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Indie author Hugh Howey is no stranger to the evolution of publishing. With his bestselling sci-fi series, he proved that self-publishing is a viable way to make a living as an author and that it can even lead to film partnerships with 20th Century Fox and print deals with Simon & Schuster.

Howey shared his book publishing predictions for 2015 with GalleyCat, revealing that he thinks that 2015 will be a quiet year compared to 2014.

“I predict eBook penetration will continue to grow,” said Howey. “Publishers seem to have embraced what digital does for their bottom line.”

The indie author thinks that the fate of Barnes & Noble will shake out this year and at the same time he expects that Apple and Google will win market share from Amazon.

“I’d like to think 2015 will be the year that major publishers budge on their digital royalty rates, but I’m not holding my breath,” he concluded.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Author Hugh Howey has partnered with digital writing community Wattpad and eBook soundtrack company Booktrack have introduced a new writing and audio production contest with $20,000 in prizes available. The Hugh Howey Booktrack & Wattpad Fan Fiction Contest is two-part. Writers are encouraged to write a fan fiction story based around Howey's novel Half Way Home. Sound designers are encouraged to create a soundtrack for the book. The soundtrack winner will get a $5,000 prize, as well as the chance to co-produce a soundtrack for Howey’s latest novel The Hurricane. The winning writer will earn a $5,000 prize, as well as editorial feedback from Howey on the piece. Finalists will earn $1,000 prizes. "Storytelling can be so much more than mere words. I love what Booktrack makes possible. Now, a soundscape can heighten our reading experience," stated Howey. "And this competition is perfect for bringing fans into a creative collaboration. I can’t wait to see what immersive and inspired experience they help create."

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The graphic novel adaptation of Hugh Howey’s WOOL is now available in a serialized digital format via comiXology and Amazon.com. The adaptation, by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Jimmy Broxton, will be serialized in six parts for digital platforms. It’s one of the first offerings from Jet City, Amazon’s own in-house graphic novel arm. As a fan of the team, I have to say it looks good.
 

Single issues in the six-issue run will release every two weeks and sell for $2.99 on comiXology. The entire comics run will also sell for $4.99 as a Kindle Serial on Amazon.com, with new issues delivering automatically to customers on the same release dates, and as a $4.99 bundle on comiXology once all six issues are released. The print edition of the collected graphic novel will be available on Amazon.com and at other retailers in late August. 
 
Howey’s dark, dystopian novel Wool (the first novel in the Silo Saga trilogy) was a New York Times, USA Today, and #1 Kindle best seller and is one of the most-reviewed science fiction novels ever on Amazon, with over 8,000 customer reviews. 

Hugh Howey hooks you once again in another brilliantly imagined world. This time in a world of sand.

Sand covers everything. It has buried cities, it has buried people and it has buried secrets. People carve out an existence literally by hand. Everything is scarce, especially hope. One of the booming trades though is diving. Using specially designed suits ‘divers’ are able to dive beneath the sand dunes, recovering valuable artifacts from a buried world hundreds of metres below the ground.

Diving is a precious skill, one four siblings have been passed down from their father. However when he walked out on their family 12 years ago everything they had built and worked for was lost and their family broke apart as they tried to survive and find their place in this harsh and desolate world.

Rumours exist of a lost city full of treasures deeper than anyone has ever dived before. Vic, the eldest sibling and best diver doesn’t believe the rumours but her brother Palmer does and he has a lot to try and prove. Finding the lost city could be the way to put his family back together but there are many dangers buried above and below the sand.

Howey proved with the Wool Trilogy that he is a master of world building and all the different stories you can find inside. He does it again with the sand and dunes giving his imagination even more space to grow. The sand diving aspect is fantastic adding another dimension to the tradition of desert ‘seafaring’. Howey wraps the story up nicely with just a hint that their might be more of this world to explore in the future.

Buy the book here…

I was at the London Book Fair this week and I have to tell you that it was a life changing experience. I was there last year and it give me an insight into how the industry works. However, if I could describe my experience in word, it would be INSPIRED. A major part of this was due to the Self-publishing superstars who attended and not only gave their time by answering questions at various seminars and workshops but were also available at their stand to give away and sign free books, take pictures and answer more questions. There was a camaraderie amongst these authors, who all make quite juicy sums from their self-publishing business that I think we all need to emulate.

These Indy self-publishers included Stephanie Bond, Bella Andre, Lilliana Hart, Jacinda Wilder, Barbara Freethy and Hugh Howey. I actually had a photo opp with Hugh with our arms across each other like best buddies and then gues what? My phone‘s battery died. Anyways, Hugh was so gracious to sign my journal and I’m hopeful I’ll get that picture with him at some point in the future.

I attended most of the seminars and workshops with C.K. Omillin who is a fellow author from Belgium in my Facebook Group and it was a delight to share the experience with a friend. Ok, I hope you have your favourite beverage in hand and are all cozied up as I’m about to share the best bits from the London Book Fair 2014.

Book Discovery for Authors

On the panel for this seminar was Mark Coker who is the founder of Smashwords, Joanna Penn who is a UK author and international speaker and Andrew Rhomberg, the founder of Jellybooks.

Mark said something quite profound in that every book we write ought to take the reader to an emotionally satisfying extreme.

We were encouraged to connect with fellow authors as you never know which of your author friends could become a global mega star tomorrow. Joanna said something she does in all her books is to ask for people to join her mailing list at the end. If what you’ve written is good, the reader will be more willing to give you their name and email. Doing your keyword research is strongly related to book discovery. Joanna gave the example of how when she changed the title of a book on finding a new job to ‘Career Change,’ it started flying off the shelves.

Also have your social profile links at the end of your book so readers can connect with you. Andrew warned against always pitching your book on Twitter as it made you sound like a used car salesman. I have to admit that I see this a lot on Twitter and it is indeed a turn off.

Mark brought our attention to the pre-order feature which I see some authors using on Amazon. The beauty about the pre-order feature is that all the sales you make prior to the day your book is published are credited on that first day it’s published and that’s how and why some folks get into the New York times best seller list.

Everything you do is marketing. Marketing is sharing what you love with people who are interested. What this means is that people who follow you on Facebook or Twitter like you and are interested in what you’re up to, so sharing a bit about your life draws them closer into your brand and makes them more open to buy your stuff.

One thing I heard over and over again at the various seminars I attended by different authors and speakers is that we need to have one of our books FREE. This perma-free book serves to remove the barrier of entry, and allow people to try out your writing and then if they like it, they are more likely to buy your other paid books. I have to admit that I tried this half-heatedly and priced the first book in my Billy and Monster series at 99c and did get a few sales on different platforms. I was a bit discouraged by the amount of sales and took it off the other platforms and put it back on the Amazon KDP select program. Once my 3 month Select period is over, I’m taking it off and having it free on Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Amazon and any other distribution platform out there. I think this whole free business was one of the big takeaways from LBF for me.

I believe it was Joanna who advised us to join the alliance of Indy authors where you can discover what’s new and exchange ideas with fellow authors. We need to grow our email lists to facilitate book discoverability. Once you earn their trust, you can then ask for their email. Mark said there are 2 things you get from a sale and that is royalties and a reader. However, a reader has the potential to become a fan and a fan has the potential to become a super fan.

Some interesting news which was shared and I verified at the Amazon Kindle stand is that UK resident authors can now convert their books to audio using acx.com. This an Amazon service that allows you to convert your books into audio. I called this company sometime last year and they said that there were plans to cater to the UK market but it wasn’t ready. Well, it’s now ready and I’ll be converting some of my non-fiction titles using this service. The whole idea to have your book on different platforms and formats is to aid your book being discovered.

Series Fiction

In the afternoon on Tuesday I attended a seminar titled ‘The Power of Series Fiction‘ This seminar was chaired by John Dougherty who is a children’s book writer and the panellists were Annie Finnis (Deputy Fiction Director at Usborne) and Chris Snowden (the managing director at working partners). This seminar was catered more to children’s book authors but I believe authors from other genres can apply some of the wisdom shared.

A standalone story is a contained story with an obvious end while a series fiction is seen from the outset as continuous. You create a world you hope your readers will want to belong to. Your readers want to be part of that world. You need to publish books in your series in quick successions. It is good to have a self-contained story within a series. Your books (in the series) have to be fun and enjoyable. Read other books that are in a series in your local bookshop or library to see what’s working.

Who are your readers? If your core reader is 10, then make your protagonist 12. Publishers sometimes move in herds and want to replicate the last series that was successful. Sometimes (I’m really tempted to say most times), the next big hit does not come from copying yesterday’s hit but something that’s new or an innovation of the old. It’s good to bear in mind that publishers go for a series for a younger age group as it encourages them to read.

Q&A with authors who have sold more than 15 million books!

I think the beauty of coming to the London Book Fair or any industry gathering for that matter is that you get to see live and in the flesh some of your heroes who you may have heard about, read about or seen on the television.

The Q&A session on Tuesday afternoon in the Authors HQ was with Bella Andre (who has sold more than 3 million books), Lilliana Hart (who has hit the New York bestselling charts on multiple occasions), Jacinda Wilder (who makes like 6 figures every month) and Candice Hern (who has sold close to a million books).

What linked these authors together was the fact that they are Indy publishers. It was refreshing and inspiring to listen to their stories and how they’ve all gotten to where they are. Bella said how her best advance while she was with a traditional publisher was $33000. Today she makes 7 figures a year. Jacinda (who writes with her husband and has 5 children) talked about how their big breakthrough came when they published book number 28! Lilianna talked about how she started from ground zero and is today one of the most celebrated Indy authors on the planet. Candice talked about how she has stayed in her lane writing historical romance and today dominates that category on Amazon.

Someone asked about a breakdown of their income across the different retail channels and I would say the average breakdown from the four ladies was about 35-40% on Amazon and then Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords and then other platforms. It was really encouraging to know that authors who are not on the Amazon KDP program are still making a mint. I have to say here that you really have to find what works for you. I met Stephanie Bond who is also another superstar Indy author with 6 million books in circulation and she said how she’s kept most of her books on the Amazon KDP program as her monthly figures reveal the income she gets from borrows is equal to and sometimes exceeds paid purchases.

Yet again in this Q&A session, we were encouraged to give our books away for FREE. Consider what happens at a supermarket. You’re usually given a free sample to taste and invariably it leads the taster, if they like the stuff to become a buyer. Make the first book in your series free. Every time you publish a new book, you sell more books.

Bella stressed on how your cover art was a major part of your marketing and great attention and care and investment should be put into making this right. Know the keywords in your genre as that is what people use to find books. Include these keywords in your blurb and author profile.

Another major point that was mooted in the Q&A was to translate our books into foreign languages. Many foreign markets are starving for books in your genre, so you could very well be taking over those markets if you have your books translated.

The most important thing to remember is the Book. Everything is secondary’s to writing. By the way, guess who was running the mic for this session?… Hugh Howey! He ended the session by advising us to commit to writing 1-2 hours every day. Don’t miss a day.

After the Q&A session, I went to the Indy author booth and had a very good chat with Stephanie Bond. She writes Mystery thrillers and Romance. She shared with me how she gets the inspiration for her books, things you can do for research like speaking to the PR person at the local police station, watching certain TV programs for ideas on what to do and what not to do. I’ve always admired mystery writers but felt an absence of a law/criminal enforcement background would be a hindrance to writing a mystery. Stephanie assured me that that shouldn’t be a hindrance and that it all starts with a story. If you ever see a mystery thriller book with my named penned as the author, you know who sowed the seeds.

So that was it for Day One. I was truly inspired and couldn’t wait for Day 2. I’d be interested to know your thoughts or questions on my first day at the London Book Fair.

Click to read Day 2 ====> My London Book Fair 2014 Experience Day 2

Review – Dust by Hugh Howey

Hugh Howey wraps up his trilogy that began with Wool and Shift. Wool showed us a world beyond imagining, a world where everything was underground and the truth was hidden from everybody. Shift showed us how this world came into being and began to expose the truth. In Dust the truth must now be confronted and not everybody is ready to face it.

Unlike the previous two books Dust hasn’t been serialized which does change the pacing of the story. Unlike the previous two books I found Dust a bit slow to get started. This was partly due to the structure and also it had been a whole book since we last saw Juliette. However once things get going it is non-stop.

Juliette has returned to Silo 18 and is determined to get back to Solo and the kids in 17. Only now she is mayor and responsible for the lives of many. Meanwhile Donald is trying to prevent the plans he has exposed. But the truth will also expose Donald and it may already be too late to stop something which has planned for long ago.

What I loved about the the final book was that now that the truth about the silos had been exposed it wasn’t a fait accompli. Discovering the truth is one thing, delivering it is something else altogether. Some people do not want accept the truth, no matter what the consequences. Juliette must come to terms, not only with the truth she discovered, but the consequences learning this truth will have on others around her.

Howey delivers a fitting finale to the Silo trilogy; thought-provoking, action-packed and keeping you guessing all the way to the last page.

Buy the book here…

Author Marko Kloos led in our Science Fiction and Fantasy Self-Published Bestsellers list with Terms of Enlistment.

Our weekly self-published bestsellers list is often dominated by the popular genres of romance and erotica. In an effort to help GalleyCat readers find other kinds of independent authors, we will offer regular genre-focused bestseller lists for other kinds of indie writers.

To keep the list fresh, we’ve highlighted three top books from four different marketplaces. If you are an author, check out our new online course–finish your book with the help of bestselling independent authors.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A few weeks back I posted an article about Hugh Howey’s dystopian novel WOOL, because it was such an inspirational success story. Since I own a Kindle Fire and the first part of the book was free, it was a no brainer to slip over and get it. After reading part one, I wanted to read the rest. For those who have read about the journey of WOOL and how Hugh started by publishing part one of WOOL  as an ebook, you may want to run off and do the same with your book.  I want you to know his writing is the reason for his success. If you decide to read the first part for free, I think you will see that we put up a polished story. Something we all should strive to achieve.

UNDER THE NEVER SKY:

After getting my Kindle, of course, I wanted to buy some ebooks to read.  Since I was enjoying all the YA dystopian novel series, I was looking for some new ones to read.  I looked at all the ebooks listed for $2.99 or lower and bought Under the Never Sky.  A few weeks later, I was on facebook and Carol Ferderlin Baldwin said she had just read Veronica Rossi’s Under the Never Sky and loved it, so I started reading, while reading the hardcover of Requiem. I never tried that before, but both books kept me reading and wanting to turn the page. Then I found myself away with only my Kindle and I tore through the second half of Veronica’s book. I have to agree with Carol Baldwin – I loved it! I tell you putting up her book on Kindle for $2.99 really  is a good marketing strategy, because there wasn’t any question about paying $10.00 plus tax for the second book, UNDER THE EVER SKY, which I am reading as we speak. Of course, I finished reading Requiem before I started Veronica’s second book. Veronica is represented by the wonderful Adam’s Literary Agency.

And have you noticed the other marketing tool that authors and publishers are using? Most of the authors are writing short stories about various characters in their books. This works really well, because they charge a few dollars for the ebook, so it brings in money and it keeps the excitement going while the author finishes their next book. Plus, if the author probably has the stories of the other characters in their mind in order to write the series, so they can put it out without having to come up with another plot. I see this as a great boom for authors and their fans.

REQUIEM:

Requiem is the third book in Lauren Oliver’s Delirium Series. It came out on March 5th. I highly recommend all three. Sometime the second book can not live up to the first, but I actually think the second was even better. If you like dystopian YA novels, don’t miss this series. When I noticed that Lauren lives in Brooklyn, I immediately suggested the New Jersey SCBWI Conference Committee consider Lauren for the keynote speaker. Lauren agreed and better yet, Stephen Barbara is Lauren’s agent, so we’ll be treated to both at the conference in June. Come join us: www.regonline.com/njscbwi2013conference

What a great book month March was for me.  I have twenty ebooks sitting in the cue on my Kindle and a bunch of hardcovers on my nightstand waiting to be read. I really didn’t think I would enjoy reading books as much on the Kindle, but I was wrong. The funny thing is I read the ebooks much faster, which has surprised me. I am looking forward reading in April:

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Crossed by Ally Condie
See you at Harry’s by Jo Knowles

The little character study “Hold you over” ebooks for Marie Lu’s Legend Series and Veronica Roth’s Divergent Series that are sitting in my Kindle to keep me going until their next books.

What are you planning to read this month? What are some of the recent books you  loved?

KUDOS:

At Little, Brown Children’s, Pam Gruber has been promoted to associate editor.

At Abrams,  David Blatty has been promoted to director of managing editorial, Dervla Kelly moves up to senior editor, Laura Dozier has been promoted to editor, and Samantha Weiner moves up to assistant editor.

Regional publisher Tilsbury House in Maine, which has a successful line of children’s books, was sold to Jonathan Eaton and Tristram Coburn, founders of Cadent Publishing. They plan to grow the company’s lines.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Author Elliott Kay topped two digital bookstores in our Science Fiction Self-Published Bestsellers list with Poor Man’s Fight.

Our weekly self-published bestsellers list is often dominated by the popular genres of romance and erotica. In an effort to help GalleyCat readers find other kinds of independent authors, we will offer regular genre-focused bestseller lists for other kinds of indie writers.

To keep the list fresh, we’ve highlighted three top books from four different marketplaces. If you are an author, check out our new online course–finish your book with the help of bestselling independent authors.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Hugh Howey, the bestselling self-published author of the Wool series, hosted a Ask Me Anything interview on Reddit yesterday.

He answered a series of common reader questions–sharing his “single most valuable tool” for self-promotion.

In terms of self-promotion, what would you say was the single most valuable tool for you? Facebook. Not just for connecting with my most ardent readers, but for giving me the ability to unwind in a productive way. After FB, I would say having my own blog/website. For physical tools, my laptop is the easy answer.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Novelist J. Lynn led our Self-Published Bestsellers List this week, topping charts at Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble.

To help GalleyCat readers discover self-published authors, we compile weekly lists of the top eBooks in four major marketplaces for self-published digital books: Amazon, B&N, Apple iBookstore and Smashwords. You can read all the lists below, complete with links to each book.

If you are an author, check out our new online course–finish your book with the help of bestselling independent authors.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We have been discussing Self-Published books for the last few weeks and we have been talking for months about how the publishing industry is changing, so I thought I should make sure you don’t miss this article written by Wall Street Journal’s Alexandra Alter. It is an excellent article and one you really should read (the whole thing). It is long, but worth the five minutes of time. If for some reason you can’t take the time to read it, click on the above link and at least listen to the interview with Ms. Alter about her article.  But in the article, she talks about how Hugh Howey got his book off the ground.

This just might be the article that keeps you going when things seem bleak. I just ordered Part One  of WOOL on Amazon.  It is free for download to your Kindle.

Simon & Schuster has put down six figures for print rights to a post-apocalyptic thriller called “Wool” that it believes could draw the same readers that made “The Hunger Games” trilogy a success.

Simon & Schuster’s print-only editions of Hugh Howey’s Wool, which brought in over a million dollars as a self-published ebook was published yesterday. Howey’s long holdout for a traditional publishing deal came a reality and allowed him to keep his ebook rights.

Hugh Howey’s postapocalyptic thriller “Wool” has sold more than half a million copies and generated more than 5,260 Amazon reviews. Mr. Howey has raked in more than a million dollars in royalties and sold the film rights to “Alien” producer Ridley Scott. And Simon & Schuster hasn’t even released the book yet.

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.

Publishing houses that once ignored independent authors are now furiously courting them. In the past year, more than 60 independent authors have landed contracts with traditional publishers. Several won seven-figure advances. A handful have negotiated deals that allow them to continue selling e-books on their own, including romance writers Bella Andre and Colleen Hoover, who have each sold more than a million copies of their books.

Print-only deals remain extremely rare. Few publishers want to part with the fastest-growing segment of the industry. E-book sales for adult fiction and nonfiction grew by 36% in the first three quarters of 2012, compared with the previous year. Mass-market paperback sales shrank by 17% in the same period, while hardcover sales declined by 2.4%, according to a recent report from the Association of American Publishers.

When “Wool” hits bookstores next Tuesday, publishing industry insiders will be watching the experiment closely. Simon & Schuster will release a $15 paperback and a $26 hardcover simultaneously, competing directly against Mr. Howey’s digital edition, which costs $5.99.

“We would have preferred to own all the rights, but that wasn’t going to happen,” says Simon & Schuster President and Publisher Jonathan Karp. “It was a very unusual circumstance.”

“Wool” became a viral hit last winter, a few months after Mr. Howey began publishing the five-part series on Amazon. The novel takes place in a postapocalyptic future where a few thousand remaining humans live in a giant, 144-story underground silo. Couples who want to have a child have to enter a lottery; tickets are distributed only when someone dies. Citizens who break the law are sent outside to choke to death on the toxic air. Those who are sent to their deaths are forced to clean the grime off the digital sensors that transmit grainy images of the ruined landscape to a screen inside the silo. The images are meant to remind residents that the world beyond the silo is deadly, but some begin to suspect their leaders are lying to them about what’s outside and how the world came to ruin.

Mr. Howey says he was watching cable news one day when he came up with the idea of a future where people get all of their information from a single, unreliable screen.

“Wool” landed just as the entertainment industry was searching for a high-concept, dystopian hit like Suzanne Collins’s young-adult “Hunger Games” trilogy or Justin Cronin’s postapocalyptic vampire novel “The Passage.” (Mr. Cronin blurbed “Wool,” calling it “an epic feat of imagination.”) The serial format helped build buzz and anticipation among binge readers who were desperate for the next installment, while the 99-cent price tag made each installment an easy impulse buy. “Wool” was the most favorably reviewed book on Amazon in 2012, with an average rating of 4.8 out of five stars. The novel seems to appeal to both men and women, and has attracted hard-core science fiction fans as well as general readers, much like “The Hunger Games.”

Mr. Howey grew up in Monroe, N.C., the son of a farmer and a schoolteacher. As a teenager he devoured popular science fiction books like “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and “Ender’s Game,” and always had a wild imagination. He studied physics and English at the College of Charleston, but dropped out his junior year to sail to the Bahamas. He cycled through a series of odd jobs, working as a yacht captain, a roofer, and a technician for an audio-video company. Four years ago, he decided to give writing a shot. He and his wife were living in a 750-square foot house in Boone, N.C. He was unemployed; his wife, Amber Lyda, was working as a psychologist. He had an idea for a story about a young spaceship pilot who travels across the galaxy in search of her missing father. He sold the novel, “Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue,” to a small Indiana publisher for less than a thousand dollars. Sales were meager.

“When he first published ‘Molly Fyde,’ I’d call his wife and say, ‘How many books has he sold? Should I go to Amazon and buy three more?’” says his mother, Gay Murrill, who owns a yarn shop in Charleston.

Mr. Howey kept trying. He got a 30-hour-a-week job at a university bookstore that paid only $10 an hour but gave him some flexibility. He got up at two or three in the morning to write, and wrote through his lunch hour and after dinner. He designed his own cover art, enlisting his wife and sister to pose in photos. He would often jolt up in bed in the middle of the night to scribble down ideas.

“It was almost a compulsion for him,” says Ms. Lyda. Ms. Lyda said she pleaded with him to leave his pen open on his nightstand, because the clicking noise of his pen kept waking her up.

“Wool” started as a short story that Mr. Howey dashed off in three weeks. He posted it on Amazon for 99 cents in July 2011. Within three months, the story had sold 1,000 copies. Mr. Howey was stunned.

“I told my wife, ‘Baby, we’re going to be able to pay a couple of bills off this short story,’ ” he said.

Readers begged for a sequel, and in November, Mr. Howey released another installment. He sold more than 3,000 copies that month. The next month, he released two more installments and sold nearly 10,000 copies total. In January, he released the final installment, for $2.99, and published all five as a single volume, for $5.99. Collectively, he sold 23,000 copies of all the editions that month. “Wool” shot up Amazon’s science-fiction best-seller list. Mr. Howey quit his job.

Literary agents started courting him. The BBC proposed a television deal based on the series. Most of the agents wanted to auction off print and digital rights to the highest bidder. Mr. Howey wasn’t interested. One agent, Kristin Nelson, said she didn’t think he should sign away digital rights, but that she could help him with foreign rights and film and TV deals. He signed with her in January of last year. They sold the series in 24 foreign countries. Several British publishers bid on the book, and Century won rights for a high-six-figure sum.

Ms. Nelson also sent “Wool” to U.S. publishers, and received a few low six-figure offers. Mr. Howey turned them down. Through Amazon’s self-publishing platform, he was collecting 70% of royalties, which amounted to nearly $40,000 a month. Most publishers offer a digital royalty rate that amounts to 10% to 15% of a book’s retail price.

That spring, Mr. Howey began selling the books on Barnes & Noble‘s BKS -2.57%Nook and Kobo’s e-reader and through Apple’s iTunes store. An agent at United Talent Agency began shopping film rights. Three studios bid on the book. 20th Century Fox and Ridley Scott, director of the blockbuster science-fiction films “Blade Runner” and “Alien,” optioned it. Indie writer and director J Blakeson is writing the screenplay.

After news of the movie deal broke, publishers pounced again. Mr. Howey flew to New York in May to meet with five major publishers. Four of them bid. Mr. Howey, who by then was making $120,000 a month, wasn’t swayed. Some of the publishers wanted to change the book’s title, a proposal that Mr. Howey called “comical,” since it would sabotage his online branding efforts. Others insisted that he immediately take down his digital edition, which would erase all records of the thousands of five-star reviews the book had accumulated, forcing him to start from scratch.

One meeting went better than the others. Mr. Howey sat down with Mr. Karp, the head of Simon & Schuster, who had heard about “Wool” from two of his top editors and from Dave Cullen, author of “Columbine,” a 2009 book profiling the shooters behind the 1999 mass killing. “When I read more about it and saw what a culture phenomenon it had become, I realized it was something we should take seriously,” Mr. Karp says.

Mr. Karp was unusually solicitous, asking Mr. Howey what kind of deal he would accept. Mr. Howey said he wanted a co-publishing deal, where he kept digital rights and Simon & Schuster held hardcover and paperback rights. Mr. Karp was noncommittal, and said he’d be in touch.

Sales soared over the summer. Mr. Howey and his wife moved to Jupiter, Fla. and bought a slightly larger house—900 square feet. Mr. Howey continued to write and self-publish new books, including a zombie novel and prequels to “Wool” that explore how and why the silos were built.

In October, Amazon discounted “Wool” for 24 hours as part of its Kindle Daily Deal, a discount program that highlights select titles. Amazon dropped the price on the “Wool” Omnibus, which has all five stories, from $5.99 to $1.99. Mr. Howey sold 20,000 in a single day. New offers from publishers poured in, some in the low-seven-figure range.

Then Mr. Howey’s agent got an email from Mr. Karp, asking if they would consider a print-only deal. Ms. Nelson says she wrote him back, “Is this for real?” and he wrote back, “Yes.”

Simon & Schuster now has to transform a digital hit into a traditional print blockbuster. The publisher is sending Mr. Howey on an 11-city tour, and has planned a bold six-figure marketing campaign that will capitalize on the film news and online reviews. They are releasing the book simultaneously in hardcover and paperback in an attempt to capture both the library and first-edition collectors market as well as retailers like Target and Wal-Mart WMT +0.85%. Much of the online marketing will fall to Mr. Howey, who has proved himself to be adept at digital self promotion. He’s still selling 50,000 e-books a month.

“A lot of the things we normally teach authors to do, Hugh has been smart enough to do himself,” says Richard Rhorer, who oversees marketing at Simon & Schuster.

Mr. Howey just returned from book tours in Germany, Scotland, Wales and England, where “Wool” recently hit the best-seller lists. He’s starting to feel more like an established author. “Publishing is changing so quickly that we are all equal experts,” he said. “We’re all trying to figure this out.”

Mr. Howey recalls feeling anonymous at a science fiction conference last summer in Chicago. He got excited for a moment when a woman approached him—he thought she wanted his autograph—but she was looking for the bathroom.

Nearby, fantasy writer George R.R. Martin, author of the best-selling series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” was signing hundreds of books. Mr. Howey went up and introduced himself. When it became clear that Mr. Martin had never heard of him, Mr. Howey told him his novel was No. 6 on Amazon’s list of science-fiction and fantasy best sellers, behind Mr. Martin’s five books. Mr. Martin gamely signed a book for Mr. Howey, inscribing it “To # 6—Keep trying!”

A few months later, Mr. Howey landed at the top of the list, just ahead of Mr. Martin.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Self-published author Hugh Howey landed a traditonal book deal for Wool, but he continues to lead our Science Fiction Self-Published Bestsellers list with another part of his popular series.

Our weekly self-published bestsellers list is often dominated by the popular genres of romance and erotica. In an effort to help GalleyCat readers find other kinds of independent authors, we will offer regular genre-focused bestseller lists for other kinds of indie writers.

To keep the list fresh, we’ve highlighted three top books from four different marketplaces. What other genres would you like us to analyze in future lists?

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Sean Platt and David Wright led our first science fiction self-published bestsellers list with the serialized post-apocalyptic novel, Yesterday’s Gone.

Our weekly self-published bestsellers list is often dominated by the popular genres of romance and erotica. In an effort to help GalleyCat readers find other kinds of independent authors, we will offer regular genre-focused bestseller lists for other kinds of indie writers.

What other genres would you like us to analyze in future lists?

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Self-published author Hugh Howey exploded onto the scene this year with Wool, Omnibus. Set in a post-apocalypse with elements of dystopia, humans now reside in underground buildings called silos. The world outside is a forbidden topic, and any who mentions it is sent to "clean." What happened to cause mankind to fall so far? Begin [...]

The Daily News and the Los Angeles Times have been arguing about whether Los Angeles or New York City is the best place to be a writer.

This is a silly argument in the 21st Century in the middle of an economic downturn. Most writers can’t even afford to live in these cities anymore. We are all dedicated to one of the least lucrative careers in the world, and it is downright reckless to argue that we should live in two of the most expensive cities in the country.

After years writing for GalleyCat, I know this for certain: Writers live everywhere.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

For the second week in a row, Beautiful Disaster author Jamie McGuire leads our Self-Published Best Sellers list.

To help GalleyCat readers discover self-published authors, we have compiled lists of the top eBooks in three major marketplaces for self-published digital books: Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.

We will update these lists every week, tracking how writers perform inside these booming marketplaces. You can read all the lists below, complete with links to each book. If you are an author, check out our Free Sites to Promote Your eBook post and our How To Sell Your Self-Published Book in Bookstores post.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The massive scale of the self-publishing world can easily overwhelm readers, writers and publishing professionals.

To help GalleyCat readers discover self-published authors, we have compiled lists of the top eBooks in three major marketplaces for self-published digital books: Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. We will update these lists every week, tracking how writers perform inside these booming marketplaces.

Amazon Self-Published Bestsellers

1. Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
2. Easy by Tammara Webber
3. Weekends Required by Sydney Landon
4. Whispers from the Ashes by Patricia Hester
5. Not Planning on You by Sydney Landon
6. Big Girls Don’t Cry by Taylor Lee
7. Trial Junkies by Robert Gregory Browne
8. Lord of Vengeance by Lara Adrian
9. Wool Omnibus Edition by Hugh Howey
10. The Lion, the Lamb, the Hunted by Andrew E. Kaufman

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.