Indie Authors Talk Editors

HUGH HOWEY

Hugh Howey is one of self-publishing's biggest success stories-and one of its greatest champions. The author of the bestselling Wool series is a Kindle Top 100 author and a #1 bestseller in Amazon's science fiction category. His series was also optioned by Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian for a feature film. Howey hires an editor, David Gatewood, for all of his books, and sees the process as one that benefits not just his own writing but the creative industry as a whole.

"The most satisfying part of becoming a successful artist has been the chance to support other freelancers," he says. "My editor started out as a beta reader, working with me for free," Howey relates. Howey insisted on paying him for his work and began recommending him to other authors-and Gatewood now works as an editor full-time. "And my former editor at Simon & Schuster is now doing freelance work," he adds.