A 19-year-old self-published novelist has achieved best-selling status on Smashwords with her Highlander romance novel.
D.K Combs’ The Highlander’s Touch made the book available exclusively through Smashwords, the distributor of independent e-books, without bothering to put it on Amazon or carrying out any marketing activity, according to a recent article in Publisher’s Weekly.
The article apportions some of Ms Combs’ success to the popularity of New York Times’ best-seller list novelist Diana Gabaldon, whose Outlander books are number 1 on the list. (The books have been turned into a TV series by Starz television.) The Highlander’s Touch has been read by more than 7 million, and it has achieved 300,000 votes on writing community website, Wattpad.
Following her high school graduation, Ms Combs decided on self-publishing to help pay her bills and her followers and fans on Wattpad encouraged her to make the leap to self-publishing. She published the book in March 2014, putting seven chapters onto Wattpad for free as a way of attracting new readers.
Priced at $4.99, the book had earned her an almost five-figure sum – and all through word of mouth. She has connected with fans through Facebook, Wattpad and ask.fm, although she left ask.fm following problems with anonymous commenters. Wattpad she regards as a safer and better regulated community.
Ms Combs writes with the help of two friends, who help with plot holes, proof-reading, planning and editing and the three design the covers themselves, using Photoshop.
(Please do forgive crude self-promotion here… Emma Baird’s new novel Two Slices of Carrot Cake is available on Wattpad.)
D.K Combs’ The Highlander’s Touch made the book available exclusively through Smashwords, the distributor of independent e-books, without bothering to put it on Amazon or carrying out any marketing activity, according to a recent article in Publisher’s Weekly.
The article apportions some of Ms Combs’ success to the popularity of New York Times’ best-seller list novelist Diana Gabaldon, whose Outlander books are number 1 on the list. (The books have been turned into a TV series by Starz television.) The Highlander’s Touch has been read by more than 7 million, and it has achieved 300,000 votes on writing community website, Wattpad.
Following her high school graduation, Ms Combs decided on self-publishing to help pay her bills and her followers and fans on Wattpad encouraged her to make the leap to self-publishing. She published the book in March 2014, putting seven chapters onto Wattpad for free as a way of attracting new readers.
Priced at $4.99, the book had earned her an almost five-figure sum – and all through word of mouth. She has connected with fans through Facebook, Wattpad and ask.fm, although she left ask.fm following problems with anonymous commenters. Wattpad she regards as a safer and better regulated community.
Ms Combs writes with the help of two friends, who help with plot holes, proof-reading, planning and editing and the three design the covers themselves, using Photoshop.
(Please do forgive crude self-promotion here… Emma Baird’s new novel Two Slices of Carrot Cake is available on Wattpad.)
