February, 2009 | Self-Publishing Review

The Simplest of Acts and Other Stories by Melanie Haney

Melanie Haney is a great writer and she masterful at the what makes short stories strongest: the last sentence. In Melanie Haney’s collection, The Simplest of Acts and Other Stories, you’re often left at the end of the story wishing it would go on, but knowing that it ended perfectly: concise and alive, as if you know the characters will go on living even if you’re not reading. These stories are quiet, deep, and powerful.

In a way, the book is not well-advertised on the back. The back copy says these are “carefully wrought tales of loss and love […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:39:35+02:00February 14th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Osprey to Refer Writers to AuthorHouse

Via Pod Peep comes the news that Osprey, a leading Military book publisher, is going to refer rejected books to the self-publishing service, AuthorHouse. This comes on the heels of Chronicle Books, primarily known as a publisher of illustrated books, though they publish others, to Blurb, which specializes in photography and other graphic-based books.

In both cases, Emily Veinglory of Pod Peep took the publishing houses to task. Mick Rooney – who writes for this site – wrote an informed article about how this takes advantage of writers. I’ll take the part of contrarian.

This could potentially be […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:43:34+02:00February 14th, 2009|Categories: News|

Bad Self-Published Books

Obviously, I’m a self-publishing advocate, but I can acknowledge that there are some hilariously bad self-published books out there. Thankfully, they haven’t come my way in the form of submissions. Maybe my reviews have been too critical, but it’s my experience it’s the people who write the better books who are the most obsessed with marketing – see Kristen Tsetsi and Frank Daniels. So maybe the people who write more-ridiculous titles don’t send their books out that often.

Thankfully there are sites like Selfpublishedbooks.info, which is a kind of anti-Self-Publishing Review, as it only lives to mock self-published […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:43:50+02:00February 14th, 2009|Categories: Features|

Interview: Tessa Dick, author of The Owl in Daylight, and widow of Philip K. Dick

An interview with Tessa Dick, last wife of Philip K. Dick, who has reworked the novel he was working on at the time of his death in 1982, The Owl in Daylight – reviewed by SPR. She blogs at It’s a Philip K. Dick World!

Self-Publishing Review: You were married to Philip K. Dick between 1973 and 1977. How did you two meet?

Tessa Dick: Phil’s lady friend at the time, Ginger, was breaking up with him. Phil was clinging to her, so she decided to introduce him to someone else at a beach party on the 4th of […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:44:12+02:00February 12th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

The Owl in Daylight by Tessa Dick

Last week, I got the most amazing submission yet at the Self-Publishing Review. Tessa Dick, last wife and widow of Philip K. Dick – author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the basis for the movie “Blade Runner, the short-story, “Minority Report,” and many others – submitted a novel for review and request for an interview. I am a huge Philip K. Dick fan and I’m currently working on a novel that is heavily-inspired by Philip K. Dick – a novel that I plan on self-publishing.

I’m especially influenced by his late novels, which were a mixture of […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:29:36+02:00February 12th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Self-Publishing Standards Part Two

(Read Part One here)

There are some basic principles and standards an author should look for in a company offering self-publishing services. In my previous article on Types of Self Publishing – Peeling Away the Layers, I explained how many terms can be used to describe these companies, but here are some of the things you should be looking for. You may not find a company that matches all these standards, in fact I think it would be unlikely, but it will go a long way to helping an author find a strong reputable company which best matches […]

Mick Rooney2011-10-08T19:29:52+02:00February 12th, 2009|Categories: Resources|

Self-Publishing Standards Part One

The author who embarks on the journey into self-publishing takes on a great many tasks. If they choose to fulfil all the tasks themselves, they have, in effect, taken on the running of a small business and everything that goes with it. They may decide to run their small publishing business by registering it a sole proprietor company, with the intention of publishing more than just one book. They not only become authors of their book, but editor, designer and illustrator. They will have to go about preparing their book as a digital file for the printers, using a program […]

Mick Rooney2011-10-15T12:26:43+02:00February 12th, 2009|Categories: Resources|

Ebooks and Environmental Impact

In the interesting and heated discussion in the post about the future of ebooks, it was raised that the environmental benefits of ebooks are one of its major advantages. While there’s not a great argument to be made that reading a book on an e-reader is preferable to reading a printed book, the environmental impact is something that does make ebooks superior to the printed word. Some do argue that it’s easier to hold an ebook reader in one hand and searchability is something they can’t do without – but generally it’s a more pleasant experience to read, and […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:30:24+02:00February 11th, 2009|Categories: Lead Story, Resources|