Just their type: How to turn your book into a reality

Tired of waiting for a publisher to pick up your manuscript and turn it into a book? So was Jane Austen, so she went ahead and self-published it – along with countless other respected authors

Alan Corcoran: ‘I thought you had to get Penguin or Gill, or whoever, to back you, and they were the gatekeepers.’ Picture: Evan O'Doherty

Q. What links A Christmas Carol, The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Legally Blonde?

A. All were self-published on first release.

Charles Dickens had lost the confidence of his publishers, so forked out to publish his Christmas hit. Beatrix Potter couldn’t drum up interest in her bunny book, so had it privately produced. And Amanda Brown first sold Elle Woods’s story through the print-on-demand service 1stBooks.

Self-publishing has long been a way for authors to ...