Cate Baum | Self-Publishing Review

How Authors Can Use Amazon Smile to Raise Money For Charity

When it comes to charity, we’re adept at giving online, especially when it doesn’t cost a dime to support your favorite cause. Amazon Smile is a tool that authors can leverage to sell books at the same time as making some money for just about any organization there is.

Amazon Smile is a subdomain of Amazon that sells exactly the same products, but gives users the opportunity to choose a charity to support.

“AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you […]

Cate Baum2020-02-20T13:30:15+02:00March 28th, 2017|Categories: Features|Tags: Amazon News and Tips, Book Promotion Articles|

The Baum Indie Book Prize 2017 Open For Entries!

With a book deal from Kwill Books worth over $3000 in publicity, editing, and reviews, it’s a prize open to any independent author looking for a boost for their new work!

Henry and Cate Baum have been working with indie authors at Self-Publishing Review and Kwill Books for a decade, offering author advice and services. This new prize seeks out new talent and both Henry and Cate will be working with the winner to launch their book at Kwill Books in October 2017. Authors who cannot afford to publicize their book professionally now have a chance to win a massive […]

Cate Baum2017-03-06T07:42:43+02:00March 6th, 2017|Categories: Features|

Mythbusting The Amazon Algorithm Part III – Verified Customer Reviews and the New Amazon Guidelines

There are some home truths we need to examine that authors are not really grasping about the Amazon Algorithm since I started this series. So in this installment of “Mythbusting,” I’m going to get into what the algorithm’s new Machine Learning model and new Amazon Guidelines mean for Verified Customer Reviews.

MYTH 1 – By figuring out what keywords people search for you can get customers to find your book

TRUTH – Meh. Here we go again. My answer to this is “Are you a robot?” You would have to be Hal 9000 since the new algorithm came along. Let’s […]

Cate Baum2020-02-20T13:25:23+02:00February 23rd, 2017|Categories: Features|Tags: Amazon Algorithm Tips for Authors, Amazon News and Tips, Book Promotion Articles, Book Reviews|

Are All Book Printing Services The Same? POD vs Offset Options for Authors

So many authors end up buying boxes of pre-printed books without understanding why they have now got these wretched masses in their closets and garages. Looking at the different types of print output will help you choose the right method to sell your book without felling trees and buying extra coat rails just to sell books.

Differences Between POD and Offset Printing

Print On Demand printing means you are running a digital print from the PDF file of your book. This is usually done on trade-quality paper, either white or cream, with standard inks.

Offset printing means the printing expert […]

Cate Baum2017-02-05T11:30:19+02:00February 5th, 2017|Categories: Features|

Amazon Reviews: How Readers Look At Them, And How To Sell Using Them

*This article on Amazon Reviews has been updated to reflect new guidelines!*

SPR has been working on a ton of resources to get you to shine on social media this week, and here we’re looking in detail at how book reviews will lead to sales.

Reviews are the only way to get those buyers to click that Buy Now button on your Amazon book page. As a culture, we have built up a respect for peer opinion, but it’s also important to remember that Customer Reviews on Amazon are the last port of call for a buyer before purchase.

And […]

Cate Baum2019-04-12T14:01:25+02:00January 30th, 2017|Categories: Features|Tags: Amazon News and Tips, Book Promotion Articles, Book Reviews|

Review: God, Grace, Dumb Luck by Phloyd Knucklez

In God, Grace, Dumb Luck, Phloyd Knucklez writes self-deprecating urban prose that explores the connections between his experiences with women, and snapshots of life in short story form with down-on-their-luck characters.

In a way, this is a difficult book to read because it’s not entirely clear if the writer understands how deeply depressed he is, even if his expectations for life are so low as to wear his distress and apathy as a badge of honor. His characters seem to reflect memories and situations he himself has been in, or search for meaning in their dark and squalid settings.[…]

Cate Baum2019-02-11T09:18:45+02:00January 13th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Poetry Book Reviews, Short Stories Book Reviews|

Indie Author Landscape Shifts in 2017? Well, not really.

So, is it all over for indie authors? Exactly the opposite, says Cate Baum of Self-Publishing Review.

It has been a year for indie book companies to draw to a close. Galley Cat, Booktrope, AllRomance, and IndieReader are just some indie book businesses who have declared “a shift in the indie author landscape” to be the cause of their indie book business closures, while many others seem to be in decline with much less activity and showcasing. On the other hand, Self-Publishing Review, a business that was started before most of these companies opened shop, has seen […]

Cate Baum2017-03-24T07:31:24+02:00January 10th, 2017|Categories: Features|

The Millennial Roadmap to a Rich Life by Jeremy Kho

There’s a lot of talk about Millennials in the business world, and a slew of books written about them – this is because thinking goes that employing Millennials can be highly beneficial to your business, but some find it a high-risk strategy. Jeremy Kho explains a different angle – how Millennials can deal with these attitudes, and how they themselves can achieve success and riches for themselves, in his new book, The Millennial Roadmap to a Rich Life: The Stress Less Guide to Succeed in Your Financial Life. Kho himself is a Millennial investor, and understands money, and he puts […]