Recently Amanda Hocking, the self-publisher who sold millions of copies of her books through Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites, signed a deal with St. Martins for her next series of books (you can read the short NYT article about it here). The bigger story in this though is whether or not self-publishing is just astepping stone to signing book deals with major media companies, or is self-publishing a viable alternative to the big companies?
Hocking said she’ll benefit from the deal by not having to manage herself (hiring an editor, running the business aspect of things) and be able to focus on her writing. She’s probably right, and only she knows what she can handle. But for all those out there trying to get their work published, do you think self-publishing is the way to go, are traditional publishers still necessary, or like Hocking is a mix of both the best avenue?