How Likely Is This To Happen?

 Five Years and 2M Copies Later...is a fascinating story about a successful self-published author. J.M. Dalgliesh just landed a contract with a traditional publisher after writing and self-publishing twenty-two books in five years while serving as the primary caregiver for two children. My guess is that that traditional publisher is attracted by the large number of fans Dalgleish has acquired over the years...on his own.

These are the kinds of stories that lead so many people into self-publishing, most of whom don't get this result. I think that's because this great story misses something Dalgliesh did.

In order to write twenty-two books in five years, he had to be working incredibly hard. On top of that, he published twenty-two books himself. That's time consuming and requires some effort. And then he marketed twenty-two books himself. Even if he hired help for any of that, he had to find the help and interact with them. And while he was doing all that, he was caring for children. Please don't assume that this guy had nothing to do but write and publish, because he was home with kids.

Dalgliesh deserves a lot of respect for what he did. We absolutely should not assume that just anyone could do it.