Stigma Erased

It is done.

The stigma of self-publishing has been slowly subsiding for the last couple of years, but this year its demise has accelerated. And today I can say with certainty that it doesn't mean a damn thing anymore.

Amanda Hocking, Jeremy Robinson and Zoe Winters are just a few authors that have had tremendous success with indie sales. A couple of months ago, Ms. Hocking used her indie success to land a deal with a big publisher. Apparently, they didn't mind how she sold her books. Joe Konrath, a successful traditionally published author, went indie and has had tremendous success. Barry Eisler, another best-selling traditionally published author, spurned a deal from St. Martin's Press to go indie.

And the names keep coming.

Earlier this week, Amazon announced that indie author John Locke sold 1 million ebooks on the Kindle in 2011. Take a few seconds to absorb that one. 1 million. That's hundreds of thousands of people who didn't care one iota that this guy published his books on his own without an agent or a big publishing house to back him.

Wired UK reported today that J.K. Rowling is going to self-publish the Harry Potter series. In essence, indie publishing has been blessed as acceptable by one of the most successful authors of all time.

Traditional publishing purists may continue to sneer with contempt at indie authors, but they can pretty much go stuff themselves because no one cares anymore. Readers don't care how books come to market so long as they're entertained. They don't need any self-appointed "gatekeepers" (nannies of literature, if you will) to tell them what's OK to read because the Readers can figure it out on their own. Or they'll ask their friends. Or they'll read reviews on blogs or booksellers' sites. Readers want to read what they want to read! And that's all that matters.

In Bookstores This January

If you've been reading this blog religiously, and maybe if you only come here now and again, you'd remember a writer whose work we reviewed here: N. Frank Daniels. Well Frank's book, Futureproof, will be published by Harper Perennial on the 27 of January this year.

If you want to support self-publishing and mainstream writers who have emerged from it, go ahead and buy the books on the day of the release.

Also coming out in January (the 20th) is Jeremy Robinson's Kronos. Though I have not been given a review copy—was it something I said? From the descriptions of the book on Amazon, I can say that it certainly seems like an awesome novel to me. The concept is certainly blockbuster material. I wonder when they will make a movie based on it.  Read the first chapter here. More from Amazon product description:

Two years after his wife's death, oceanographer and former navy SEAL, Atticus Young, attempts to reconcile with his rebellious daughter, Giona, by taking her on the scuba dive of a lifetime-swimming with a pod of peaceful humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine. But the beauty of the sea belies a terror from the deep-a horrific creature as immense as it is ancient. There is no blood, no scream, no fight. Giona is swallowed whole by the massive jaws. Only Atticus remains to suffer the shame of the survivor and his inconsolable grief turns to an unquenchable thirst for revenge.

Drawn by the spectacle, Trevor Manfred, a ruthless billionaire, approaches Atticus with a proposition: Trevor will make available all the advanced technology of his heavily armed mega-yacht, the Titan, to aid Atticus in his death-quest. In return, Trevor is to receive the beast's corpse as the ultimate hunting trophy. But in the midst of the hunt, Atticus makes a terrifying discovery that changes the way he sees the ocean's creatures and begs the question: what is Kronos? The answer sets him on a new and much more deadly course.

PODler book of the month JULY

July saw a slew of interesting tiles. Rick R. Reed's chilling IM, Kristen Tsetsi's literary Homefront, Jeremy Robinson's incredible Antarktos Rising, and Brad Barber's The Martinet. It is always hard to make a choice because all these books have something to offer. But I think that the strongest of them all is Robinson's Antarktos Rising. It is a great mix of science, adventure, and Biblical apocalypse that is truly a great POD book--unique and thrilling.

Antarktos Rising by Jeremy Robinson (A+)

Imagine coming across a thriller that captures your attention and imagination as well as the best of stuff by Crichton, Rollins, or Koontz; an unknown work of great potential that has not yet been discovered by an agent, a major publisher, or Hollywood. Antarktos Rising is such a book, but don't look for it in brick and mortar stores just yet; Antarktos Rising is available only from Amazon.com beginning August 1, 2007.

The book begins with mysterious global climate changes as they impact the lives of various characters including Mirabelle Whitney and her partner and lover Dr Merill Clark. Separated by thousands of miles, she survives a tsunami in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, only to be trapped in her own house by arctic cold that follows the apocalyptic deluge; he, living on a research station in the Antarctic, finds that after a massive earthquake the continent of Antarctica has inexplicably thawed.

Something has happened to the earth, and the unveiling, by the titanic geological forces, of Antarktos has a lot to do with the frightening alterations. But the same forces that have rearranged the world have also caused billions of deaths, dislocated countless others by the hundreds of millions, and sparked an all or nothing race by the survivors to claim the new continent for living space.

Maribelle Whitney and her lover Dr. Clark become key players in this survival game, thanks to their expert knowledge of the new continent. But fools rush in where angels fear to tread; as the would be explorers trespass to stake out their claims, they come face to face with an unexpected danger from the Earth’s Biblical past, a danger that no one imagines possible—the Nephilim.

One cannot help but be impressed by the work that Robinson has put into this book: the internal layout is the same as you’d see in a major mainstream novel; the writing has been edited to the point where the text seems to become invisible as the story action rushes before the reader; the plot, characters, and dialogue—all these are all top of the line, too. Even the cover is mainstream.

As unbelievable as it may seem, Antarktos Rising is nearly a perfect blend of science, Biblical creatures, human drama, and suspense as a book in this genre can be; it is certainly the best disaster/apocalypse POD novel reviewed at the PODler so far, hands down. A well tuned, smoothly running, never boring, world class masterwork of suspense and thrill, this one gives mainstream apocalyptic disaster thrillers a haircut and gets away with it. Robinson is writing with the assured mastery of a best-selling author, crafting a story that every apocalyptic disaster thriller should aspire to. If you plan on buying only one POD novel this year, make it Antarktos Rising.

On August 1, 2007, you can be a part of history by purchasing Antakrtos Rising on Amazon.com. Why August 1? Jeremy Robinson plans to get enough grass-roots support to catapult Antarktos Rising to the top of the Amazon.com bestseller list by having thousands of fans purchase this book on that day. If he succeeds, pod will never be the same. So, even if you don’t like thrillers, buying Robinson’s book is worth it because you get to be part of history, and that’s always exciting. Visit his website for more information about this talented and visionary writer as well as for sample chapters of the book.