GalleyCat Announces "Kindle-rella" Story (Which Also Happens to be Some More Personal News!)

I just found out that GalleyCat announced some personal news of mine this past Wednesday, though no one would know it from the article:

Publishing's "Kindle-rella" story had a happy ending, as one indie author went from indie "bestseller" in the Kindle store to scoring a book deal with Simon & Schuster's new Gallery Books imprint.

In January, we reported how indie publisher Bell Bridge Books offered a free copy of "Murder Takes The Cake" as a temporary promotion in the Kindle Store. The free book by Gayle Trent (pictured) jumped to third place on the Kindle "bestseller" list and she attracted the attention of Robert Gottlieb from Trident Media Group. Currently selling for $8.00, her book is now ranked #590 in the Kindle Store.

Trent's editor from Bell Bridge Books, Deborah Smith, emailed us with a quick follow-up report, calling Trent a "Kindle-rella" story: "Gottlieb has sold the next book in Trent's mystery series, Killer Sweet Tooth to Lauren McKenna ... The publisher is also picking up subrights from us on one of Gayle's previous titles in the series." Smith also noted that the company will try again with the temporary free Kindle edition promotion in March. (Deal info via Publishers Marketplace)

See the article on GalleyCat HERE

Unfortunately, the PW announcement wasn't run by me this time before it was published, so 'm not listed here as the editor. But it's official--I am. I've already spoken to Gayle and she's fantastic. We, of course, bonded over cake. Yay!

But not only is this exciting for me personally--another great, fun series to edit and cake-related--but it's an interesting development in the e-book/print saga.

More and more self-published or small press e-books are climbing the lists, and as a result, are catching the attention of traditional publishers and getting book deals. Clearly, e-book-only authors are still looking to find a top publisher to get their printed books out in the marketplace, showing that e-books are not taking over, as the prestige and merit of being published in print is still plenty significant.

Thank goodness.