First US novelist to transition from self-pub to mainstream and make a living at it

[issybird]

It's not Hugh Howey.

I ran across an article at the Yale University Press blog which discusses the first American novelist who was able to make a living from his books. The takeaway is that things haven't changed all that much.

For those who don't want to click through, the popular writer was James Fenimore Cooper. I find him unreadable, but I have to admit I was heavily influenced by Mark Twain's hilarious critique of his work, which can be read in its entirety here or downloaded from Gutenberg or as part of GrannyGrump's terrific Twain compendium here at MR.

[Cinisajoy]

You got me.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

You got me.

LOL! Wasn't really trying to get anyone; just pull them in. I thought it interesting and fun that Fenimore Cooper's publishing travails were not dissimilar to those of self-published authors today. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose and all that.

And I think any writer would benefit from reading the Twain piece and that any reader would enjoy it.

[piperclassique]

ROFL!

[curtw]

I agree with Twain. What a slog.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by issybird

LOL! Wasn't really trying to get anyone; just pull them in. I thought it interesting and fun that Fenimore Cooper's publishing travails were not dissimilar to those of self-published authors today. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose and all that.

And I think any writer would benefit from reading the Twain piece and that any reader would enjoy it.

Self-publishing goes back to be beginning of "published" works. It is not a new phenomenon. Some of Twain's works were self-published and sold on subscription as were John James Audubon's original edition of Birds of North America.

"Chap books" began as a way for either a self-publisher or small publisher to print each chapter as a separate book using the profits from the sales of chapter 1 to pay for publishing chapter 2, and so forth. This type of publishing goes back at least to the early days of the printing press, and perhaps further.