Amanda Hocking's $2 Million Cinderella Story!!

Barbara Hernandez recently wrote an article entitled "Self-Published Authors Still Rarely Make the Jump to Publishing Houses" for Mediashift, where she spotlights in her article that self published authors are rarely signed by major publishing giants. Amanda Hocking appears to be the exceptions to this rule. Barbara Hernandez wrote the following:

Amanda Hocking, a 27-year-old independent author who sold more than a million copies of her books, signed a reported $2 million-plus, four-book deal with St. Martin's Press earlier this year, making her an indie success story. The news of her book deal flooded the Internet, sparking reports that publishers are looking for the next Hocking.

But Hocking wasn't a passive participant in the process. She sent numerous queries, manuscripts and book proposals to traditional publishers and agents, only to be turned down repeatedly. Hocking was also a prolific author with nine self-published titles to her name and her popular Trylle Trilogy, had already been optioned for a motion picture. According to her blog, she even had an editor, cover artist and acted on feedback from publishers and agents. By the time she was offered a contract by St. Martin's she had negotiated foreign language rights in Hungary and sold 1 million copies of her books.

Amanda Hocking has become quite the media sensation!! I am excited to learn of her success story. (Click on Amanda's highlighted name at the start of this paragraph to read her blog.) Amanda Hocking has no formal training as a writer and has only completed two semesters at a local community college. This goes to show you that formal training as a writer and a college education are definitely not needed to succeed in becoming a successfully published writer. 

I'm not even sure creativity can be taught. You either have it or you do not. One can hone their skills over time, but perseverance,  motivation, and the belief in ones ability can take one a long way to reaching their dreams. Learn more about Amanda Hocking by listening to an interview with her found on NPR.