I jumped into the world of self-publishing today by launching my young adult novel, Secrets of a Summer Spy on Amazon. Macmillan first published the book in hardcover in 1990. As per my contract, they owned all rights to the book. Macmillan sold the paperback rights to Random House. However, I was the one responsible for the sale. I was working as a book buyer for a large independent bookstore. When I met with the Random House rep to order books for the store, I gave him a hardcover copy of Secrets and asked if he would present it to Random House as something they might like to print in paperback. It was a short time later that Macmillan contacted me to crow about how they had sold the paperback rights.
I also sent a copy of Secrets to a famous young actress who loved it. She wrote a letter saying that if a movie was produced, she would like the role of the main character. Her agent would present it to Hollywood. Since Macmillan owned the film rights, I contacted them with this happy news. They refused to let an outside agent represent the film rights—Macmillan had their own agents, and Hollywood would have to come to them. That was the end of that deal.
It was three years before Secrets of a Summer Spy was out-of-print. The rights did not revert to me. I had to ask to get them back. I also had to ask Random House for my paperback rights. Publishing has come a long way since then. Self-publishing is now giving the traditional publishers a run for their money. For me, self-publishing means that I own my own voice.