It's happened again - another self-publishing success

Two British authors behind a publishing phenomenon that could take over from Harry Potter have landed a million-dollar Hollywood film contract.
Tunnels, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, has been snapped up by the film investment company behind '3.10 to Yuma', starring Russell Crowe, and 'The Spiderwick Chronicles'.

Barry Cunningham - who published JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone after she had suffered numerous refusals - helped arrange the deal with Relativity Media.

Here's the story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2068113/British-authors-of-%27new-Harry-Potter%27-land-million-dollar-Hollywood-film-contract.html

It's good to see somebody scoring big.

But I'd say the self-declared "next Harry Potter" title remains to be seen.

Yes, Lin, I thought "the next HP" was a little over the top. It's happened again - another self-publishing success 798629

Malcolm

It's great to see another self-publishing success! Smile

Any success in the POD industry is encouraging, even if it doesn't outdo Harry Potter, in my opinion.

I really like seeing POD authors succeed. It gives hope to all us small-time authors. Smile

Admin Number of posts : 12662 Registration date : 2008-01-11 Location : UK

Quote :: A couple of years ago the pair, who have been friends since college days, remained unpublished. They started in 2005 by self-publishing 2,500 copies and hawking them around booksellers.

This sounds more like a small print run than POD.

Brian Williams said:

Quote :: Roderick’s wife was actually the person who suggested we write a children’s book. It was one evening in September 2003 when I was over for supper at Roderick’s house, and I must say neither of us took it very seriously to begin with. However, we liked the idea of “doing our own thing” by self-publishing a book we had written, and controlling all the aspects of the process, particularly theits design. It wasn’t a priority for us to secure a mainstream publisher as we knew how difficult that can be and, anyway, we just wanted to release a book which we could be proud of. If it had gone no further than that, then we would have both been very satisfied with what we had achieved.

http://www.topsoiler.com/page4.html

Malcolm,

Do you feel the same way about your self-published book?

You may be right, Shelagh, their book could have been done via offset.

Do I feel what way? If you mean, that my teenaged protagonist could be the new Harry Potter? That would be nice, but the book is literary fiction and not likely to be read by young kids.

Or, do I feel it could do well if a mainstream house were behind it? Yes. You can star in the movie if that happens.

Malcolm

Admin Number of posts : 12662 Registration date : 2008-01-11 Location : UK

"It wasn’t a priority for us to secure a mainstream publisher as we knew how difficult that can be and, anyway, we just wanted to release a book which we could be proud of. If it had gone no further than that, then we would have both been very satisfied with what we had achieved."

You didn't answer the question but you did reveal a great deal about yourself.

Four Star Member Number of posts : 241 Registration date : 2008-01-11

Great to hear about the success of a small publisher. Gives us all hope. Thanks for sharing.