As the story goes, Mr. Young was a salesman who began writing The Shack in 2005. It took four months for him to complete the first draft. After he completed his manuscript, he photocopied 15 copies and gave it away as Christmas presents that year. From there Mr. Young began getting from people he didn't know telling him how much they loved his story. He was shocked at the response he received. At that point he enlisted the help of Mr. Wayne Jacobson, a clergyman. With Mr. Young's permission, Mr. Jacobson, with his friend Brad Curmmings, rewrote the story and send it off to publishers. Sadly, major publishers rejected his novel, calling it too christian while the christian publishers thought the movie was too theologically flaky. So they decided instead to self-publish the novel. They created a publishing company called Windblown Media and turned a $15,000 investment into millions of dollars in sales. It took four months to run through their initial printing of 11,000 copies (Their first thousand copies were sold from website). They ordered 22,000 more copies, and were all sold in sixty days. Then the third priniting of 33,000 sold out in just thirty days. Spending only $250 on advertising, the rest of their sales success came from word of mouth. Windblown Media sold 3.8 million copies, and in June, 2008 the huge Hachette Book Group took over distribution.
Mr. Young's tale of self-publishing his christian novel was a tremendous and a phenomenal story that all self-publishing authors should take note on. It should surely bring hope to anyone who wants the world to read their work. It should remind everyone (including yours truly) that anything is possible. That your novel could reach the world if you only have hope and faith before the hard work.
So please read the novel, definitely check out the movie when it comes out. It's always great to support the movie and the book especially when it was once a self-published one. I really hope that this movie does just as great (if not greater) than The Martian (another self-published novel that was made into a movie).
So take care and I wish you all a great day!!