Four Successful Authors' Views on Self-Publication

compiled by Dee Scully

This week on the Breathless blog we are fortunate enough to have four self-published authors talking with us about their adventures on the journey to publication, how they got there, and their thoughts on the whole process.


First up we have Paranormal Romance, Fantasy, and Young Adult author, Maree Anderson. Her Freaks of Greenfield High series has been optioned for a television series and her Liminal series was selected for inclusion in the iBooks Store Best Books category!

Maree Anderson

I was first published with a small press and, long story short, when my amazing editor left the company I paused to take stock of my writing career. After much soul-searching (and a heap of research!), I dived right in and indie-published my version of a “backlist”—a bunch of unpublished manuscripts in a variety of genres that I figured might not totally suck because they’d either won, placed or finalled in various contests. I didn’t have high expectations so imagine my delight when I started getting actual fan mail from readers!

Would I suggest self-publishing for others? Hell, yes! Some authors believe a traditional publishing contract “validates” them—i.e. confirms they’re “good enough”—but I’ve finally realized that for me, it’s kinda been the opposite. My second self-published book was a YA that’d been rejected because I didn’t have a “YA voice”. I put it up on Wattpad to get some feedback from my target market and was stunned when it was “discovered” there and optioned for TV. To date that book has over 2.2 million reads on Wattpad and thousands of comments from both teens and adults—male and female. Self-publishing also brought me to the attention of Apple iBooks, who gave one of my paranormal romances a huge amount of exposure, while another YA book was selected as an iBooks Best Book of the Month. Bottom line? My foray into self-publishing has given me the courage to continue writing what I love, and thrown a heap of amazing opportunities my way. Plus, having control of each part of the publishing process means I can quickly jump on these opportunities. I love having options and choices (turns out I’m ever-so-slightly a control-freak—who knew?), so for me Indie Publishing = Epic Win!

Historical Fiction and Fantasy author, Michelle Diener has worked on both sides of the publishing spectrum, having previously worked as a publisher and now as an independent author. Michelle is a master world-builder and pulls readers into her fictional worlds whether historical, as in A Dangerous Madness, or futuristic sci-fi like her upcoming Dark Horse (to be released June 15, 2015).

Michelle Diener

Thank you to Dee for inviting me to participate.

I am traditionally published with Simon & Schuster's Gallery Books imprint. However, I had a book, 'Daughter of the Sky', which my agent had sent out to a number of other publishers, and while most had come back with the feedback that it was a great book, none of them wanted to publish it because they thought the setting was too unusual and the period not popular enough with readers. (It is a Victorian-set historical, centred around the start of the Anglo-Zulu War in Zululand.) As a result, when it seemed all other avenues had been exhausted, I decided to self-publish. I wasn't expecting to prove the publishers wrong, in fact I accepted what they said was probably true, but I didn't need to worry about numbers very much if I self-published it, and I believed in the book. I had done an incredible amount of research for it, personally lived in the area where the battles took place, and felt very strongly about the novel seeing the light of day. Self-publishing allowed me to accomplish that.

It was a steep learning curve, but because a number of my friends in the US, in particular one of my critique partners, had already taken the self-publishing plunge almost a year before I did, I had a very good idea of the work involved. I looked on my first self-publishing project as my trial by fire. I wasn't in a rush. I did as much as possible myself in order to learn how things worked, even if I decided it would be better to contract out some of the tasks if I did it again. I also went in with a very clear idea of my limitations. I am not a graphic designer, and never intended to design my own cover. I had three things going for me. I had previously worked as a publisher for an academic publishing house, so I knew how things worked at the back end of publishing and the steps I would need to take. I was already published as a historical author with a large New York publishing house and had had to do the promo and marketing work on my other books. And I had a number of friends who were happy to help me when I had a question. I broke even on 'Daughter of the Sky' within six weeks of publishing it, and while it is by far the slowest seller of my self-published books (those publishers were right :)) I have never regretted self-publishing it and getting it out into the world. While it doesn't sell as many copies as my other books, it gets consistently wonderful reviews from those who do read it. :)
The enjoyment I get from self-publishing is immense. The control, the involvement in every aspect of the process (which makes it an artisan endeavour in my opinion), and the satisfaction when the project is complete, has made self-publishing a real factor to consider in my overall career arc. I would highly recommend it, with the caveat that you understand you are competing against major publishers with your work, and it needs to be professional, and the very, very best it can be.

Cathleen Ross has been around the world and back in her self-publication journey. After a trip to the USA, she joined together her love of writing with her knowledge of technology and started self-publishing. Probably best known for her self-published historical Highlander romance series, Cathleen has recently embarked on a more contemporary leg of her writing journey with Nella, a title in the Secret Confessions: Sydney Housewives series published by Escape.

Cathleen Ross

I went to the RWAmerica conference in 2011 and noticed there was a lot of excitement around self-publishing. I had several backlist short stories and a love of new technology so I put a whole day aside to read through the hundred-odd pages of rules of the Smashword’s 'How To' Guide. Bear in mind that I’d already read 'The Brain that Changes Itself', which proposes the theory that if we do totally new things we will have neural growth and stave off dementia. This was my 'something new'.

I uploaded my backlist short stories and they sold immediately. I have a passion for 14th century Scotland and wanted to write a blend of romance with accurate history, so I went to Scotland last July with Alison Weir to follow the trail of Mary, Queen of Scots. My first Highlander story sold immediately, too. Next I wrote a Highlander novella and a book, uploaded it as a boxed set and it also sold immediately. It still does, especially as I made the first story free. People seem to enjoy the history, medieval Scottish knights and romance combination.

Then my life’s mission hit me, well one of them. I realised that I only used 5 short steps to upload to Smashwords and, being a trainer of some thirty years' experience, I could teach others to do so. I put 39 people through the OWL’s course and it’s so exciting to see them spread their wings and self-publish. I’m teaching the process of self-publishing through the Mosman Community College and recently, together with Kandy Shepherd, did the same for WriteFest.
Although I love writing for Harlequin, there are projects I want to do that may not suit my publisher and these I self-publish. I’ve found I’m making more money from self-publishing than I’ve ever made from publishers and I get paid every month. It’s incredibly freeing being in charge of my writing destiny.
I will come to writing groups and teach them how to self-publish as I’m determined to spread the word across Australia. S.E. Gilchrist organised for me to speak to the Hunter Group last year and they are now doing some really cool self-publishing.
My mission - to free authors - is spreading.

I first met Jenny Schwartz while coordinating RWA's 2013 The Claytons Conference when she had only just started on her self-publication journey. She's busted out of the beginner category since then with over 20 titles to her name. Jenny's not only self-published with titles such as Kiss Me, Quick, but also traditionally published with both Carina Press and Harlequin's Escape.

Jenny Schwartz

It was during the 2013 Romance Writers of Australia conference that the realisation slowly dawned on me that all the cool kids were experimenting with self-publishing. I’m not cool, so I filed that realisation under “later” and got on with life and writing. However, I started to follow people’s discussions regarding their experience of self-publishing and, a year and a bit later, I decided to experiment. I naturally write short, which can be difficult to sell to traditional publishers. However, Amazon’s lending library was at the time geared to favour shorter works. So I decided to accept Amazon’s exclusivity clause in exchange for getting my stories into its lending library, Kindle Unlimited. Sales trickled in, but what really changed for me was getting my hand on sales data – what was selling, where and when. That meant I could focus and improve my promotional activities.

The sales data that becomes available to you as a self-publisher is why I’d recommend people try self-publishing. But there are other advantages – you control deadlines, covers, blurbs, metadata, price points, everything! Of course, that means you have to organise and pay for all of this (downside) and take sole blame for failures (huge downside). With self-publishing, there’s nowhere to hide. It’s all you. Self-publishing is daunting and it’s no guarantee of success (in fact, with the avalanche of new books out there, discoverability is a major issue). However, if you’re willing to put in a ton of time and energy, self-publishing can be a master class in getting your books to readers. Just remember, learning is hard work, and sometimes the lessons hurt!


There you have it! Four self-published authors with varying journeys to self-publication, proving there is no one way to THE END!

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I love to love...my friends; they are beautiful in every way.


I love to laugh...at my dog; she knows just how to make me smile.

I love to learn...from self-published authors; they've learned heaps and aren't afraid to share their knowledge.