There have been some big self-publishing the trad publishing sensations that many of us have heard about. The idea that ‘if you self-publish, you’ll never get a traditional publishing deal’ is losing merit.

Colleen Hoover
Freida McFadden
EL James
Andy Weir

These are all examples of people who self-published books or posted chapters on websites and then took off. People wanted more. For Colleen Hoover and Freida McFadden, a robust backlist has accelerated their exponential growth. When one book took off, there was a large library of existing books for readers to find.

But these authors we hear about all the time aren’t the only ones to experience this kind of success. And it isn’t only a recent thing.

In my research, I saw that Margaret Atwood self-published a poetry collection called Double Persephone before her mainstream success. Beatrix Potter self-published Peter Rabbit and that is a CLASSIC!!

But today I wanted to highlight a few authors you may not have checked out yet or maybe you didn’t know their publishing origins:
Rupi Kaur, author of Milk and Honey poetry collection. She has since sold over 8 million copies of her poetry collections so – she had success. Based on how most people would define that.
Alice Osman the author and creator of the HeartStopper series began self-publishing the story of Tumblr and other graphic novel online platforms. And now it is a hit Netflix show. Way to go!
Ivy Fairbanks – I first heard of Ivy and her book Morbidly Yours on TikTok because I was on the BookTok channels and she lives nearby. Not long after Morbidly Yours was self-published it was picked up and now she has book 2 in the series, Heart Strings, about to come out on August 12, 2025.
So all the big shiny success stories of self-pub to trad pub aren’t in the past. They’re still happening now.

And if your vision for your books never takes it on that path, that’s fine too.
If you are like me and in the middle of this switch, hoping to make this jump, I hope this video inspired you. Comment below with other authors who navigate both sides of publishing since I know I didn’t find them all!

Books referenced:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/heart-strings-ivy-fairbanks/f87b08a0a5f0416a?ean=9780593851883&next=t
https://bookshop.org/p/books/morbidly-yours-ivy-fairbanks/20988778?ean=9780593851869&next=t
https://bookshop.org/p/books/milk-and-honey-rupi-kaur/6682881?ean=9781449474256&next=t
https://bookshop.org/p/books/heartstopper-1-a-graphic-novel-volume-1-alice-oseman/6943424?ean=9781338617436&next=t

Research Links:
Reedsy: https://blog.reedsy.com/guide/how-to-self-publish-a-book/success-stories/
MsLexia: https://mslexia.co.uk/magazine/blog/interview-alice-oseman/
Publish Drive: https://publishdrive.com/self-publishing-success-stories.html
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221473129-heart-strings?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=3o2BmqpiKl&rank=4

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjvBO4kjuBSYe6Bi3RYQAQA/join

Music from: Wondershare Filmora Sounds: “Something Cheer You Up”