Famous Authors who Chose Self Publishing
DIY Published Writers Include John Grisham and Julia Child
Apr 28, 2009
Best selling writers have had this experience: rejection slip #100 has just dropped out of the letter box. Is there no publisher or agent who can see the light and recognise talent and imagination when they stare them in the face? That's the question they might have asked themselves. Not to be defeated, they took the bull by the horns.
These are but a few of the sad contemplations that cross an aspiring writer's mind who has - yet again - been rejected. This is also the crucial moment where a decision must be made; a decision which in fact will separate the boys from the men and the girls from the women.
There are only two alternatives, apart from going the conventional way again and again, of course: to give up or to self publish. If the writer chooses to give up, then the conclusion can only be: he/she is neither a dedicated nor a really talented writer. A true writer mustwrite and has the ardent desire to see his/her work in print whatever it takes.
So, the rejected writer needs only to take a look at those famous "colleagues" who suffered the same heartache and then decided to take matters into their own hands by choosing the road of self publishing. Anyone who takes that decision should find comfort in the fact that he/she is definitely in good company.
A Writer Who Did Not Self-Publish
John Grisham needs to be mentioned here, because some lists of famous self publishing authors include him. However, in an interview to be found here, he sets the record straight. His first book A Time To Kill, did indeed get rejected time and time again, but finally, a small NY publishing house, Wynwood Press, bought the manuscript and printed 5000 copies which did not sell. Although, not a self publishing writer, John Grisham can serve as a comforting example.
Famous Self Publishing Classic
Apparently, Mark Twain was unhappy with his publisher, who didn't want "Huckleberry Finn" anyway. Astutely, he chose a strange way of getting his book published and marketing it at the same time: he hired door to door salesmen who sold subscriptions to the - as yet - unpublished book before printing it himself.
Edgar Allen Poe, T.S. Elliot, James Joyce and Marcel Proust are just a few more famous names, who chose the road of self publishing which ultimately lead to their recognition.
Irma Rombauer's "The Joy of Cooking"
This modern day classic, although not a novel, is an example how rejected non fiction books can also make their authors famous after they have chosen the DIY route. In 1931, Mrs. Rombauer took the plunge and published a collection of her delicious recipes, which since then have delighted millions of readers and consumers.
The conclusion for the aspiring and ambitious writer therefore is not to wait any longer for any more rejection slips. Getting on the internet, looking for self publishing houses of which there are many, reading up carefully on each and every one, sacrifice, if at all posible the money it will cost, taking the initiative and - above all - never losing faith in one' s own abilities and talent is the way to go.
