At the risk of encouraging folks to head for self-publishing, I found this story on the internet birth of Still Alice interesting. So I poked around a little, and discovered that Christopher Paolini’s huge bestseller, Eragon, also began as a self-published book. I know M.J. Rose got her start by self-publishing, and has done quite well, too. But she is the single most marketing-savvy author I’ve ever met. And the New York Times reported in January that AuthorSolutions (which owns iUniverse and AuthorHouse) published 12,000 titles and sold 2.5 million copies of its books last year – which sounds impressive until you do the math. That turns out to be only 200 books sold for each title they published. I’m just saying… – Meg
Meg Waite Clayton
Meg Waite Clayton is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of nine novels, including the forthcoming TYPEWRITER BEACH (Harper, July 1, 2025), the Good Morning America Buzz pick and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice THE POSTMISTRESS OF PARIS, the National Jewish Book Award finalist THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON, the Langum-Prize honored THE RACE FOR PARIS, and THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. Her novels have been published in 23 languages. She has also written more than 100 pieces for major newspapers, magazines, and public radio, mentors in the OpEd Project, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the California bar. megwaiteclayton.com
