The Secret of El Barto: Getting a Book Deal as a Self-Published Author

When Steven Keslowitz was an undergraduate at City University of New York in Brooklyn, just about every class paper he wrote used The Simpsons as the foundation for his thesis.

Keslowitz, at 19, then turned to Wheatmark to publish his first book The Simpsons and Society: An Independent Analysis of Our Favorite TV Family and Its Influence in Contemporary Society based on a compilation of those papers.

With chapters entitle things like "To Speak or Not to Speak: Maggie Simpson vs. Stewie Griffin" and "Bart the Genius: And the Value of Standardized Tests," Keslowitz took the concept of "Everything I know I learned from my ..." posters a step further and used the iconic cartoon family as a way to explore many perceptions from real life.

The Simpsons and Society quickly sold enough copies to qualify for our Great Expectations program.

One of the few self-published authors to get his book shelf space at Barnes and Noble Booksellers, Keslowitz famously wouldn't take no for an answer. As the oral history around Wheatmark tells it, he focused all his energy on Barnes and Noble. Calling individual stores in an ever-increasing radius from his college residence, and never giving up until they took a book or two, The Simpsons and Society gained ground simply through its author's tenacity.

When he entered the Great Expectations program, it was decided that Wheatmark would do several things to help the book. The first was to do a revision that would include additional chapters and a more thorough editing job. The second thing that was done was some legal work. Because The Simpsons is a trademarked sitcom, there were some questions about using some of the material. Wheatmark hired a well-known lawyer, Jonathan Kirsch, on behalf of the author to comb through the book and make sure it was legally tight for continued publication.

After selling nearly 3,000 (2,929 to be exact) copies of his book, Keslowitz was offered a book deal through the largest independent book publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

Over the years, Keslowitz's book has continued to sell and has even been used as a classroom text book at Tufts University and Carnegie Melon. Harvard may not be far behind (just kidding ... maybe).

His resume now includes having been featured on cnn.com and being listed on Ingrams Hot 100 book list.

Kewlowitz's story is not necessarily the norm. However, his inability to give up wasn't really the norm either.

It does show that by self-publishing you are helping make yourself a viable commodity in the book-buying world.

Never give up!

You can purchase your own copy of the current version of Keslowitz's book on Amazon.com