago he wrote a post for Techcrunch called: Why Every Entrepreneur Should Self Publish a Book. Altucher has published five books with major publishing houses and his last two he’s published himself. He admits that it’s still early, but he’s already sold more of the two self-published books than he had of his five traditionally published books combined.  I call that an accomplishment. Altucher embodies the “to watch” part of this post. As a proponent of self publishing with a growing fan base and great content, I think he will soon be another feather in the cap of self publishing, and since he has experience with the big publishing houses, he can speak to the pros and cons of each side of the equation.

11. Dean Wesley Smith  @deanwesleysmith

Like Joe Konrath, Dean Wesley Smith has a habit of “killing the sacred cows of publishing” on his blog. The interesting thing about Smith is he used to be a traditional publisher himself. He owned a small publishing house, and then worked for a few big publishers after that. He is now self publishing under many monikers and in many mediums including short stories, graphic novels, thrillers and he has also ghostwritten for a number of bestsellers. Smith has been one of the authors on the forefront of the self-publishing wave, mostly, I think, because he understands the publishers side of the equation. It is easier to self publish when you have been a publisher yourself! His blog is worth reading for those interested in becoming self publishers and authors.

12. Michele Scott/A.K. Alexander  @michelescott1

Michele Scott published her bestselling eBook under the pen-name A.K. Alexander. Daddy’s Home profiles the search for a serial killer known as “the family man,” who preys on single women with children. When her book rose to the top of the British Kindle bestseller list as well as the U.S. Kindle bestseller list, she became the first self published author to accomplish this. Her work has now been optioned for television by the same company who produces The Walking Dead and Mad Men, both blockbuster hits for the cable channel AMC.

13. Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin @craynagin

Ray Nagin was the mayor of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. He tells his side of the story in his self-published book Katrina’s Secrets: Storms After the Storm. Nagin’s main reason for self-publishing was largely political – the big publishers wanted him to play up certain aspects of the story and play down other things. He was unwilling to compromise his version of the story and so he turned to self-publishing as a remedy.

14. Barry Eisler @barryeisler

Last spring Barry Eisler made waves in the publishing industry by walking away from a $500,000 deal to self publish. He self-published a short story as an eBook and saw tremendous numbers. Since then he’s inked a hybrid deal with Amazon’s new publishing arm. Eisler’s thrillers are based on his experience as a CIA Operative, and they get rave reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and News-Press. His decision startled the publishing world, gaining applause from the champions of self-publishing – but when he decided to sign on with Amazon rather than self-publish the new titles, those celebrators turned into haters fast. Though he’s not technically self-publishing currently, I still think Eisler helped legitimize the idea of a best-selling author turning to self publishing, and I think that his new deal forged with Amazon leaves room for more authors to follow in his footsteps, gaining more creative control and more profits. It’s easier to get what you want in a publishing deal when you can point to someone else who’s done it before you. Mr. Eisler realizes the power of self-publishing – and he also realizes that it’s a viable alternative.

15. Louise Voss and Mark Edwards @louisevoss1, @mredwards

A success story from across the pond is always welcome. Louise Voss and Mark Edwards published their novel Catch Your Death after being rejected from several literary agents. They priced the book at just 96 pence and watched it soar to the top of the charts – where it remained at number 1 for the month of June 2011, selling 50,000 copies. They started marketing by sending out an email to friends and family, asking them to buy the book. From there they began to contact small book bloggers and reviewers online. Their marketing savvy and sales track record are the major reasons they attracted a four book deal and a six-figure advance from HarperFiction.

16. Kerry Wilkinson @kerrywk

Another of our English brethren has been hitting the UK Kindle charts hard in the last quarter of 2011, beating out authors like Steig Larsson to sell 250,000 copies. Kerry doesn’t seem too calculated in his release of the detective novel, Locked In – “I just wrote something I thought I would like…when I saw the ‘publish with us’ button at the bottom of the Amazon page, I thought, ‘What the hell?’” But Wilkinson admits that his strategy is to think like a reader. He released his book on Kindle and then promptly bought the mobile reader device so that he could understand the reader experience. When he noticed that readers could download a 10% sample of the book, he began consciously baiting readers within that first 10%, to ensure that they would buy the whole book.

17. J. Carson Black @jcarsonblack

Rejection is a hard thing to take. For Black, and her agent, Deborah Schneider, the two-and-a-half years they spent trying to sell crime thriller The Shop were unbearable. Black gave up and self-published the novel into the Kindle store. After seeing abysmal numbers, Black’s husband urged her to get her rights back from her out of print titles (yes, she had been traditionally published in the past) and put those up on Kindle as well. As soon as she did that her numbers started to soar, reaching 70,000 books sold in the month of May 2011. Amazon grabbed Black up for a deal to publish The Shop, as well as 2 new thrillers. Although she’s in the deal with Amazon, she still continues to self-publish her backlist titles to the Kindle store – proving that authors can be a hybrid animal of self published and traditionally published and they can laugh about it all the way to the bank.

18. Tanya Wright @tanyattwright

Tanya Wright is most widely recognized for her role as Kenya, the small town cop from True Blood. She’s been acting in TV shows and movies for many years and has come at self publishing with a whole new, creative vision. She produced her short film “Butterfly Rising” which chronicles a road trip between two friends. After producing the film, she read about trans-media, which is optioning one concept to many different forms of media, so that the different products cross promote each other. She wrote the book and based it on the characters from the film, but stretched it to follow their lives over 70 years. She has planned for two more films based on the book. Tanya has discovered a very cool way to use self publishing to compliment independent film making.

19. Denise Hamilton 

I wanted to include Denise because she managed to sell 250,000 copies of her cookbook with very little of those sales being attributed to bookstores. This is a feat in itself, because cookbooks are a specialty market, and it’s one that doesn’t really lend itself to an eBook as well as some other formats. She’s also self-published a guide book for aspiring cookbook authors called Recipe For Success: How I sold over 250,000 Copies of My Cookbook (available on her website, linked above) where she lays out many of her marketing techniques and distribution channels.

20. Vivian Yang @shanghaigirlusa

Most of us think of self-publishing as a new phenomenon – however for Vivian Yang it’s old hat. She self-published her first book, Shanghai Girl, with Xlibris in the late 1990’s and it became a hit in Asia. Her appearances were all sold out and she sold out of the copies quickly. It was even picked up by a small Japanese publishing house for translation to Japanese. In 2010, after her second book was rejected from a few publishers, she went the self-pub route again and is enjoying some success. She takes on all the promotion herself, and still says she would be glad to partner with a larger publishing house to expand her readership.

21. Bill Rasmussen @bill_espn

You may recognize him as the founder of ESPN, but he is also the author of Sports Junkies Rejoice: The Birth of ESPN. As the epitome of entrepreneurship, it wouldn’t have been right for Rasmussen to do anything other than self-publish, which is just what he did. He used Create Space to bring his book to life and sports fans everywhere are grateful.

22. Fred Stoller @fred_stoller

You would recognize Fred Stoller if you saw him, although you probably wouldn’t know from where. Stoller is an actor who’s had bit parts in just about every major sitcom including Everybody Loves Raymond and Seinfeld. The latter is what brings him to this list. Stoller recently self published “My Seinfeld Year” which is a short memoir detailing his year of writing for Seinfeld. He published the short book as a Kindle single and it went to the top of the Kindle Bestseller list within just a few weeks. Who knows when or if Stoller will utilize self publishing again, but those of us who like to laugh are glad he’s adding writing to his colored repertoire.

23. Laurel Saville @savilleL

Laurel Saville was lucky enough to have her self-published book review read by an editor at Amazon’s new publishing arm. “I started reading your book and I looked up and it was 4 hours later!” the editor exclaimed. That is how Laurel’s self-published memoir about her mother, whose life was riddled with Hollywood starlets, came to be traditionally published by Amazon. She stresses the importance of good design and good writing when self-publishing. She hired two publicists and worked with them to get the review, which led to her contract with Amazon. Saville has been commissioned to write  several other industry specific books and hopefully her critically acclaimed memoir Unraveling Anne will be optioned into a movie. Saville’s book is one of the few books on this list that is non-fiction.

24. Tim Anderson

Tim Anderson proves that you don’t have to write thrillers and vampire books to make self publishing work for you. Tim’s book Tune in Tokyo: The Gaijin Diaries is a travel memoir about Tokyo and is targeted to the gay and lesbian market. After self-publishing on the Amazon kindle, Anderson took a chance at getting reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly. The week that his review appeared he was called by the Amazon Encore team and they offered to pick up the book. After only a week in print, Anderson saw his title climb to number 1 on the genre lists on Amazon. Anderson is working on a new book, and hopes to continue his relationship with Encore.

25. Elle Lothlorien @ellelothlorien

Ms. Lothlorien turned down two offers from agents and on a whim decided to self-publish her new book to the Kindle. After toying with pricing over the course of a year, she learned some very important lessons on eBook pricing, which are worth reading about in this post on Joe Konrath’s blog.  She’s negotiating the ropes of indie publishing and has gotten to the point where she can quit her “day job” – an important milestone for any artist or writer.