The Literary Traditions of Self-Publishing

Some early adopters were Beatrix Potter, Anaïs Nin & Virginia Woolf

Over the recent years, writers have increasingly turned to self-publishing. The reasons vary: It's a route to consider if finding a publisher or agent has proven impossible; one has a niche audience that's easily reachable; or there's a specific reason to want complete control over the process. Here's a bit of surprising self-publishing history by some classic authors.

Gone are the days of having to store copious numbers of cartons of unsold books in the garage or under the bed. User-friendly print-on-demand or e-book services allow writers to create books on an as-needed basis, avoiding the pitfalls of overprinting.

Whether the product ends up only in the hands of the author’s mom and cousins or becomes one of the rare successes that sells like wildfire, it's good to have options.

The ultimate stroke of luck for a self-published book is to be picked up by a trade publisher, and then continue to sell like crazy. This used to happen more often; now, not so much.

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Self-publishing successes

Some well-known examples of books (not necessarily in the realm of literature) by women writers that were first self-published:

• When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple, edited by Sandra Haldeman Martz (sales of more than 1.5 million copies prompted her to found Papier Maché Press).

• Irma Rombauer self-published The Joy of Cooking in 1931; it was subsequently published by Scribner’s and has consistently sold more than 100,000 copies annually for many years.

• Marlo Morgan sold 370,000 copies of Mutant Message Down Under herself before selling the rights to HarperCollins for $1.7 million.

• I hate to say it, but the 50 Shades of Grey series started out as self-published. Then, these books were adapted into a series of cringeworthy films.

• Amanda Hocking changed the face of self-publishing with her hugely successful series of paranormal fiction.

Today, there a number of entrepreneurial (usually younger) writers who build their audiences on Instagram or TikTok, produce their own books, and sell directly.

Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit

Beatrix Potter self-published 250 copies of The Tale of Peter Rabbit after numerous publishers had turned it down. Once in print, it finally caught the eye of Frederick Warne & Co., which published the book in 1902 and making it an immediate success.