Texas Woman Self-Publishes, Hits Best-Seller Lists
Image Credit: Huffington Post
After a feverish month of inspiration, Colleen Hoover had finally fulfilled her dream of writing a book.
“I had no intentions of ever getting the book published. I was just writing it for fun,” said Hoover, who uploaded “Slammed” a year ago in January.
Soon after self-publishing, people she didn’t know were downloading the book – even after it was only available for a fee. Readers began posting reviews and buzz built on blogs. Missing her characters, she self-published the sequel, “Point of Retreat,” a month later. By June, both books hit Amazon’s Kindle top 100 best-seller list. By July, both were on The New York Times best-seller list for e-books. Soon after, they were picked up by Atria Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint. By fall, she had sold the movie rights.
When Hoover finished her third book, “Hopeless,” in December, she initially turned down an offer from Atria and decided to digitally self-publish again. By January, that book too was a New York Times best-seller and she signed that month with Atria to publish the print version, but kept control of the electronic version. The paperback is set to come out in May.
In February, Atria bought the digital and paperback rights to two upcoming books from Hoover: “This Girl,” the third installment in the “Slammed” series, set for release digitally later this month, and “Losing Hope,” a companion novel to “Hopeless” to be published digitally in July. Just last week, Hoover announced on her blog a new deal with Atria for two books to be released next year.
Johanna Castillo, vice president and senior editor at Atria, said she learned about Hoover while perusing book blogs. Checking out Hoover’s blog that details not only her burgeoning writing career but also her day-to-day life, Castillo became enchanted. Around the same time, Hoover’s agent, Jane Dystel, sent Hoover’s books to Castillo.
“I read them and I liked them and we moved forward very quickly,” said Castillo, who adds, “The voice that she has to connect with readers is very special.”
“Seven months ago, we were struggling to make ends meet,” she writes in the blog post. “Now, things are finally coming together and it’s all because of you guys. Every single person that spent a few bucks to buy a book that I wrote deserves a big THANK YOU from my whole family.”
Even after being able to quit her job and signing with Atria, Hoover said it wasn’t until a book signing she organized with other indie authors at a Chicago hotel in the fall that her popularity began to sink in.
“I remember coming down the stairs and there was this huge line with hundreds of people and someone goes, `There’s Colleen Hoover,’ and they all start freaking out,” she said. “That was I think the first moment that it hit me that this was way bigger than I thought.”
Source: Huffington Post
