Hocking Likely to Get Traditional Publishing Power

It's interesting to me that for all the support and success Amanda Hocking has given to the self-publishing world, news has now hit that she's shopping around her four-book series to a traditional publisher. With major publishers bidding over $1 million for World English rights, it's quite the turn of events.

The New York Times tells us more:

Amanda Hocking, the darling of the self-publishing world, has been shopping a four-book series to major publishers, attracting bids of well over $1 million for world English rights, two publishing executives said.

Ms. Hocking, a 26-year-old Minnesota native who writes young-adult paranormal and dystopian novels, began self-publishing her books last year. Since then, she has sold more than 900,000 copies of nine books, mostly in electronic form, she wrote on her blog.

On Amazon.com, her e-books sell for $2.99 or $.99, well below the price of a typical newly released book from a major publisher. It is a lucrative model for the author: for a book priced at $2.99, Ms. Hocking keeps 70 percent of the revenue, and 30 percent goes to the online retailer.

She is represented by the literary agent Steven Axelrod, who declined to comment. The auction could be completed by the end of Monday or Tuesday, one person close to the bidding said.

Ms. Hocking has been held up as an example of an author who has shrewdly circumvented the established publishing industry, selling her novels through retailers like Amazon.com and BN.com and promoting them on her Facebook page and Twitter feed. Her books have landed on the USA Today best-seller list.

But she has dismissed suggestions that her success is easily replicated.

“Self-publishing and traditional publishing really aren’t that different,” she wrote in a widely circulated blog post early this month. “One is easier to get into but harder to maintain. But neither come with guarantees. Some books will sell, some won’t.”

Read the original article HERE