February, 2009 | Self-Publishing Review

The Japanese Cellphone Novel Phenomenon

“Japanese got Jesus robots telling teenage fortunes.
For all we know and all we care they might as well be martians.”
Elvis Costello, “Tokyo Storm Warning”

That may be a little harsh (though it’s on my favorite Elvis Costello record), but CNN reports on the cellphone novel phenomenon that has swept Japan, a phenomenon that might not translate to the U.S. The story reports:

As the name suggests, cell phone novels are written entirely on handsets and posted on sites like Maho no i-rando (Magic Island), the first and largest mobile novel portal in Japan. The site has a

[…]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:27:52+02:00February 28th, 2009|Categories: News|

A Reaction to Frank Daniels' Futureproof

There’s a fairly brutal take on Frank Daniels’ futureproof, which seems unnecessarily negative but brings up some questions about how self-publishing will possibly be regarded in the future. One of the reasons I’ve advocated self-publishing is because if the book does eventually get picked up by a mainstream publisher, it’s a story that can eventually be written about the book – self-published writer hits it big.

If you go from small press to large publisher, or self-publishing to small press, there’s less of a story there. And publisher’s like any way that can get a book press. But what […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:28:08+02:00February 26th, 2009|Categories: Features|

A Quiet Place to Write

About a week ago I had to opportunity to view again, after twentyyears, an arty but satisfying film by director-documentarian Jill Godmilow, called Waiting for the Moon. Plotless and rather devil-may-care when it came to realistic chronology, it depicted the lives of Gertrude Stein and her companion, Alice B. Toklas, as they spent them in the artistically rich atmosphere of pre-war Paris and their peaceful country house in the French province of Ain, near the Swiss border. Their days spent in Ain hold a particular glamour for writers. For who among us has not longed for that quiet place, […]

Cantara Christopher2011-10-08T19:28:27+02:00February 25th, 2009|Categories: Resources|

AuthorHouse Review

AuthorHouse is one of the best known, and most widely-used, print on demand self-publishers, but it did not begin so auspiciously. It was started in 1997 as 1st Books by an author who was fed up with rejections. Unfortunately, 1st Books was met with a barrage of complaints about the service – including print quality and being overly-charged at an hourly rate for services. In 2001, 1st Books got a facelift and changed its name to AuthorHouse. Since that point, it has grown steadily and hasn’t been targeted with the same type of complaints as 1st Books – which some […]

Henry Baum2014-01-08T20:51:39+02:00February 25th, 2009|Categories: Publisher Reviews|

Mr. Bukowski's Wild Ride by Rodger Jacobs

You might think that writing a book with Charles Bukowski is redundant. Bukowski’s own fiction is basically autobiography, in which his alter-ego Henry Chinaski works at the post office, sleeps with groupies, makes a movie, has a childhood, and so on. You might think that, but you’d be wrong about Mr. Bukowski’s Wild Ride because of two things:

1. It’s written in the third person, not the first person.
2. This is like no book Bukowski ever wrote.

The book puts Bukowski in touch with people from his lifetime, both fictional and not, and how he’d […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:29:16+02:00February 23rd, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Introduction: Tia Nevitt of Fantasy Debut

When I started Fantasy Debut in June of 2007, I was delighted because it was noticed almost immediately by the science fiction blogging community. I had no idea about anything in the blogging world; I didn’t know any of the bloggers, and I never figured that people would want to send me free books.

The book offers began within three months, and from the first, I was very careful about accepting books. This is because I don’t have time to read fast, and I don’t like getting myself overbooked. I had to narrow my focus to keep up with all […]

Tia Nevitt2011-10-08T20:39:04+02:00February 23rd, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

The Future of Ebooks and The Time Machine

Amazon has just released very healthy figures for the last year and this should be a strong nudge to the shoulder of publishers that they need to be serious about ebooks sales. They need to cast aside the mixture of lethargy and bemusement which was evident at last week’s unveiling of the Kindle 2 in New York City’s Morgan Library. While there are many ebook readers about, from the Kindle, Sony and the European produced Irex—even games giant Nintendo see the possibilities in this area. They released their own ebook styled software reader of books for the 2008 Christmas market.[…]

Mick Rooney2011-10-08T20:04:39+02:00February 20th, 2009|Categories: Features|

Four Rules for Creating Your Own Marketing Strategy

1.) It’s an Investment, Not a Cost

Marketing is more than just selling your book. Taken by themselves, most marketing events are loss-leaders. A book signing or table event won’t normally bring you enough profit on the copies sold to cover your costs of getting there, much less a decent wage for the hours spent not just during the appearance, but all the collateral work and other material that you should provide such as bookmarks and posters. You are not just promoting the event, but creating buzz and excitement about the book which will carry over to book store staff […]

Francis Hamit2011-10-08T20:05:14+02:00February 20th, 2009|Categories: Resources|