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.

Barry Eisler Crunches the Numbers

Really can’t get enough of this story. A Barry Eisler interview on The Daily Beast:

Ballantine managed to sell about 10,000 combined digital copies of my last two books at a $9.99 price point (a price point that was earning me $1.49 per unit sold, BTW) in the latest three-month period for which I have data. Call that 5000 of each book for three months, so 1,667 of each book per month. If I cut the Ballantine price in half and still can only move 1,667 units a month, at a $3.50 per unit royalty ($4.99 x 70% =

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Henry Baum2011-03-25T12:38:11+02:00March 25th, 2011|Categories: News|

Bad Writing Doesn’t Matter Anymore

It used to be the refrain about self-publishing that to do it right you needed to hire a professional book-cover designer and a professional editor. While there is no doubt that self-publishers should do this, it doesn’t really seem to be the case that this entirely matters anymore. Plainly, we’re entering a new phase where people approach writing differently. People will forgive problems for a cheap read.

Roxanne Gay has a post on HTML Giant which repeats the age-old mantra about gatekeepers:

Quality is certainly very subjective but even with that, given the self-published work I’ve read (admittedly not an

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Henry Baum2011-07-09T06:00:59+02:00March 25th, 2011|Categories: Features|

Amanda Hocking Getting a Book Deal (Updated)

This sort of flies in the face of Barry Eisler turning down $500K, but if Amanda Hocking is being offering widespread print distribution, merchandising, film deal prospects, and other things she can’t do on her own, it’s not surprising if she takes a deal – even if she’s already making a very good living on her own. From the New York Times:

Amanda Hocking, the darling of the self-publishing world, has been shopping a four-book series to major publishers, attracting bids of well over $1 million for world English rights, two publishing executives said.

Ms. Hocking, a 26-year-old

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Henry Baum2011-03-24T09:49:57+02:00March 22nd, 2011|Categories: News|

Self-Publishers on the NY Times Bestseller List

The New York Times list for bestselling ebooks is letting self-publishers in, resulting in stories like this one.

Currently, Victorine E. Lieske is not on the list, but another self-released book is:

Both books sell for $.99. What’s interesting, and sort of odd, is that the list mimics Amazon’s bestseller list, but not entirely. Popular self-published writers Amanda Hocking and John Locke are missing from the Times. As the Times footnotes:

Rankings reflect weekly sales for books sold in both print and electronic formats as reported by vendors offering a wide range of general interest titles.

So this […]

Henry Baum2011-03-22T17:35:54+02:00March 22nd, 2011|Categories: Features|

Barry Eisler Turns Down $500K to Self-Publish

Fascinating discussion between Barry Eisler and JA Konrath at Konrath’s blog.

Barry: Here’s something that happened about a year ago. Anecdotal, but still telling, I think. My wife and daughter and I were sitting around the dinner table, talking about what kind of contract I would do next, and with what publisher. And my then eleven-year-old daughter said, “Daddy, why don’t you just self-publish?”

And I thought, wow, no one would have said something like that even a year ago. I mean, it used to be that self-publishing was what you did if you couldn’t get a traditional deal.

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Henry Baum2015-03-31T01:01:43+02:00March 21st, 2011|Categories: Member Blog|

Writer’s Digest Partners with Author Solutions

Hmmn:

Writer’s Digest, the oldest and most respected media company dedicated to the advancement of writers, announced today it is partnering with the leading self-publishing company, Author Solutions, Inc., (ASI), to launch Abbott Press-a self-publishing division. Named in honor of Richard K. Abbott, the legendary Writer’s Digest editor, Abbott Press is devoted to helping writers improve their work and realize their dreams of getting published.

“In keeping with the mission of Writer’s Digest, and in order to provide our consumers with the most complete information, inspiration, products and services to further their craft, we are proud to

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T16:32:44+02:00January 24th, 2011|Categories: News|

A Life Transparent: An Interview with Todd Keisling

Todd Keisling is the author of the very excellent A Life Transparent, just released via Lightning Source. He’s also going to be taking on some of the editorial duties at SPR, so check out this interview to find out about his novel, his thoughts on writing, and what he hopes to achieve with the site.

About the novel:

He is the consummate husband. Stable, hard-working, and dedicated to his wife, Donovan is a paragon of the Middle Class.

Until now.

Strange visions of a monochromatic world. Bizarre sensations of physical transparency. At first, Donovan fears he’s losing his grip

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T16:34:14+02:00January 10th, 2011|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Thirteen Chapters Launched for Independent Authors

Via press release:

A role of the Association of Independent Authors is to establish and maintain standards for its members with regard to both writing, and a code of conduct for when dealing with others in the industry. In the same way individual publishing houses offer an implied guarantee of editorial quality for the titles they publish, the Association of Independent Authors assumes a similar role for its members who are career-focused professionals engaged in the art of writing.

The formation of thirteen chapters across the globe offers an opportunity for members in those locations to meet face-to-face, and

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T16:39:18+02:00December 16th, 2010|Categories: News|