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.

Broken Bulbs by Eddie Wright

One of the interesting things about buying a book site unseen on the internet is that when the book arrives it can be much different than what you might have pictures. How many people check the dimensions of a book before buying it? Broken Bulbs is a small book – 4 x 6 and only 132 pages, but the writing itself is anything but small: it’s as authentic as they come, experimental without trying to be intentionally obscure, dark without making you doubt humanity, smart and energetic. In short, it’s great writing.

Anyone who doubts the usefulness of self-publishing need […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:31:33+02:00February 1st, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

An Attachment to Books

A fascinating new study about people’s attachment to objects has been conducted at Ohio State University. What’s this have to do with self-publishing? A lot. We’ve mentioned here before that the ability to actually feel a book in your hands can do a lot for book sales. This why having a book in bookstores is so paramount. Stellar reviews on an Amazon page are no doubt helpful, but no web-based sales can approach seeing, and feeling, an object in store.

It’s not just a case of reading an excerpt and seeing if you like the person’s writing. By picking up […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:31:50+02:00January 30th, 2009|Categories: Features|

The Aquarius Key by Keith Rowley

I’m a bit loathe to be critical of this book because I sought out the book myself – convincing the author to send out a book at his own expense, rather than an author doing that voluntarily. But of course it wouldn’t speak to well about the objectivity of these reviews if I was totally biased.

The reason I sought out to review this book – which I’d seen reviewed highly favorably on Odyssey Reviews – is because I’m interested in how occult subjects are tackled in fiction. Interestingly, many of these books that tackle more esoteric subjects (such as […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:32:05+02:00January 30th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

New Article on Self-Publishing in the New York Times

There’s a new article in the New York Times about self-publishing. Not as interesting as Time Magazine’s recent piece about self-publishing – and certainly not the first article in the Times about self-publishing – but piece by piece self-publishing is gaining clout. The article says,

Vanity presses have existed for decades, but technology has made it much easier for aspiring authors to publish without hefty upfront costs. Gone are the days when self-publishing meant paying a printer to produce hundreds of copies that then languished in a garage.

This could be one of the things to further the cause of […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:32:19+02:00January 29th, 2009|Categories: Features|

The Tide is Turning

From an excellent comment by Frank Daniels, which could be a post in itself, comes a link to this article about self-publishing in Time Magazine, which basically echoes why the SPR began in the first place. Articles like this could signal the beginning of self-publishing being taken seriously. In a dream future, which is quickly approaching, as technology increases daily, self-publishing could be regarded as a first resort, not a last resort.

At the very least, it will not be seen as the avenue of the pathetic and untalented – which, truth be told, is how many people regard […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:08:39+02:00January 26th, 2009|Categories: Features|

Chion by Darryl Sloan

Interestingly, this book arrived with the stamp of the International Print on Demand award, given out by Podler reviews. It’s a good example of putting a book award to good use. The Podler award is not the biggest award for self-published books (read SPR’s post on self-published book awards) but no one who picks up this edition of Chion will know the difference – they’ll only see that is was stamped with an award. The book has one of the better book covers you’ll see on a self-published book. The interior is well-designed as well.

And the book […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:08:57+02:00January 26th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

BookSurge Review

Last May, Amazon attempted to muscle out other print on demand outlets by declaring that only Amazon-affiliated books released through BookSurge could be printed via Amazon. The warning declared that unless books printed via BookSurge, the “buy now” button would be deactivated. This unsurprisingly sent ripples through the entire self-publishing universe, as anyone with a POD book through Lulu or other outlook would not be able to sell books through the largest online book outlet. Booklocker.com, a print on demand outlet, filed an anti-trust suit against Amazon, a case which is still pending.

As terrible as this move was […]

Henry Baum2010-01-01T00:02:27+02:00January 26th, 2009|Categories: Publisher Reviews|

Self-Published Book Awards

Some make the argument that book contests are a way to rip off writers. Authors submit a book and a fee for the hopes of winning the contest and the grand prize, usually a sum of money. The majority of writers will receive nothing from the contest and be out the $50-$100 it normally costs to enter the contest. Meanwhile the contest promoters are making tens of thousands of dollars in application fees.

Perhaps I am biased because I actually won one of these contests – the Hollywood Book Festival – but I do not regard contests as a way […]

Henry Baum2010-01-19T11:26:52+02:00January 25th, 2009|Categories: Lead Story, Resources|