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Digital era aids budding authors

By Kevin Voigt
For CNN

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(CNN) -- The traditional seats of power in the publishing industry may be New York, London and Paris, but the real comers in the digital era are book houses based in Lincoln, Nebraska; Tucson, Arizona; and Bloomington, Indiana.

Self-publishing a book rather than going through the traditional (and often heart-breaking) process of submitting works to publishing houses has long smacked of vanity: Why would an unpublished author have a better grasp of the public's book appetite than editors at the most respected publishing houses on the planet?

Now, it seems, the real hubris may lie with the literary elite: the self-publishing industry has risen to new heights in the past decade, with several breakout successes having led established book producers to look over their shoulders at the growing might of book houses based in places better known for agriculture than literature.

"We published one out of every 30 books in the U.S. last year," says Bryan Smith, CEO of AuthorHouse, an Indiana-based self-publishing house founded in 1997, which has published 40,000 titles.

The company was sold in January for an undisclosed sum to Bertram Capital, a California-based investment firm headed by Jeff Drazan, who consistently ranks as one of the top 100 tech deal-makers in the world by Forbes Magazine's annual "Midas List" of venture capitalists.

"While self-publishing has come a long way, there's still a degree of skepticism in the publishing world ... but that's changing, and will continue to change as they see the success we're having," says Smith. It was Smith's company that first published "Legally Blonde," a book that became a successful movie starring Reese Witherspoon, and "A Long March to Freedom," a book about Third World kidnapping that became the Russell Crowe movie, "Proof of Life."

Other breakout successes that were originally self-funded by authors through similar publishing houses include "The Celestine Prophecy," by James Redfield, and "The Christmas Box," by Richard Paul Evans. Teenage author Christopher Paolini self-published his fantasy book "Eragon" before it was picked up by a major publisher and made into a movie.

"We've experienced a steady 40 percent growth every year since 2000," says Sam G. Henrie, president of Tucson-based self-publishing house Wheatmark. "The self-publishing industry has grown up as a sort of parallel to the [traditional book publishing industry] ... while that market has been flat, the book market for people selling online has grown dramatically, and we're the ones who feed that channel of sales."

" [With individual online book orders, the upfront cost to authors now] can be as low as a few hundred dollars." - - Sam G. Henrie, president of self-publishing house Wheatmark

The self-publishing industry has blossomed due to advances in print on demand technology. "In the past, an author would have to spend as much as $10,000 to do a complete book run to pay for the costs of production," Henrie says. Now that printing of individual books can be done as individual orders are placed online, the upfront cost to authors now "can be as low as a few hundred dollars."

Self-publishing companies offer authors an à la carte menu of services to choose from, such as editing and illustration, distribution and marketing assistance, and covering legalities such as registering a book's ISBN number. "For about $700, you can have your book up and on the market in less than 30 days," says Smith of AuthorHouse.

Some authors are turning to self-publishing to gain more control and a greater share of profits. One such author is Amy Fisher -- the infamous "Long Island Lolita" who tried to murder her lover's wife as a teenager -- who published her memoir "If I Knew Then" in 2004 with iUnverse in Lincoln, Nebraska, for an undisclosed sum. "Unlike [traditional publishing houses], authors have complete control of the book," adds Smith.

The No. 1 clientele of this new generation of book publishers is baby boomers over the age of 55. "They are retirees, many of whom have some story to tell, and now they have the time to tell it," Henrie says.

While major success stories like "The Celestine Prophecy" remain few, not everyone who pays to have their book produced is looking for a bestseller. "They may be professional speakers who use books as a marketing tool, or people who just want to finally have their story told in print," Smith says.

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