Henry Baum | Self-Publishing Review

About Henry Baum

Author of three self-published novels and one traditionally published (Soft Skull Press, Canongate, and Hachette Littératures). Recipient of Best Fiction at the DIY Book Festival, the Gold IPPY Award for Visionary Fiction, and the Hollywood Book Festival Grand Prize. He lives with his wife Cate Baum in Spain. He's the founder of SPR.

Poll: Writers Prefer Traditional to Self-Publishing

Frankly, the results of this unscientific poll are unsurprising. In a 2014 Author Survey, these were the results:

Despite the rise of self-publishing and the enthusiasm with which self-published authors celebrate its ascendance, overall, the authors surveyed are more interested in traditionally publishing their next book. The greatest preference for traditionally publishing was reported by traditionally published authors (87.2%) followed by not-yet-published authors (76.8%). Among authors who have self-published, more than half hoped to publish with traditional publishers—53.5% of self-published authors and 57.8% of hybrid authors.

Profits aside, when people are given the choice between:

1. Someone else paying […]

Henry Baum2014-01-13T12:43:39+02:00January 13th, 2014|Categories: News|

Ingram Spark Challenges Createspace

Ingram has launched a new self-publishing option in addition to Lightning Source – handling both ebooks and print on demand. One of the complaints about Lightning Source is that it is not entirely user-friendly, so Ingram Spark can be considered a kind of Amazon-like version of Lightning Source. Ingram Spark still uses LSI as its print on demand service, so it’s not a wholly separate entity. From the site:

After 50 years in the industry, Ingram recognized the need to reduce the amount of time and effort publishers spend trying to manage the complexities of distributing a book around

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Henry Baum2018-10-22T12:34:18+02:00January 8th, 2014|Categories: Resources|

Smashwords Unveils Redesign

After looking nearly like a 90’s site for many years, Smashwords has unveiled a redesign throughout the entire site. Though some on the SW blog are complaining that it’s merely cosmetic, these cosmetic features strike me as a major leap forward. Rather than looking like a site where writers upload books to never be seen again, the site looks like a place where readers might actually buy books. This alone in the upper right corner is a major improvement:

Reviews are also more prominent on book pages, giving it a more Amazonian feel.

Other improvements:

Among the highlights of the

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Henry Baum2014-01-08T13:02:17+02:00December 17th, 2013|Categories: News|

A Self-Publishing Movie Deal

An interesting case of a traditionally best-selling writer going the self-publishing route AND getting a movie deal at the same time. Via Entertainment Weekly: Allison Winn Scotch to self-publish fifth novel with Jennifer Garner’s production company attached to film

Time of My Life author Allison Winn Scotch’s first venture into self-publishing comes with her fifth novel The Theory of Opposites, cover art above. “The book industry is constantly changing, and at this time in my professional life, I’m committed to taking greater risks,” Scotch said in a statement. “I won’t deny that it’s overwhelming to venture out on

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Henry Baum2013-11-09T14:20:42+02:00November 9th, 2013|Categories: News|

Two Good Self-Publishing Posts

A couple of good posts that cover well-trod info about self-publishing, but good nonetheless.

The Fortress Walls Have Been Breached, Captain

In 1917 Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard unpacked a small printing press in the front room of their home. They set up the Hogarth Press to enable them to print small volumes of books that “the commercial publisher would not look at”. The Hogarth Press gave the writers of the Bloomsbury circle, which included TS Eliot and EM Forster, the freedom to write what they wanted, rather than write what established publishers judged saleable.

Nearly one hundred

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Henry Baum2013-08-23T13:49:34+02:00August 23rd, 2013|Categories: Features|

WordPress Bookstore Plugin: MyBookTable

If you’re using WordPress (.org), this plugin is somewhat useful, but could be a lot more useful. It streamlines something that doesn’t necessarily need to be streamlined, but it is a useful organizational tool if you’ve got a lot of books to manage.

If you’re already using WordPress and made a blog page for a book, the system for adding a book’s details and bookstore links is pretty straight forward. Here’s how I’ve done it. Those buy links could perhaps be better organized. But the process of putting together that post is straight forward: add details and images. MyBookTable […]

Henry Baum2013-08-23T13:20:44+02:00August 23rd, 2013|Categories: Resources|

New Ebook Store: Libiro

A nice-looking ebook store open to self-publishers, still in beta. Put together by a self-publisher.

About:

Why do you only sell indie books?

The main reason is that indie authors are exciting. The good thing about publishing yourself is that you’re not tied down to market trends or a publisher’s business plan. Indie authors can write what they want, when they want. The result? A different breed of writing. A pedigree we’re proud to represent.

Here’s another reason for you: Indie authors can sometimes have trouble standing out on huge stores like Amazon, and constantly work hard to make

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Henry Baum2013-08-23T12:48:43+02:00August 23rd, 2013|Categories: Resources|

Smashwords Unveils Smashwords Interviews

Smashwords unveiled a cool new promotional tool where authors can interview themselves. Interviews can be ranked according to popularity.

Here’s how it works:

How to create, edit and publish your Interview:

Your Smashwords Interview can have as many or as few questions as you like. Next to each “Q:” Write out your question, or select from one of our suggested questions.

We have about a dozen suggested questions to get your creative juices flowing. These questions are all optional. Feel free to modify our questions or create your own!

Each Answer can be up to 5,000 characters long (around 600

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