We're asked this question a lot. Most authors want their work to be noticed. It's the first step toward selling, of course, but in some cases getting the author noticed may be a major goal in itself.
Usually, we respond with examples down through history, from William Blake to Mark Twain to John Grisham, sending people to Dan Poynter's extensive list.
But today we can't help but point to one of our own: Dr. Stephanie Siegrist. She's quoted and her book, Know Your Bones: Making Sense of Athritis Medicine, is mentioned in the holiday issue of Woman's Day magazine (Dec. 6, 2005; pg. 54).
It's also worth noting that the connections that lead to Stephanie being interviewed for this article came through her and Yvonne's blogs.
So yes, self-published authors and their books can get noticed. The trick is in
1. Producing a book worth noticing (Know Your Bones qualifies; check the sample chapters for yourself); and then
2. Using the available tools to help promote it (do we need to say it again? Blogs work! Check the Wall Street Journal article "Book Publishers Build Buzz Early, Hollywood Style," online version, or print version, WSJ, 12/1/05, p. B1, col. 5).
Donna,
It's very interesting that you -- along with most people -- can no longer tell a self-published book from one produced by a traditional publishing house. If you look up Nobody's Investment on Amazon, you'll find the author published it through Virtualbookworm.com, one of the online POD self-publishing services.
Since they have not set up Search-Inside-the-Book, I can't comment on the page layout work, back cover design, etc. Those are some of the places where a self-publishing author is likely to need help to produce a quality book. But Mr. Meade's author bio indicates he has a background in newsletter publishing, so he may have been quite capable of doing his own, or getting professional help with, page layout and cover design.
That's a great example of where a customized package of just the author services needed can help an author produce a book they're proud of.
Tom
Posted by: Tom | December 12, 2005 at 03:51 PM