Interviews | Self-Publishing Review

Interview: Mark Coker, Founder of Smashwords

Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords.com, talks about his ebook directory and the future of ebooks. Check out Self-Publishing Review’s post about places to list an ebook for other ebook sites.

Self-Publishing Review: First, what is Smashwords?

Mark Coker: Smashwords is a digital publishing platform and online bookstore for self-published authors and their readers.

Authors upload their manuscripts as Microsoft Word files and then we automatically convert them into nine different DRM-free ebook formats, ready for immediate sale online. Authors set the price and determine the sampling percentage, and receive 85 percent of the net sales proceeds from their books.

SPR: […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:31:17+02:00February 1st, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

SPR Interviewed by Angela Wilson @ Market My Novel

Thanks go to Angela Wilson for her interview of SPR at Market My Novel. Questions include: “As an author yourself, what do you hope to ultimately do for self published authors through your site?” and “There is a certain stigma still attached to self published works. Why is that? Do you think sites like yours can help improve the image?”

If you don’t know Angela Wilson’s site, check it out. What makes Market My Novel particularly useful is its emphasis on internet marketing, as well as straight book marketing. We’ve covered the similarities between book marketing and search engine optimization […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:10:01+02:00January 23rd, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

Guest Post: On the Cusp of a Shot at a Dream—but how bad do I want it?

This post was submitted by a self-published author who wished to remain anonymous because he/she did not want any information written here to get in the way of negotiations with a literary agent. Yes, agents are that fickle. Part one of a series, the article asks: how many revisions are you willing to make for an agent or editor before you’re compromising your integrity?

The conversation with a prospective literary agency should go something like this:

“Would you like us to sell your book to a major publisher?”

“Yes, please.”

“Are you willing to make a fair number of changes […]

Guest Post2009-12-31T21:26:02+02:00January 10th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

Interview: Kristen Tsetsi, author of Homefront

Kristen Tsetsi’s Homefront (reviewed by the Self-Publishing Review) is one of the most moving and evocative portratits of people left back at home while their spouses fight overseas. Her own husband was stationed in Iraq. Here Kristen Tsetsi talks about the origins of the novel and her experience with self-publishing.

Self-Publishing Review: How did you come to self-publish? Did you try to get published traditionally?

Kristen Tsetsi: I did try the traditional route. I sent an initial series of queries, the first three of which were (to my great excitement) met with requests for first chapters. Once the first […]

Henry Baum2018-05-15T16:06:12+02:00January 9th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Guest Post: The YouWriteOn Story by Pat Jourdan

Pat Jourdan is the author of the novel, Finding Out. Here she describes the opportunity and pitfalls of self-publishing with YouWriteOn, organized by Arts Council England.

Imagine getting an email asking if you’d like your manuscript to be published, just like that. It says that it will be free, if you do not want to purchase an ISBN. Of course, you pay for an ISBN, and for that cost of £39.99 you will be able to be marketed on all online sites. Just forward a completely edited, print-ready book.

We formatted pages, organised chapters, and learned about pdf. This […]

Guest Post2009-12-31T21:27:51+02:00January 9th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

Guest Post: Kevin Gerard on Book Marketing

Kevin Gerard talks about his incredibly unique and ambitious marketing techniques to promote his young adult series, Conor and the Crossworlds. This article shows the lengths that self-published writers can – and should – take to promote a book.

“And what are you prepared to do, now!”

I love that line in the Untouchables, where Kevin Costner has all but given up, and Sean Connery grabs him by the scruff and asks for more. In the world of self published promoters, there couldn’t be a more fitting question.

In February of 2004, I had finally had enough with […]

Guest Post2009-12-31T21:32:56+02:00January 7th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Guest Post: N. Frank Daniels

On November 11, 2006, I wrote an article for Susan Henderson’s lit website LitPark, titled “After the Goldrush.” The article was a death knell for my pursuit of a writing career and a salute to all of us who have this same affliction. I’d doggedly chased a publishing deal for close to 3 years. I built a fanbase, I self-published, I marketed, I went on a self-funded book tour. Countless, innumerable hours had been spent writing and editing and editing and editing and chasing down leads and trying to connect with already-established writers, as well as up-and-comers like […]

N. Frank Daniels2009-12-31T21:38:07+02:00January 5th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Guest Post: Christopher Meeks

Christopher Meeks is the author of two self-released short story collections: The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea and Months and Seasons, as well as the play, Who Lives? – all with professionally-designed covers and well-reviewed. He can be reached at his site ChrisMeeks.com. Here he writes about creating his own self-publishing imprint, White Whisker Books.

While I’m self-publishing technically, I see what I’m doing on another level. My main occupation is writer, and my secondary business is publishing. I have a fairly good grasp at how the book business works, and one of the things is that for […]

Christopher Meeks2009-12-31T21:39:17+02:00January 4th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|