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.

The Secret in the Forest by Sheila Adam McIntyre

The concept that “Writers should show, not tell,” may be a bit overused. The basic premise of show don’t tell is that you can better inspire empathy for a character if you shows what a particular moment feels like, rather than just saying: He was sad. That sentence will convey nothing if there’s no context illustrating that sadness. However, if a writer is too strict about showing and not telling, there’s the potential to only write around a subject, and this is not necessarily an accurate reflection of how people think or act. It can actually add some unreality to […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:53:21+02:00September 29th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Things are Changing – with Poll

Two very interesting posts came out last week signifying major shifts in publishing and how self-publishing may be regarded. This article is a must read: Adding to the Bottom Line With Self-Published Titles. Thie gist of the article is this: self-published titles are not the money-drain they used to be and now can be seen as a way for bookstore to…wait for it…turn a profit:

At the 20,000-square-foot Boulder Bookstore in Boulder Colorado, Arsen Kashkashian said self-published books are “definitely a growth market for us.” After getting “inundated” with local authors looking to sell their self-published books, the bookstore

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:48:24+02:00September 22nd, 2009|Categories: Features|

Reviewing the Reviewers: A Dialogue about Book Reviewing

The idea for this dialogue came after the controversy regarding the review of John Lacombe’s Winter Games. If you haven’t seen that thread, check it out, it’s a long one – it has a lot of interesting commentary about how writers and/or their fans should respond to reviews, including examples of how not to respond to a review. Carol Buchanan, who reviewed the book, didn’t like the novel. Steven Reynolds, who reviews for SPR, liked the book in a review for the now-defunct Podler. Carol and Steven got together to talk about the controversy and book reviewing in general. […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:54:02+02:00September 17th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

The Principle of Ultimate Indivisibility by Brent Robison

There is nothing that separates this book from a book on a small independent press. Nothing. The cover is exquisite, the writing is crisp, well-edited, and moving. It’s not perfect, but none of my criticisms have anything to do with the professionalism of the book. When this book was sent to me, I wrote to the author that the cover evoked to me string theory and quantum foam – especially when coupled with such a lofty title as The Principle of Ultimate Indivisibilty. I was imagining a book that did for fractals what William Vollmann’s novel, The Atlas, […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:54:16+02:00September 16th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Backword Books Announces Writing Contest: Win 7 Books

I’m normally somewhat reticent to post too much about Backword Books here because I don’t want SPR to become too much of a site for my own self-promotion – Backword Books is a self-publishing collective I belong to. But I think this contest could be interesting: write a blog post about self-publishing to win 7 books by 7 Backword authors. Here’s the full outline of the contest. Hope you’ll take part in it – could be an interesting way to foment opinion about self-publishing:

Grand Prize: A package of seven books by Backword authors: Homefront by Kristen Tsetsi, Spam &

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Henry Baum2009-12-31T18:42:11+02:00September 16th, 2009|Categories: News|

The Quartet Press Story

One of the things that’s not talked about enough is that self-publishing is no different than starting your own publishing company – if it were couched in these terms, perhaps it would get more respect. How can there not be respect for someone who’s in charge of every facet of the publishing process? The trouble is this isn’t always the case. When you publish with Lulu, it’s possible to have a book printed in ten minutes using one of their cover templates. It’s no more difficult than signing up with Blogger. This is great, but it’s a different animal than […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:49:11+02:00September 15th, 2009|Categories: News|

Call Out for Reviewers

An idea – wondering if writers would be interested in taking on books to review. I could send each writer an ebook and he/she could write a review while offering a place to plug a book. As it stands, this site has more books coming in than can possibly be reviewed by the current staff, with more coming in daily. With Lulu boasting on its site, “Over 1000 New Titles a Day,” it’s no surprise that this site might be overwhelmed with books.

A representative from Outskirts Press recently offered to send the site 2 books a week to review. […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T18:47:34+02:00September 15th, 2009|Categories: Lead Story|

Should You Self-Publish?

That title sounds like a pretty rudimentary question from a site going into its tenth month, but that’s not the question that’s been asked most often here. The question has been: is self-publishing legitimate? This comes in response to people who say things like “Self-published books are crap,” which is sort of like saying, “All dogs bite,” after being bitten by two. Plainly put, they’re wrong, overgeneralizing, and aren’t worth too much more ink.

Now that self-publishing is a legitimate way to go, is it something you should consider? The “About” page for this site says,