Interviews | Self-Publishing Review

Interview: Keith Harmeyer on Writing Commercials and Promoting Commercial Break

Keith Harmeyer is the author of the immensely entertaining novel Commercial Break. He has the unique perspective of being a self-published writer who has also worked in book marketing. He shares his experiences with marketing his novel and other people’s books.

Self-Publishing Review: Adam Glassman is a frustrated novelist working in the ad game. You’re a person who worked in advertising who wrote a novel. Is this a novel you thought for years about writing while you were in the business?

Keith Harmeyer: It is. I’m not sure exactly when the concept first came to me; but at some […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:14:34+02:00April 27th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

LJN Dawson on the Great Agent Debate

LJN Dawson runs Authorweb, offering services for self-publishers, such as marketing and technical consulting. Check out her blog and free newsletter, The Big Picture, “Covering trends in digital content delivery – to both retail and library markets – The Big Picture provides insight, news, analysis, and community in a fast-moving sector.”

Recently, in a post on her blog Militant Writer, Mary Waters very effectively laid the blame for “the great unpublished” at the feet of literary agents, who “do not, in fact, have any interest in literature. They are only interested in jackpots.”

Mary makes some great […]

Laura Dawson2011-10-08T19:16:07+02:00April 20th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

A Few (Thousand) Words with Carol Buchanan

Introduction: Carol Buchanan is the author of the self-published novel God’s Thunderbolt: The Vigilantes of Montana, winner of the 2009 Spur Award for Best First Novel. I met Carol Buchanan online, when we were both posting to the boards of the Amazon Shorts program. Both of us were frustrated by the barriers currently erected by the mainstream publishing industry to new fiction, and both of us decided to do it ourselves. She gave my book a great review and I read hers and was honestly able to reciprocate. When her book won the 2009 Spur Award, given by […]

Francis Hamit2011-10-08T19:16:23+02:00April 20th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Chionophobia and Other Sticky Problems: The Darryl Sloan Interview

Guest interview by Michael Reed. Originally commissioned by Strange Horizons, but it was not posted on that site. Strange Horizons replied, “Although some sections, notably on the author’s local inspirations and self-publishing, stand out as offering a fresh perspective, it’s a problem for our purposes that the interviewee doesn’t seem to be particularly active in new fiction projects right now.”

Read Self-Publishing Review’s review of Darryl Sloan’s Chion.

Chionophobia n. A fear of snow

Chion is Northern Ireland based Darryl Sloan’s second self-published novel. As he did with his first novel, the 2002 release Ulterior, Darryl has […]

Guest Post2011-10-08T19:59:58+02:00April 10th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Poddy Mouth Speaks! An Interview with the Original POD Reviewer

Poddy Mouth was an anonymous author who began reviewing print on demand books in 2005, back when self-publishing was more frowned upon than it is today. She still remains the most prominent and successful POD reviewer – in part because she came from the world of traditional publishing. As she says on her blog:

I am an author and instructor, in that order (for now.) My debut novel (which debuted in the midlist) was released by Penguin Putnam in 2004 and my second novel was released early 2006. As for this blog, it has been profiled in many online magazines,

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:29:00+02:00April 3rd, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Interview with Penny Sansevieri and Paula Krapf from Author Marketing Experts

At Self-Publishing Review we receive a lot of books for review. By far the greatest number of books that come directly from a publicist come from Author Marketing Experts. Here CEO Penny Sansevieri and COO Paula Krapf talk about what self-published writers can expect from hiring a publicist.

Self-Publishing Review: How long has Author Marketing Experts been at work?

Penny Sansevieri: We’ve been doing this for over ten years.

SPR: How many books do you normally promote a year?

Penny: That’s a tough question to answer but suffice it to say: a lot. Since we also offer one-on-one coaching […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:20:04+02:00March 30th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Guest Post: Laura Dawson of Authorweb

Reprinted from LJN Dawson’s Authorweb site – a site that offers services for self-publishers, such as:

• Get listed (or enhance existing listing) on Amazon/B&N.com for print sales
• Enhance your listing with Books in Print
• Enhance your listing on FiledbyAuthor and other websites

The Danger of Obscurity

“Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.” – Tim O’Reilly

I went to college to be a writer. I took all the writing workshops there were, wrote upwards of three hours every single day (it helped that it was an all-women’s college), and moved to

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Laura Dawson2011-10-08T19:22:09+02:00March 27th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

But They Do Judge a Book by its Cover: An Interview with Book Designer Cathi Stevenson

Having been told more than once by reviewers that the cover for Homefront leaves much to be desired (one of them even said she passed over reading my book several times just because of the cover), it’s becoming increasingly clear that a book cover can have an enormous impact on potential readers.

It’s certainly possible to make your own cover using photo-imaging software, but according to cover designer Cathi Stevensen, owner of Book Cover Express, that’s not always – rather, is very rarely – a good idea.

Cathi discusses what every cover should have and why you really shouldn’t […]

Kristen Tsetsi2011-10-08T19:24:51+02:00March 24th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|