September, 2009 | Self-Publishing Review

Reviewing the Reviewers Part II

This is a continuation of Reviewing the Reviewers: A Dialogue about Book Reviewing with Steven Reynolds and Carol Buchanan, which led to a very lively discussion.

Self-Publishing Review: When a self-published novel is awful, do you think the reviewer has any responsibility to spare the writer’s feelings?

Steven Reynolds: A writer will always be somewhat hurt by a negative review. You have to assume they’re reasonably happy with the book they published, otherwise why would they bother? So to have some stranger publicly detail its apparent failings is going to hurt.

When confronted with a book that doesn’t […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:52:29+02:00September 30th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

East Garrison by G.M. Weger

The more self-published books I read, the more despondent I get over the state of what now appears to pass for “writing” in general. With some (OK, most) of these books, you are sometimes forced to wonder if it isn’t a case of reader bias brought about by shoddy packaging. It seems that it would go without saying for a self-publisher to go out of his way to make sure that he spends just as much effort on the design and layout of his novel as he has supposedly spent on writing the prose. But as any of us who […]

N. Frank Daniels2011-10-08T18:52:48+02:00September 30th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Smashwords Teams up with Sony

Big news from Smashwords with great implications for self-publishers. Earlier, we reported on the deal between Smashwords and Barnes & Noble, which means that books published via Smashwords will also be distributed to B&N and other B&N properties like Fictionwise and the ereader application. Now Smashwords expands its reach by teaming up with Sony to have Smashwords ebooks listed in the Sony ebook portal.

From Digital Beat:

Self-published authors can now visit the Sony Publisher Portal and click on Smashwords to sign up for a free publishing account. Then they can format a book in Smashwords’ style andchoose

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:53:03+02:00September 29th, 2009|Categories: News|

The Secret in the Forest by Sheila Adam McIntyre

The concept that “Writers should show, not tell,” may be a bit overused. The basic premise of show don’t tell is that you can better inspire empathy for a character if you shows what a particular moment feels like, rather than just saying: He was sad. That sentence will convey nothing if there’s no context illustrating that sadness. However, if a writer is too strict about showing and not telling, there’s the potential to only write around a subject, and this is not necessarily an accurate reflection of how people think or act. It can actually add some unreality to […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:53:21+02:00September 29th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Things are Changing – with Poll

Two very interesting posts came out last week signifying major shifts in publishing and how self-publishing may be regarded. This article is a must read: Adding to the Bottom Line With Self-Published Titles. Thie gist of the article is this: self-published titles are not the money-drain they used to be and now can be seen as a way for bookstore to…wait for it…turn a profit:

At the 20,000-square-foot Boulder Bookstore in Boulder Colorado, Arsen Kashkashian said self-published books are “definitely a growth market for us.” After getting “inundated” with local authors looking to sell their self-published books, the bookstore

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:48:24+02:00September 22nd, 2009|Categories: Features|

Author John Lacombe's Response to the Winter Games Controversy

In response to the controversy over the SPR review of the novel, Winter GamesReviewing the Reviewers. – further explored in the post,

I was recently made aware of the controversy that followed Carol Buchanan’s review of my novel Winter Games. I have been following the string of comments below Ms. Buchanan’s review with mixed emotions.

On one hand, it stirs an amount of pride in me to see so many readers coming to the defense of Winter Games. On the other hand, the dialogue has, at times, reached a cringe-worthy level of vitriol. I belong to […]

John Lacombe2011-10-08T19:48:58+02:00September 18th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

Street Level Views of Book Marketing

We did another little book tour in August. It was time. The economy was creating a stagnant sales profile, and we know that doing a few book signings primes the pump. We made our arrangements with four Hastings Entertainment stores, two of which we were at last year. (This makes a total of sixteen book signings with Hastings Entertainment stores.)

Why the repeat appearances? Because we were on the same route to and from our house in Texas that we were last year. One of the book managers asked us to return because she had five signed copies we’d left […]

Francis Hamit2011-10-08T18:53:35+02:00September 17th, 2009|Categories: Features|

Reviewing the Reviewers: A Dialogue about Book Reviewing

The idea for this dialogue came after the controversy regarding the review of John Lacombe’s Winter Games. If you haven’t seen that thread, check it out, it’s a long one – it has a lot of interesting commentary about how writers and/or their fans should respond to reviews, including examples of how not to respond to a review. Carol Buchanan, who reviewed the book, didn’t like the novel. Steven Reynolds, who reviews for SPR, liked the book in a review for the now-defunct Podler. Carol and Steven got together to talk about the controversy and book reviewing in general. […]