Cate Baum | Self-Publishing Review

With Goodreads, Amazon Fills Out an Advice Portfolio

Further comment on the Amazon – Goodreads marriage is emerging. This interesting take from Harvard Business Review by Paul Nunes and Josh Bellin discusses the holy grail for book marketing: Unique consumer comment.

Amazon.com announced last week that it would purchase Goodreads, a social network for bookworms. As the “world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations,” Goodreads can help make Amazon the definitive place to go for book-related information. But does Amazon really need that help? The company is already the biggest provider of book advice, with its top-secret personalized recommendation algorithms, trusted user reviews, and inside-the-cover previews.

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Cate Baum2014-01-30T18:07:38+02:00April 2nd, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|Tags: Amazon News and Tips, Goodreads Articles|

What Amazon’s Acquistion Of Goodreads Means For Self-Publishers

So what does the news that Amazon is to acquire Goodreads actually mean for us self-publishers? Most of us relish Goodreads, and actively star each other’s work, as Goodreads proves to be a more successful platform for honest consumer review than Amazon in some ways – less glitchy than the strange process used by Amazon’s over-zealous non-bookish reviewers in that it tends to attract real bookworms with literary brains.

With 16 million members, it’s no wonder Amazon was grappling for control. So will Amazon complete its domination of everything book?

My worry would be that Goodreads up to now, has […]

Cate Baum2013-11-04T18:21:52+02:00March 30th, 2013|Categories: Lead Story|Tags: Amazon News and Tips, Goodreads Articles|

A Fascinating Looks At Authors As Teenagers

Emily Temple at Flavorwire has collected a really interesting bunch of photos of authors in their teens. My favorites include JD Salinger, a looker in a military uniform, and Allen Ginsberg looking extremely dorky.

Inspired, we took it upon ourselves to dig up a handful of snapshots of other legendary authors in those awkward (or not so awkward, as the case may be) teenage years, before they penned the words that made them famous.

Socially Awkward – Why Your Online Friends Don’t Buy Your Book

I have, apparently, 539 friends. Facebook tells me so.

I have a fan page for my book, with over 1000 likes. My Twitter is a healthy 600 odd and I have over 50 mentions on Google for the title. But you see, I know that not everyone rushed over to Amazon and picked up their copy the day it went on sale. I know this because I sold 23 copies on the first day. That was it.

So how the heck do I get every single one of those people to buy a copy of my book? Glibly “liking” my […]

Cate Baum2014-01-30T18:08:41+02:00March 19th, 2013|Categories: Features|

10 Tips For Proofreading Your Book

MediaShift’s Anna Lewis talks proofreading in this article originally from Completely Novel.

If you are self-publishing, then proofreading your manuscript is a really challenging task — and you’ll kick yourself if you find a mistake after you’ve told everyone about the book. No matter how many times you’ve read through your work, it’s amazing how often errors can sneak through to the final stages. The problem: You’re so familiar with the text that you see what you think you have written rather than what you actually wrote. For this reason, at the very least, it’s good to ask a few

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Cate Baum2020-02-21T06:11:19+02:00March 17th, 2013|Categories: News|Tags: Book Editing Tips|

Granta’s class of 2013: Picking The 20 Best Young British Novelists

Howls of outrage are bound to accompany next month’s unveiling of Granta’s list of top 20 young writers. Here a former Granta editor and veteran of the 2003 judging panel reveals how the list takes shape

Ten years is a long time in the literary game: it can easily take someone until then to finish writing a decent novel – although that’s less and less likely to wash with contemporary publishers. But a decade is also more than enough time for a writer’s fortunes to change dramatically.

Take Hilary Mantel. In 2003 she was a highly respected novelist and critic,

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Cate Baum2013-03-17T09:41:00+02:00March 17th, 2013|Categories: News|

Review: Why Leadership Sucks by Miles Anthony Smith

The book by author Miles Anthony Smith reads as a meaty and backed-up book choc full of crafted points on business leadership – nothing I haven’t read before, but it was all here in one book and documented thoroughly. I didn’t really fully grasp his rendition of the Level 5 Servant Leadership doctrine (I think some explanation is needed further using the originators of this theory as examples such as Greenleaf or Collins – thankfully I am familiar otherwise would have been lost) but thoroughly enjoyed his “start stop continue” team instruction: telling your team where to stop, start and […]

Cate Baum2014-05-06T22:33:43+02:00March 5th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Business Book Reviews, Religious Book Reviews|

Barnes & Noble Weighs Its E-Reader Investment

Could this be the end of the Nook? Via the New York Times:

Even for a company with a lot of bad news lately, the bulletin from Barnes & Noble this month had an ominous feel.

Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest book chain, warned that when it reports fiscal 2013 third-quarter results on Thursday, losses in its Nook Media division — which includes sales of e-books and devices — will be greater than the year before and that the unit’s revenue for all of fiscal 2013 would be far below projections it gave of $3 billion.

The problem

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