Announcing the Winners of the 2018 SPR Book Awards!
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Self-Published Vs. Trad Publishing? It’s not a choice, stop saying it is.
There seems to be a tide of “Trad Publishing Vs. Self-Publishing” posts out there at the moment. As if it’s a choice. I’ve taken a real umbrage to this. Because honestly, it’s not. Here’s why.
Traditional publishing – The Process
To get your book published by a so-called Big-Five publisher, i.e., Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, or one of their imprints — or honestly, any niche trad publisher, you’re going to need to go through a long and painful process. Here it is:
1. Get an agent. Various ways of getting an agent involve first, […]
Self-Publishing Review’s Author Manifesto for 2019
We asked authors what they want this year. It’s a really simple list: Personal customer service, something to help set up on Amazon, flexible pricing, tons of shares on social media, to sell books, Amazon Customer Reviews, free advice, leave disinformation behind, and have the freedom to publish without shame. How will we deliver this in 2019?
Personal customer service
To be a service provider to single-person businesses, i.e. authors, is a specialist concern in any industry. Dealing with highly fragile confidence and high impact delivery – i.e. big fail or big win – should be the overreaching priority. One […]
Self-Publishing Review is Ten Years Old! An Interview with Founder Henry Baum
Today, SPR is ten years old! Founder Henry Baum is a Manhattan-born Los Angeles musician and writer who currently lives near London, UK. He has been traditionally published in three countries, and has written several indie books, of which one has been made into a short film by Ruben Fleischer (director of “Zombieland” and “Venom”) starring Kevin Corrigan. He founded SPR in 2008 as a blog for authors to connect and share tips. Since then, the company has become a major startup in the the self-publishing industry, and employs several staff in the UK and USA.
What made you think […]
Why Do So Many Publishing Services Fail?
Traditional publishing professionals think they can jump on the indie bandwagon and make a mint from applying the same techniques they learned in that industry to self-published authors. This is the big error. The world of publishing and assisted publishing are two different beasts entirely.
And here’s why:
1. In assisted publishing, the author is the client.
This is confounding to many new services because in trad (traditional) publishing, the publisher holds the puppet strings. New services who don’t take the time to spell out deals and what the author will get on their service descriptions and websites feel like […]
Five Tips to Write Your Book in Hard Times
How Am I Supposed To Write With All This Going On?
This isn’t just October Surprise, this is something so depressing that I feel unable to write. How do we get to writing with all this sadness and violence going on? Here’s what I’m doing.
1. Turn off the TV. And the internet.
It’s the constant stream of gloomy, negative news into a household that will be getting in your head, even if you aren’t really listening to it. If you’re going to write, get away from the TV and listen to music instead. Here’s an app that stops […]
Six Reasons Why Amazon is Not Banning Indie Authors
There has been a lot of panic recently with horror stories about Amazon banning indie authors en masse for promoting their books. Here’s why that’s fake news.
1. Amazon is a business that wants to make money.
There are millions of books on Kindle, something like 7 million. Around 10% of Amazon’s total book stock. There’s no way Amazon wants to ban indie authors from Amazon, who must account for at least a quarter of those books, just by pure common sense.
2. Getting reviews and promotion for your book is not going to get you banned.
If you do […]