A 26-year-old self-published author has gained a $2 million book deal with St Martin's Press. Amanda Hocking, who writes young-adult paranormal novels, has sold a four-book series to the publisher called the 'Watersong' series. According to the NY Times, St Martin's finally gained rights to the novels after a week-long auction which involved major publishers, including Random House, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster.
In an interview, Amanda said: "I've done as much with self-publishing as any person can do. People have had bad things to say about publishers, but I think they still have services, and I want to see what they are. And if they end up not being any good, I don't have to keep using them. But I do think they have something to offer."
Amanda said that she wanted to publish the traditional way due to getting comments from readers, frustrated that her books were not available in stores, and also having to set out her books, design the covers and hire editors. She stated: "I want to be a writer. I do not want to spend 40 hours a week handling e-mails, formatting covers, finding editors etc. Right now, being me is a full-time corporation."
You can read the full article here, or check out Amanda Hocking's blog.
