There is nothing I like better than a good indie publishing story. To get this, you have to understand a little about me. I've always loved the publishing industry. From the moment I articulated to my family that I wanted to become a writer, I became obsessed with learning the business. I wanted to know everything I could about publishing so that I could make writing a full-time career. A starving artist future was not in my modest but comfy set standard of living. I wanted to get paid to do what I love.Ten years later, I stumbled upon self-publishing and haven't looked back. A fleeting conversation with Courtney Milan followed by the best most informative workshop on how to get started with indie publishing completely changed my whole life. So yes, I am a big fan of anyone you can make it and the indie publishing business. Whether you've been traditionally published in the past, or you are starting from scratch with no writing credits to your name.
Enter Barbara Freethy.
If you don't read romance and don't know who Barbara Freethy is, you will. I will give you a recap.
- She was the first indie author to sell 1 million in the books on Amazon.
- She was recently named the biggest Kindle Direct Publishing seller ever.
- She was the first indie author to break 1 million in e-book sales at Barnes & Noble.
- She has a whopping 19 novels that hit the New York Times bestseller list.
This week we learned that Barbara made a groundbreaking deal with Ingram Publisher Services. Who is Ingram? Only one of the largest book distributors in the world. This means that Barbara's books will now be sold in millions of large retail stores across the globe. This deal is a huge step forward for indie publishing. Up until now, you had to sell your print rights to a traditional or legacy publisher to get this kind of distribution in retail outlets. The word on the street is that some publishers are still reluctant to do print only rights. They want the digital rights to. That's where the money is. But seriously, if you sold nearly 5,000,000 copies of your books online, would you give up those rights? Not likely.
So Kudos to Barbara for changing the game. She cut out the middleman and went straight to the source. This may not mean that everyone will have the option to go directly to Ingram (or that it would even make financial sense for us to do so) but it does mean that we have more options on the table. That is always a good thing.
So the next time one of your well-intentioned friends or family members tells you that self-publishing is a waste of time, remember this moment. You can be like Barbra and get paid to do what you love, or you can wait to be rescued by a traditional publisher and simply be satisfied with what they offer.
If you want to learn more about this deal, check out this great article: HERE
Or learn more about Barbara at www.barbarafreethy.com
