John Locke, the author- not the LOST character-though both have pretty amazing stories, has recently signed a distribution and sales of print only deal with Simon and Schuster (who seem to be all over the board this month).

Is this the end of traditional publishing as we know it? Or an exciting pre-eminent takeover by authors?

Locke was the first self-published author to sell a million e-books through his own company. Which pretty much tells us he knows what he’s doing. And now, with this deal… he’s kind of a hero around here.

Kudos to his agent, Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, who handled the deal.

Locke-ism for the day: “When I saw that highly successful authors were charging $9.99 for an e-book, I thought that if I can make a profit at 99 cents, I no longer have to prove I’m as good as them … Rather, they have to prove they are ten times better than me.