From paying the bills, to £2,000 a day: making a killing from self-publishing

Her Last Tomorrow, Adam Croft’s latest DIY thriller, lifted his bedroom business into the sales stratosphere. He talks about paying off his mortgage in weeks and why he’s fine with publishers being ‘sniffy’“Could you murder your wife to save your daughter?” That’s the hook for a novel that has enabled self-published author Adam Croft, writing from his back bedroom, to pay off his mortgage in just 20 weeks, selling 150,000 copies and winning a book deal with Amazon.Croft, who lives in Flitwick, Bedfordshire, was running an internet marketing company when he wrote his first novel, Too Close for Comfort, in 2011. At first, he wasn’t sure what to do with the thriller, in which new recruit DS Wendy Knight takes on a sadistic serial killer. “It didn’t cross my mind to send it to a publisher – I thought it was my first one and it wouldn’t get picked up,” says the 29-year-old. He looked into Amazon’s self-publishing programme Kindle Direct Publishing, which offers royalties of up to 70%, depending on pricing. “I just wanted someone to pick it up and read it. I didn’t know I could self-publish until two weeks before I did it.”Publishers have had it very easy for a long time – since presses were introduced, there’s been very little change Related: For me, traditional publishing means poverty. But self-publish? No way Related: 14 hour days, marketing and dealing with snobbery: my life as a self-published bestseller Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2016-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]

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