Member Blog

It’s free to join SPR and blog about your writing experiences. Read the latest blog entries from our community

Easy Kindle eBook Cover Design in Two Steps

One of the more challenging steps in the self-publishing process for me was creating Kindle eBook cover designs. Second most challenging I’d have to say was the formatting, but I did end up finding a solution to that. We’ll save that story for another day.

Being a writer and not a graphic designer, I had no clue how to approach book cover designs and was next to useless in Photoshop.

However, I had literally no publishing budget so I was prepared to spend some time learning new things in order to take on the entire project with little or no […]

2017-03-24T06:18:22+02:00June 11th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog, Resources|

Self-Publishing and Independent Bookstores – Together Somehow?

It’s boom times for self-publishers – online! – but not so much for self-publishers in the print world. At the same time, independent bookstores are struggling to adapt to the new technologies. I’ve been trying to think of ways to help bring these worlds together and I’ve come up with an idea – a business opportunity – and I’m putting it out there for anyone who might be interested. People who love pbooks should not have to miss out on ebooks, and self-publishers should not have to see their books alive online alone.

One of the great things about bookstores […]

2013-06-03T10:37:24+02:00June 3rd, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|

Is The Self-Publishing Content Swell Leading To Mediocre Content on Kindle?

Fred Crawley of The New Statesman chews over the rise of self – published content on Kindle from an original angle – is the concept of  “own-brand” consumerism affecting self-published books? Are standards slipping to give way to instant gratification? Should proofreading standards be higher? Discuss…

In the digital video shops we increasingly use as our sources of film entertainment, these movies are ranked alongside genuine big-budget efforts, with only a paragraph of description and a cover design (usually the most professional component of the whole project) to distinguish them from the real deal. In this sense, we have all

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2014-01-30T18:14:13+02:00April 19th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|

Three Self-Published Photographers Talk About Their Experiences

Iko Iko, from The Afronauts, 2012, by Cristina de Middel

“It was like a journey into the unknown”: Photographers with self-published books talk about their experiences, from The Observer’s Sean O’Hagan

Cristina de Middel worked as a photojournalist in her native Spain for eight years before deciding she wanted to create “fictions” with her camera and created The Afronauts, which was self-published in May 2012 in an edition of 1,000 and has since become a self-publishing phenomenon, winning her a place on the Deutsche Börse shortlist and now changing hands for over £1,000 a copy. “I had no clue what would happen when I made the book,” she says,

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2013-04-17T22:04:03+02:00April 17th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|

English Pensioner Won Royal Seal Of Approval With Self-Published Book

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES:  Fox Brothers had been in business on the Pantiles since Josephine Butcher's childhood when she took this photograph in 1990

“This Is Kent”, an English local newspaper, reports on a sweet story of one pensioner whose self-published book was read by Princess Diana. There’s hope for us all.

Thanks to modern technology, writing and printing your own work has never been easier. And if you’re looking for more professional results, there are plenty of publishers willing to take on the job.

But back in 1990, when Josephine Butcher decided to design and print her childhood memoir, I Was Born on the Pantiles, self-publishing was often seen as a bit of a joke, at least in professional circles.

Not that the

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2013-04-08T03:41:39+02:00April 8th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|

Your Book Is A Start Up: Tim Ferriss, The 4-Hour Chef, And The BitTorrent Publishing Model

As a former iterative project manager in publishing, I love this marketing model from Tim Ferriss. Social echo mechanism is something we should explore in another post soon – it’s how we all should market in my opinion. But for now, this from Bit Torrent.

If you’re a writer, here’s what you’re up against. No other industry has as many new product introductions as the publishing sector. No. Other. Industry. And your industry is in decline. Adult nonfiction books peaked in 2007, and have fallen each year since then. Bookstores are selling less books. In fact, average book

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2020-02-21T03:54:45+02:00April 7th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|Tags: |

Jim Carrey To Become A Self-Published Author

Jim Carrey is preparing to join the ranks of self-published authors with what he described as a “metaphysical” children’s book about a wave.

The actor told HitFix that the book would be called How Roland Rolls. And although a major Hollywood name like Carrey would find it easy to land a mainstream publisher, he said: “I’m going to self-publish, because that’s just the world right now and I think it’s cool”.

Carrey, who has one daughter and recently became a grandfather, said the book would be “beautifully illustrated”. He revealed that it would tell the story of “a wave named

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2013-04-04T09:25:18+02:00April 4th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|

In Good Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do Walt Whitman and the authors of Chicken Soup For The Soul have in common? Not much, you say? Well, okay, maybe not all that much. But there’s this: They were both self-published.

Plenty of authors have brought out their own work, sometimes because they couldn’t find a traditional publisher, sometimes for one reason or another they just wanted to go it on their own. Here are just a few examples of authors you might be surprised to know published their own work at least once in their careers:

E. […]

2013-04-03T08:45:17+02:00April 3rd, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|
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