At last weekend’s NC Writers’ Network Conference I had the pleasure of participating in a self-publishing panel, and we covered many of the pros and cons of self-publishing. One of the major challenges of self-publishing is marketing and promotion, because as a self-published author you won’t have the deep pockets and distribution push that many traditionally published authors do. It can therefore be a daunting task, and only a small percentage of authors are successful enough with their first book (or later books) to get picked up by a traditional publisher.

On Sunday, my co-panelist Brooks Preik mentioned the names of several famous authors that had started out by self-publishing their book, but they were mostly names we’d heard before. Now I’ve got another one to add to the list–author Vince Flynn. It’s a new name for me and I’m not familiar with his work, but he’s had several best-sellers in the military thriller genre.

A friend sent me this audio interview of Mr. Flynn on last Thursday’s Don Imus Show, and his story is a compelling one namely because he was diagnosed with dyslexia during his early school years and had struggled with reading and writing all his life. Later he wanted to be a fighter pilot, but was disqualified due to several concussions and convulsive seizures resulting form childhood injuries. It was while he was working to get a medical waiver for his condition that he became interested in writing a book.

After five years and over sixty rejection letters, Flynn self-published his first book, Term Limits, in 1999. It became a top seller in his hometown (St. Paul, MN),  and the rest, as they say, is Simon & Schuster history.

Again, you may know more about him than I do, but hearing his story was another breath of fresh air in the often frustrating world of self-publishing–small-time author overcomes personal adversity and makes it big. Good for Mr. Flynn.

I met a lot of authors last weekend that have waited more than five years for a traditional publishing contract, to no avail. Do yourself a favor–don’t wait much longer…

Good luck, and till next time–keep publishing!

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Henry Hutton (PublishingGuy)
PublishandSell.com
PublishingNewsUpdate.com
hhutton@publishandsell.com
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