When self-published authors like Amanda Hocking became book industry names, it was for reaching incredible sales figures on the fairly new Kindle e-reading platform. After reaching newsworthy levels of success, Hocking and others like her attracted the attention of literary agents and publishers looking to reach consumers. Experts would often question why an author who was already on the bestseller list would possibly be convinced to give a sizeable portion of their royalties; the answer was almost always the same: “I’m tired of being a businessman, I want to go back to being a writer.”

Essentially, self-published authors who “took the deal,” as people claimed, were looking for support that they either had to pay for out of pocket or do themselves. Marketing was a major reason for this, along with publishing services like cover design and editing. The work of being that…