They used to call it the “vanity press,” and the phrase itself spoke volumes. Self-published authors were considered not good enough to get a real publishing contract. They had to pay to see their book in print. But with the advent of e-books, self-publishing has exploded, and a handful of writers have had huge best-sellers.
TV blogger Alan Sepinwall’s self-published book, The Revolution Was Televised, came out just before Thanksgiving. Within two weeks he had a review in The New York Times — a positive review — by the widely read and often critical Michiko Kakutani, who also named it one her favorite books of the year. This is what book publicists and their writers dream of, and Sepinwall didn’t even see it coming.
“I was sitting at my computer on the Monday, the day before it ran,” he says, “and all of a sudden I see an email from a Times photo editor saying, ‘Hi, The Times will be running a review of your book tomorrow, we need an author photo. Can you help us?’ ”
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