by Tom Ashford

Welcome to the SPF Weekly Write-Up, where each Wednesday we’ll be collecting together the self-publishing news of the week so you don’t have to.

This week: a self-published author gets a Netflix deal, BAM! closes down, and the SPF 101 course goes live tonight.

Netflix Deal for a Self-Published Author

John Marrs self-published his first novel, When You Disappeared, after it was rejected by eighty agents. Eighty! It’s since been picked up by Amazon’s Thomas and Mercer imprint and sold about 300,000 copies, but that’s not the only good news for this author.

His third book, The One, has been picked up by Netflix and will be transformed into a ten-part series. The streaming giant is targeting a January 2020 release. The science fiction story “follows five people’s stories after scientists discover that everyone has a gene matched with one other person, who they are destined to be with, irrespective of sexuality, race, age or location.”

You can read more about John Marr’s reaction to the good news here.

Books-A-Million Closes Down

As of last week (March 1st), BAM!, or Books-A-Million, has closed its digital doors. For those that haven’t heard of it, Books-A-Million provided various tools to help authors self-publish their work, from cover design to formatting to distribution. Of course, some of these tools are still available to writers (and often for either no cost, or only a percentage of earnings): Draft2Digital and PublishDrive are just two options.

The 101 course goes live tonight!

That’s right – the SPF 101 course is open for enrolment from 10pm GMT this evening (that’s UK time). Sign up to learn everything about building your indie author platform, from putting together a website to building a mailing list to sharpening your blurbs.

Meet some of the students who’ve transformed their writing careers with this course: https://selfpublishingformula.com/socialproof-101

But be quick – the course is only open for the next couple of weeks, or until we reach our capacity for students. Here’s the URL you’ll need to learn more about the course and sign up for it from 10pm tonight:

https://selfpublishingformula.com/101

Tom Ashford

Tom Ashford is a professional copywriter, author of numerous dark fantasy and sci-fi novels, and the Head of Content at the Self Publishing Formula Blog. His books include the Blackwater trilogy and the Checking Out series.

He lives in London with his wife, in an apartment that doesn’t allow pets. Find out more about Tom here.