Wool Again (this time in print)

Those of you who read these posts religiously, precious few I'm sure, will remember that I enjoyed Wool.  You will also know that I'm a huge fan of the WSJ and post articles I find intriguing from it often. Today those two passions have combined into this post where I post a link to this article.

The article, Sci-Fi's Underground Hit by Alexandra Alter is well worth a read for anyone who is considering self- or e-publishing. Wool will soon be coming out in paperback, but unlike every previous publishing deal, the publisher will not have e-book rights. Hugh Howey kept those suckers for himself. It's the first major deal of it's kind.

In a highly unusual deal, Simon & Schuster acquired print publication rights to "Wool" while allowing Mr. Howey to keep the e-book rights himself. Mr. Howey self-published "Wool" as a serial novel in 2011, and took a rare stand by refusing to sell the digital rights. Last year, he turned down multiple seven-figure offers from publishers before reaching a mid-six-figure, print-only deal with Simon & Schuster.

"I had made seven figures on my own, so it was easy to walk away," says Mr. Howey, 37, a college dropout who worked as a yacht captain, a roofer and a bookseller before he started self-publishing. "I thought, 'How are you guys going to sell six times what I'm selling now?' "

It's a sign of how far the balance of power has shifted toward authors in the new digital publishing landscape. Self-published titles made up 25% of the top-selling books on Amazon last year. Four independent authors have sold more than a million Kindle copies of their books, and 23 have sold more than 250,000, according to Amazon.

It's a long article with a lot of great content and an expose on Mr. Howey and his "over night" success. If nothing else the article and Hugh Howey's story shows that there is still a market for short story success. He built it all off publishing one little short story that he came up with while watching the news.