She got her $2 million start with eBooks

Austin, MN, Author Amanda Hocking found success publishing her books on Amazon to the tune of almost $2 million in her first year online. Hocking, 26, recently signed a deal with St. Martin Press to handle all the publishing work while she focuses on her writing. From TwinCities.com: “Her success has finally won the attention of New York’s publishing industry, which previously had rejected her. Hocking’s deal with St. Martin’s Press ended a frenzied weeklong auction that involved nearly every major publisher in the business, including Random House, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins. St. Martin’s Press, part of Macmillan, paid more than $2 million for the world English rights to the “Watersong” series, Hocking’s latest books in the young-adult paranormal genre. “I’ve done as much with self-publishing as any person can do,” Hocking said Thursday. “People have bad things to say about publishers, but I think they still have services, and I want to see what they are. And if they end up not being any good, I don’t have to keep using them. But I do think they have something to offer.””.