Stay Tuned: A Self-Published Book About TELEVISION Gets a Major Publishing Pick-Up

In the course of chronicling the modern-day history of television, the author Alan Sepinwall has made a bit of history himself, coming to be the unusual self-published author to be gotten by a significant press. On Wednesday, it was announced that the Touchstone imprint of Simon & Schuster had gotten his well-regarded book "The Revolution Was Televised," which Mr. Sepinwall put out late last year.

In this book (which is subtitled "The Cops, Crooks, Slingers and Slayers Who Altered TELEVISION Drama Forever") Mr. Sepinwall, a tv critic for the Web site hitfix.com, considers the effect that shows like "The Sopranos" and "Mad Men" and reveal distance runners like David Chase and Matthew Weiner have had in reinvigorating the hour-long remarkable format. Evaluating "The Revolution Was Televised" for The New York Times in December, Michiko Kakutani wrote that Mr. Sepinwall integrated "clever, fair-minded assessments meant to prompt conversation" and interviews with creative talent, producers and execs to provide "a terrific publication"; she additionally called it among her 10 favorite books of 2012.

As with many of the TV success stories he discusses, Mr. Sepinwall ran into a number of "no "s prior to he finally heard "yes.".

Mr. Sepinwall stated in a telephone interview on Wednesday that Touchstone had been among the publishers he met when he was shopping his proposal for "The Revolution Was Televised" about a year ago, though the task was declined then.

"The proposal wound up being a bit different from the book I composed, therefore I don't always blame them for passing at the time," stated Mr. Sepinwall, who prepared to draw mainly from reporting he had actually already done on his site.

"When I got mainly denials and one sort-of offer that I wasn't crazy about it, I determined I'm visiting go this path," he stated, describing his strategy to self-publish the book. "The next thing I understood, I was doing fresh interviews with everybody-- I'm not precisely sure how I had time to do that.".

After his book was examined in The Times and somewhere else, Mr. Sepinwall stated he was contacted again by Touchstone, which was now curious about obtaining it.

"I like the idea that the book might exist in brick-and-mortar shops, could be on college syllabi," he stated. "I was pleased with the concept of having the ability to go back to the very beginning of the task." He decreased to offer specific sales figures for the book's self-published release however said they were "well beyond my wildest assumptions.".

Lauren Spiegel, an editor at Touchstone who obtained "The Revolution Was Televised" for the imprint, said of Mr. Sepinwall, "I was currently in the bag for him, and have been such a follower for a very long time.".

Touchstone is planning its release of "The Revolution Was Televised" "as soon as we can," she said, with a paperback edition planned for the early spring and an e-book version potentially coming earlier.