Huckleberry
Finn
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) Twain
decided to eliminate "the middle man"
(a commercial publisher) and keep for himself the
profits from a sale he hoped would reach 25,000
copies but actually exceeded 500,000. John Kremer
says Twain "got tired of the foolishness of
his previous publishers."
Jules
Siegel writes: Twain talks about why he
self-published in his so-called
"Autobiography." To me, the story of
this book is the story of why so many writers
eventually self-publish or just give up in
despair. Twain explained that he had one rule for
writing the book (most of which he dictated). He
did it only as long as he was interested in a
subject or story and when his interest flagged he
stopped. He wanted the book to be published
exactly the way he wrote it -- in full and,
specifically, not in chronological order. He
never got the wish. The definitive edition by
Harvard University Press was abridged and
rearranged in chronological order by the editor,
just like every other version. If they do this to
Mark Twain, what will theynot do to us?
Source:
Small Press Book Ring, www.austensharp.com
Leaves
of Grass
Walt Whitman
Walt
himself published this famous work in many
editions over a period of many years, as he
constantly added poems to the book. Whitman was a
printer and for a while was a country teacher,
then became a newspaper editor.
Clue
from: Laurie O'Brien, flapoet@aol.com; Small
Press Book Ring, URL www.austensharp.com. John
Kremer says that a hundred years after Whitman's
death, his book continues to sell thousands of
copies every year. Well, that may be partly
because of college lit course requirements, but
saying that doesn't detract from Whitman's
appeal.
Betty
Zane
Zane Grey
This
book is part of an "Ohio River Trilogy"
about early settlers (including his ancestors).
After writing about his ancestor, Betty Zane,
Grey produced enormously popular melodramatic
tales of the West. According to the Zane Grey Web
Site, www.zane-grey.com/infolinks, he's known as
"the man who made the West famous."
Clue
from: The Rosses,
www.spannet.org/cc/mnt01sel.html
Source:
Concise Columbia Encyclopedia.
Works
of William Blake
His
first book, Poetical Sketches (1783) was the only
one published conventionally during his life, and
with the help of his wife he illustrated and
published everything else himself. He moved his
poems around among several books. Besides being
an English poet and artist who exerted great
influence on romanticism, Blake was an engraver
and added lavish colored engravings to his works.
Source:
Concise Columbia Encyclopedia; clue from Laurie
O'Brien, flapoet@aol.com
No
Thanks
e e cummings
Innovative
poet who published a volume of poetry with
financing by his mother, listing on his title
page the thirteen publishers who had rejected it!
(What a great idea!) It became one of his
classics.
Source:
John Kremer, who lists a Self-Publishers Hall of
Fame at his site,
www.bookmarket.com/selfpublish.html.
Walden
Henry David Thoreau
An
American standard about living the simple life
and being an independent thinker. Thoreau
published only two books in his lifetime, and
neither was a financial success, yet Walden,
his chef d'oeuvre, is said to be the
best-selling book in American history, according
to a Walden site,
www.ectopia.org/ehof/thoreau/biblio.
Source:
John Kremer and me
Beyond
Good and Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche
Classic
work of the great German philosopher, poet, and
critic.
Source:
Steven D. Hales, hales@bloomu.edu
Principia
Mathematica
Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell
Cambridge
University Press, is the publisher of record but.
refused to print it unless the authors paid part
of the publication costs. Russell remarked,
"We thus earned minus fifty pounds each for
ten years' work."
A
two-thousand-page philosophical tome on
mathematics published early in the century that,
by the 1950s, had been read by only about six
people. It costs $565.00 through Amazon.com. A
few dozen have been sold.
This
famous book has just been included on a Modern
Library list of the century's hundred greatest
nonfiction book, reports The New Yorker,
May 31, 1999. So the authors lost money on one of
the most important books of the century.
Other
important writers who reputedly self-published
include Gertrude Stein, Edgar Allen Poe, W.E.B.
DuBois, Alexandre Dumas, Stephen Crane, Mary
Baker Eddy, Carl Sandburg, Upton Sinclair (a
favorite of mine), George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard
Kipling, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Edgar Rice
Burroughs, and Anais Nin.
Source:
John Kremer's home page and Small Press Ring,
www.austensharp.com.
Some Current
Self-Published Literary Lights
Volk
Piers Anthony
Xlibris
With
more than a hundred sci-fi and fantasy titles
published traditionally, Piers Anthony turned to
Xlibris when he found that a manuscript outside
his usual genre--a historical/political
work--didn't interest his regular publishers. He
now also owns a large chunk of Xlibris.
Source:
Julie.duffy@xlibris.com
The
One-Minute Manager
Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
Self-published
and sold more than 20,000 copies before signing
the reprint rights to William Morrow.
The
book launched a series that sold millions of
copies.
Source:
John Kremer's site, Book Marketing Update,
www.bookmarket.com/selfpublish.html. Email John
at info@bookmarket.com, or read his book, 1001
Ways to Market Your Books (Fairfield, IA:
Open Horizons, 1998), now in its fifth edition.
By
the way, John's annotated list,
"Self-Publishers Hall of Fame," on his
web site makes for inspiring reading. What great
success stories about self-published authors!
From reading them, it becomes obvious that what
it takes to get your book noticed is a
combination of creativity and determination.
What
Color Is Your Parachute?
Richard Bolles
A
runaway bestseller about our work life. Picked up
by TenSpeed, it sold more than ten million
copies!
Source:
John Kremer
The
Joy of Cooking
Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker
Originally
self-published. Many new editions have been
published by Bobbs-Merrill since the 1931 book
came out. A revision was published only a year or
two ago, and although I bought it as a gift, I
still use my 1971 edition, which is excellent.
Probably
the best all-around general reference cookbook
now available. Contains most standard North
American dishes, along with new ones as they
become popular, and every recipe is tested.
Source:
Clue from Pat Bell, catspawpre@aol.com, citing a
Fax On Demand (FOD) from Dan Poynter. Doesn't
everybody use this wonderful book, at least as a
reference?
Bridges
of Madison County
Robert J. Waller
Appealing
story of love and loss that all happens within
four days. Picked up by Thorndike and made into a
popular film.
Source:
Jett Vercruse, jett_vercruse@goldminesw.com and
www.BarnesandNoble.com
Chicken
Soup for the Soul
Jack Canfield and Mark V. Hensen
Inspirational
speakers share recipes for spiritual healing.
Picked up by Health Communications, inspired a
whole series directed at specialized markets like
women.
Source:
Jett Vercruse and www.BarnesandNoble.com
Mutant
Message Down Under
Marlo Morgan
Description:
Shopped her self-published book around as
nonfiction (including to Stillpoint Publishing of
Walpole, NH, where I was editing part-time)
before placing it as fiction with HarperCollins
for $1.7 million. It made the best-seller lists.
Source:
John Kremer and me.
How
to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive
John Muir
The
book sold millions to the "small is
beautiful" crowd and he founded a company
that bears his name..
Source:
John Kremer and me.
The
Afterlife Diet
Daniel Pinkwater
The
author claims that after the first printing sold
out within three weeks, the publisher
"abandoned it," according to the book
description at www.Xlibris.com. However, I can't
find any listing for the book at the Library of
Congress catalog, and I've inquired at the LC
about this.
Pinkwater
describes the book as "the first
commercially published fat novel, or
Schmalzroman." He writes primarily for
children (Fat Men from Space, The Hoboken
Chicken Emergency), but has also written for
adults. A weekly contributor to National Public
Radio's Weekend Edition. Recently published two
books through Xlibris.
Source:
julie.duffy@Xlibris.com
The
Celestine Prophecy
James Redfield
James
first sold the book out of his basement. Then he
sold reprint rights to Warner for $800,000, says
John Kremer. This New-Age thriller book became
Number One on the best-seller list and paved the
way for a successful sequel.
Source:
Bonnie Bucqueroux, bucquero@pilot.msu.edu
You
Can Heal Your Life
Louise Hay
Louise
self-published this book, then sold the rights,
but went on to establish her own company, Hay
House, which has published all her other books
and which John Kremer lists as one of the top 101
independent publishers, it's that successful.
Source:
John Kremer
The
Handbook of Higher Consciousness
Key Keyes, Jr.
New-age
self-help book. He self-published all his other
books, too, and has sold hundreds of thousands of
copies.
Source:
John Kremer
50
Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
John Javna
Hit
the environmental awareness movement just right
and sold more than four million copies.
Source:
John Kremer
Leadership
Secrets of Attila the Hun
Wess Roberts
Self-published,
and after four printings and an endorsement from
H.Ross Perot, approached New York Publishers
again. Warner Books ran with it, and it became a
bestseller.
Source:
John Kremer
The
Elements of Style
William Strunk, Jr.
Strunk
self-published this guide for his classes at
Cornell University. Especially in its later
revision by E.B. White, it sells thouands of
copies each year. Writers still depend on this
thin but excellent little instruction book that
enjoins them to write simply and clearly.
Source:
John Kremer and me.
Envisioning
Information
Edward Tufte
Took
out a second mortage to publish it because he
wanted to retain complete control of the design
and quality of the editions. He wasn't convinced
that his usual academic publisher would do
justice to the work.
"Wonderful"
book on the design of information, declare Liz
Horton and Michael Morin,
ba202@freenet.buffalo.edu. Tufte sold more than a
million dollars worth of a group of related
titles and invested much of it in two subsequent
titles, still published by his own company. These
books are "remarkably well made," says
Alan P. Hayes, shgraphics@berkshire.net, with
contributions by Liz Horton and Michael Morin,
ba202@freenet.buffalo.edu.
The
Read Aloud Handbook
Jim Trelease
Self-published,
with orders fulfilled from the author's garage,
until brought to the attention of Viking/Penguin
by Bee Cullinan, a professor of children's
literature at New York University. Ann Landers
championed it, too.
For
parents, teachers, and children, including a
treasury of books that are nice to read aloud.
Source:
John Lansingh Bennett, jbennett@lakeland.cc.il.us
and Leslie Cefali, ljcefali@aol.com; review at
www.BarnesandNoble.com.
Your
Erroneous Zones
Wayne Dyer
He
published this himself, at first, on a
cross-country tour of local radio stations and
hawking it out of the trunk of his car.
With
a title taking off on "Your Erogenous
Zones," Dyer exploited the self-help market.
Source:
Bonnie Bucqueroux.
Others
who contributed information about successful
self-published books include Jett Vercruse,
jett_vercruse@goldminesw.com and
www.goldminesw.com; Rod Carveth,
carveth@mail.hartford.edu; Michele Janine
Johnson, mdjcpa@usit.net and
www.petalsoflife.com; Mark Shenefelt,
mshenefelt@standard.net; Christine Reusch,
reusch@Frh.edu; Charles Stough,
copyboy@dmapub.dma.org; John Lansingh Bennett,
jbennett@lakeland.cc.il.us; Elizabeth Penrose,
Julian9EHP@aol.com; Don Porter,
dporter@sbtinfo.com; Paul T. Jackson,
tresres@gte.net;
.
|
