Henry Baum | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Adventure Inward: A Risk Taker’s Book of Quotes by Jonathan Wunrow

Adventure Inward is a collection of inspirational quotes by mountain climber Jonathan Wunrow. I should preface this review by saying I’m not an avid rock or mountain climber or extreme sports enthusiast of any kind. Actually, more than that: I’ve never been climbing once. That might actually put me in a good place to review this book, as it’s a test if it can appeal to someone outside the niche. While this is a niche book, it’s not so niche as to not be interesting to, well, virtually anyone. The reason is that everyone has challenges. So really, you can […]

Henry Baum2014-05-14T12:35:31+02:00May 14th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Self-Help|

The Alliance of Independent Authors Petition for Self-Publishers

The Alliance of Independent Authors has set up a Change.org campaign advocating for self-publisher’s rights. Here’s the letter to sign:

To:
Libraries
American Booksellers Association
UK Booksellers Association
Canadian Booksellers Association
Australian Booksellers Association
Literary Festivals & Events
Book Reviewers & Reviews

I, and the Alliance of Independent Authors, urge you to find ways to include self-publishing writers as a matter of priority.

As you know, more and more writers are turning to self-publishing and many such authors are producing work of proven value to readers.

While recognising that there are challenges in incorporating such writers, it has become a

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Henry Baum2014-05-14T11:06:48+02:00May 14th, 2014|Categories: News|

Review: What if Tomorrow Never Comes? by Neil David Schwartz

What if Tomorrow Never Comes? is the tragic and moving story of Neil David Schwartz, an attorney in Los Angeles whose daughter passed away from a rare form of cancer in her late twenties. In the middle of this trying time, his wife died in her sleep – literally, it would seem, of a broken heart. To say this is a sad story is putting it mildly. It would be impossible to come away from this book unmoved; both by the strength exhibited by all involved, the sheer frustration that one family could be afflicted by all of this, and […]

Henry Baum2014-05-14T11:11:12+02:00May 13th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir|

The Best Day to Discount a Book

Book Gorilla, an alternative to BookBub, who are actually pretty cynical about self-publishers (“We’re as tired as you are of emails stuffed with books by authors we’ve never heard of. Ho hum, who needs them?”), nonetheless has some very interesting statistics about when to discount a book.

Average Estimated Daily Open Rates

Monday – 48.21%

Tuesday – 47.56%

Wednesday – 48.01%

Thursday – 47.79%

Friday – 47.54%

Saturday – 47.12%

Sunday – 47.65%

But that’s not the end of the story. Although slightly fewer subscribers open their BookGorilla alerts on weekends, those that do open them are more

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Henry Baum2020-02-21T04:35:10+02:00May 12th, 2014|Categories: Features|Tags: Amazon, Newsletter Campaign|

The Indie Author Manifesto

Courtesy of Mark Coker and Smashwords comes these by-laws:

I hold these truths to be self-evident:

I am an indie author

I have experienced the pleasure and satisfaction that comes from self-publishing

I have a right to publish

My creative control is important to me. I decide when, where and how my writing graduates to become a published book.

Indie does not mean “alone.” I choose my partners.

I shall not bow beholden or subservient to any publisher. In my business relationships, I seek partnership, fairness, equity and mutually aligned interests.

We indie authors comprise diverse writers unified by a

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Henry Baum2014-04-29T10:55:46+02:00April 29th, 2014|Categories: Features|Tags: Smashwords|

Blurb to Distribute to Amazon

BGood news for photographers. Before, Blurb was more of a boutique press – you’d have to send customers to Blurb to purchase a book. Less like publishing, and more like gift-making. Now Blurb is opening it up to self-publish photo books on Amazon, no matter how many copies are sold. Photo books are so expensive to print with a big print run – not to mention distribute – that this will open up self-publishing’s possibilities to a new crop of creators.

Via the Telegraph:

Although Amazon has sold self-published books before, this is the first time that the retailer

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Henry Baum2014-04-22T18:56:08+02:00April 22nd, 2014|Categories: News|Tags: Amazon|

The Road to the Bottom: 99 Cent Box Sets

A guest post on David Gaughran’s site covers the new world of bundled box sets. A good idea on the surface, and very profitable, but also problematic. She addresses this in the post:

With the attention, of course, also comes the inevitable criticism: that 2012 was the year of the freebie, 2013 the year of the 99¢ book, and now 2014 is the year of the 99¢ box. All cheap marketing ploys that will devalue the written word and destroy an industry.

Pretty much. Next paragraph:

Our business ledger, of course, says otherwise. Despite having built our assisted-self-publishing micropress

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Henry Baum2014-04-22T16:29:43+02:00April 22nd, 2014|Categories: Features|

Podcast with Joanna Penn

Check out this nice podcast with Joanna Penn from the guys at the Self-Publishing Podcast:

We started out by talking about speaking opportunities for writers (Sean and I want to get paid to speak), based around Joanna’s conveniently timed new book Public Speaking for Authors, Creatives, and Other Introverts, which you should go and pick up if you’re at all interested in speaking — whether you consider yourself an introvert or not.

(I’ve read it, so I can tell you it’s awesome. So go get it.)

Throughout the rest of the show, we talked about how to take ONE

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Henry Baum2014-06-27T15:13:58+02:00April 21st, 2014|Categories: Interviews|