Features | Self-Publishing Review

Announcing The Finalists of The SPR Book Awards 2016!

It’s been a very competitive year for The SPR Book Awards, as self-publishing continues to flourish with some really nice book covers, interiors, and storytelling. This year, the SPR reviewers decided to focus on the writing skills and presentation of the words – we wanted to really enjoy to the material the authors created themselves. In a few hours, we’ll be announcing the winners, but we are proud to announce the following finalists.

FINALISTS – Announced 8am PST December 15, 2016

All Finalists will be invited for an author interview at SPR over the next weeks. Congrats to all […]

Cate Baum2019-04-12T14:11:36+02:00December 15th, 2016|Categories: Features, News|Tags: SPR Book Awards|

Authors – Use This Cunning Trick To Protect Your Book From Plagiarism!

There’s a clever way to find your pirated book online if you follow this simple trick, sometimes used by dictionary and reference book publishers. All you have to do is use a Mountweasel.

Yes, that’s right. A Mountweasel. A Mountweasel is a made-up word that is unique to you, and makes it entirely easy to Google your book’s contents to see if has been pirated or plagiarized. Lillian Mountweasel was a fountain designer and postbox photographer whose fame was eternalized in the 1975 New Columbia Encyclopedia. The thing was, she was fake, and entirely a Mountweasel herself!

The word Mountweasel […]

Cate Baum2016-12-13T08:20:51+02:00December 13th, 2016|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Editing, Copyright|

Amazon Book Reviews – “Allowed” and “Not Allowed”

There still seems to be some confusion around what Amazon calls its Editorial Review section. Despite there being very strong evidence that it is a good idea to have editorial reviews for your book, authors are still, yes, still, muddling these up with the dreaded “paid” review. As COO of one of the major services delivering editorial reviews and mailout services, it’s about time I made yet another attempt to clear up this misinformation.

Paid Reviews are NOT Editorial Reviews – May this be your mantra

When authors talk about “paid reviews”, they are talking about individuals who offer […]

Cate Baum2020-02-21T06:34:05+02:00September 12th, 2016|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Promotion, Book Reviews|

Why We Write About 9/11

It was a balmy day in September. I was in London, working in a digital studio, churning out tabards and display signs on Photoshop for conferences. Standing next to me was a woman who was flying out that afternoon to present a new credit card to her colleagues at Morgan Stanley in New York, based in the South Tower of the World Trade Center, waiting for me to print her last display image.

A tiny TV on silent over the printer caught our eye. We couldn’t quite figure out what the image was, maybe a fire at a local school, […]

Cate Baum2019-01-22T05:35:50+02:00September 11th, 2016|Categories: Features|

SPR Awards 2016 Open For Submissions!

NOW CLOSED FOR SUBMISSIONS! WINNERS ANNOUNCED DEC 15, 2016

Click here for the latest contest

It’s time for our international book awards to kick off again! This year the prizes have got bigger and better with the first prize giving you over $2000 of book promotion, so we hope to see some strong competition! In its third year, the SPR Awards has been an exciting and diverse competition, with exposure for authors to thousands of readers and a real chance to gain some kudos for all your hard work!

This year we are awarding one overall prize and opening up […]

Cate Baum2019-04-16T07:39:10+02:00September 9th, 2016|Categories: Features|Tags: Competitions, SPR Book Awards|

Promoting Your Book 101: Google vs Amazon vs Facebook vs Twitter

Often we are faced with a daunting task of promoting our books. But how? What is the difference between promoting on Google and Amazon? Why does it matter what sort of promotion you do as an author?

Lately I have been surprised by the amount of clients missing the basics. Here’s a quick guide to fill in some gaps in knowledge.

First Things First – The Plan

Most authors buy promotion without having a plan. What is the goal? How many books do you aim to sell? Do you want reviews, ranking, or to build up your social media followers? […]

Cate Baum2016-09-05T11:14:41+02:00September 1st, 2016|Categories: Features|Tags: Amazon, Book Promotion|

Mostly, It’s Not a Choice – Indie Authorship

There are many articles that start “What should you choose: traditional or self-publishing?” This gives the wrong impression to writers. Why? Because it gives the impression that as an author you have the choice to be published by a publishing house if you like!

You probably don’t, and it’s high time this author forum myth is put to bed.

If you want to be traditionally published, you are facing several obstacles before even beginning your publishing journey. Here we discuss the issues with pursuing a traditional career in detail, and how hard it actually is.

Agents

Getting Solicited

You will […]

Cate Baum2016-08-16T11:25:23+02:00August 16th, 2016|Categories: Features|

Tips From A Brit For Fictional British Characters

Cate Baum, born in Cambridge, England, breaks down some myths about Brits.

It seems that British characters in fiction written from an American point of view have two forms: one, a James bond-style hunk with connections to monarchy or aristocracy, or a downright villain.

As kids in England, my sister and I used to joke that if there was an episode of “Murder She Wrote” with an English character, they would always be the murderer – we were right 9 times out out of 10! (Angela Lansbury is English too, by the way, and was a bridesmaid at my great […]

Cate Baum2016-07-20T08:26:10+02:00July 20th, 2016|Categories: Features|