(NEWS)

This article was originally published on PublishersWeekly.com.

“Austen, Blake, Proust, Whitman, Woolf—the list of successful self-published authors is as old as traditional publishing itself. As long as there have been gatekeepers like agents, editors, and publishers, there have been determined writers who find creative ways to operate outside the castle walls. While an author like Jane Austen never found success in her lifetime, many more managed to find an audience for their books and even create a bit of controversy while they did it (Walt Whitman was fired from his job at the Department of the Interior after self-publishing his book Leaves of Grass, which some at the time felt was obscene).

These days, authors like Hugh Howey, E.L. James, and Barbara Freethy regularly hit the New York Times bestseller list and have readers numbering in the millions. How do they do it? They do it by writing good books and then helping readers discover their work—marketing themselves and their books like it’s their full-time job. There remain many obstacles to publishing success, but there are also a lot of best practices that successful indie authors follow—practices that give books maximum exposure and provide authors the best opportunities for a work to be discovered. Below, we go beyond social media tools to look at different ways authors can market their work…”

Read the full article at PublishersWeekly.com.