Making it Big by Being Your Own Publisher

There is one example from one of the most notable self-publishing autobiographies titled "If I Knew Then" by Amy Fisher. Her work sold over 32,000 copies to date. While Amy's case is one of the few, she is a great example to show that success can be achieved through self-publishing. Most self-published works struggle to find a market outside the authors own social circles. Friends and Family may rake in on average, the sale of 200 books but not sales in the thousands.



Amy Fisher is an exceptional book sales success because she was already a well-known and award winning newspaper columnist with the Long Island Press. It certainly helped to have a reader following her column in the paper. Another big difference is that Amy Fisher led an extraordinary life.



Everybody thinks their autobiography is interesting enough for publishing but that is not usually true. Most people live rich, but ordinary lives that would bore a reader and should not be bothered with a publisher. Amy Fisher was only 30 years old when she published her autobiography, but it was as if she had already lived three lifetimes. By the time she reached her 16th Birthday, she was well-known as the "Long Island Lolita" in the media. She had an affair with a married man. That came to an abrupt end when she tried to kill her lover's wife by shooting her in the head.







Once her first self-published book became a success, she began a career in adult entertainment and even had two other authors write a sotry about her and having their books published. One of the books was written by Maria Eftimiades and published in 1992 while the second was written by Pier Dominguez and published in 2001.



Fisher was not new to publishing when her autobiography came out, before then, she had co-written another autobiography with Sheila Weller in 1994, "Amy Fisher: My Story".



Amy's publishing success is not so easily done by most authors, because she is certainly an unusual case. The main reason her book sold was the fact that she had a string of scandals associated with her name. She was a natural for getting attention and self -promoting herself. It's quite clear that most authors wouldn't want that kind of reputation tacked on to their name. Keep in mind that there are also other success stories of new authors making it by being their own publisher, it just takes hard work and determination to get your name out there.