Indie author Rachel Astor nabbed two spots on on our self-published bestseller list this week. At the same time, her Bridesmaid Lotto novel is the No. 2 free book at Amazon–did the free eBook drive paid sales?

To help GalleyCat readers discover self-published authors, we have compiled lists of the top eBooks in three major marketplaces for self-published digital books: Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.

We will update these lists every week, tracking how writers perform inside these booming marketplaces. You can read all the lists below, complete with links to each book. If you are an author, check out our Free Sites to Promote Your eBook post and our How To Sell Your Self-Published Book in Bookstores post.

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For the second week in a row, Beautiful Disaster author Jamie McGuire leads our Self-Published Best Sellers list.

To help GalleyCat readers discover self-published authors, we have compiled lists of the top eBooks in three major marketplaces for self-published digital books: Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.

We will update these lists every week, tracking how writers perform inside these booming marketplaces. You can read all the lists below, complete with links to each book. If you are an author, check out our Free Sites to Promote Your eBook post and our How To Sell Your Self-Published Book in Bookstores post.

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The massive scale of the self-publishing world can easily overwhelm readers, writers and publishing professionals.

To help GalleyCat readers discover self-published authors, we have compiled lists of the top eBooks in three major marketplaces for self-published digital books: Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.

We will update these lists every week, tracking how writers perform inside these booming marketplaces. You can read all the lists below, complete with links to each book.

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GalleyCat contributor Jeff Rivera interviewed self-publishing success story Amanda Hocking for mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do? feature.

When asked about why most writers who self-publish are not able to achieve what she has, she replied:

A lot of authors tend to over market or they don’t take criticisms very well. They think that their book is perfect. They don’t want to get bogged down with editing or covers, because they think their book is so good. Or they market too hard. All they do is talk about their book and nobody wants to hear, ‘Buy my book.’ They want to have a conversation with you … Also, new writers respond to negative reviews and have great catastrophic meltdowns. You can’t respond to reviews at all except to say ‘thank you for reading the book.’ That’s the best you can do; otherwise, you’re just going to look bad even if the reviewer is totally out of line.

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Last week, Crain’s New York published a bombshell report that Amazon had put a a bid for more than $2 million to publish a four book series by self-publishing superstar Amanda Hocking. It is not an April Fools’ joke.

Here’s an evocative passage: “To beef up its offer, Amazon brought in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which would have published the print editions of Ms. Hocking’s books, according to insiders … St. Martin’s Press ended up winning the auction, paying $2 million for the series of four novels, but Amazon actually made the highest offer of the six bidders, according to insiders.”

The 26-year-old author (pictured, via) made headlines around the country for her dramatic sales as a self-published author. Her “Watersong” series sale to St. Martin’s rocked publishing headlines last week.

The New York Times broke the news that self-publishing superstar Amanda Hocking has landed a four book deal with St. Martin’s Press. Her upcoming series will be called “Watersong.”

Here is an eye-popping excerpt: “The bidding eventually rose beyond $2 million for world English rights, said one publishing executive familiar with the negotiations. (St. Martin’s declined to comment.) Ms. Hocking was represented by the literary agent Steven Axelrod.”

The 26-year-old author (pictured, via) made headlines around the country for her dramatic sales as a self-published author. She wrote a great essay analyzing  her success: “And while I do think I will not be the only one to do this – others will be as successful as I’ve been, some even more so – I don’t think it will happen that often.” (Via Sarah Weinman)

In a recent interview, novelist Barry Eisler said he turned down a $500,000 book deal and decided to self-publish his work. At the same time, self-published success story Amanda Hocking is chasing a traditional book deal–reportedly receiving bids that top $1 million.

Eisler’s revelation came in a 13,000-word interview with novelist Joe Konrath. Eisler last published with Ballantine Books, but his self-publishing experiment began with “The Lost Coast,” a $2.99 short story.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview: “My wife and daughter and I were sitting around the dinner table, talking about what kind of contract I would do next, and with what publisher. And my then eleven-year-old daughter said, ‘Daddy, why don’t you just self-publish?’ … But I realized from that one innocent comment from my daughter that the new generation was looking at self-publishing differently. And that the question–’Should I self-publish?’–was going to be asked by more and more authors going forward.” (Via Sarah Weinman)