Henry Baum

If you haven’t been following this story, there’s been a minor dust up at South by Southwest in a panel about publishing.  The basic gist: publishers are holding onto the past model of publishing, while there are new ways to determine if a writer will find a readership.  William Aicher, a self-published writer, has one of the best posts and discussions on the topic.

The  ultimate “New Think” for the publishing industry that I’ve been pushing both in book publishing, as well as in the music publishing industry is to change the mindset that publishers are in charge and

Dear SPR,

No matter how much positivity surrounds self-publishing today (it’s a growing trend, more “good” writers are self-publishing their work, etc.), it still has a long way to go before people are able to overlook the stigma that invariably goes along with it .

I agree that it can be rewarding to self-publish. I’ve enjoyed having worked to sell my book, I’ve enjoyed the reviews it’s received absent of a big-name publisher logo often required to get people to read past the cover, and I’ve enjoyed knowing that, even without that publisher, many have been able to enjoy my […]

Podpeep links to an interesting article about the DIY music phenomenon and why self-released music gets so much more respect than self-released writing.  The article quotes the editor of Paste Magazine as saying: “In the book world, it’s so fragmented, with so many publishing houses out there, that somebody doing something on their own has more of a stigma because it suggests that everybody else passed on it.”

That hardly seems to be the problem.  I have no firm numbers, but I would imagine there are more small indie labels than there are publishers – especially when you factor in […]