Member Blog

Recently a reader friend, a woman I’ve never met, but with whom I’ve exchanged emails, left a review of my new novel The Car Bomb on the book’s Amazon page. Previously she had read and reviewed my two non-fiction books, Murder in the Synagogue and Squelched. That’s her preferred type of book, or genre, True Crime, and so I was a little surprised when she decided to read The Car Bomb. But, of course, I was pleased when she filed this kind review:

“I am not usually a reader of fictional mystery/thriller type book, but this one was

It’s boom times for self-publishers – online! – but not so much for self-publishers in the print world. At the same time, independent bookstores are struggling to adapt to the new technologies. I’ve been trying to think of ways to help bring these worlds together and I’ve come up with an idea – a business opportunity – and I’m putting it out there for anyone who might be interested. People who love pbooks should not have to miss out on ebooks, and self-publishers should not have to see their books alive online alone.

One of the great things about bookstores […]

Fred Crawley of The New Statesman chews over the rise of self – published content on Kindle from an original angle – is the concept of  “own-brand” consumerism affecting self-published books? Are standards slipping to give way to instant gratification? Should proofreading standards be higher? Discuss…

In the digital video shops we increasingly use as our sources of film entertainment, these movies are ranked alongside genuine big-budget efforts, with only a paragraph of description and a cover design (usually the most professional component of the whole project) to distinguish them from the real deal. In this sense, we have all

“It was like a journey into the unknown”: Photographers with self-published books talk about their experiences, from The Observer’s Sean O’Hagan

Cristina de Middel worked as a photojournalist in her native Spain for eight years before deciding she wanted to create “fictions” with her camera and created The Afronauts, which was self-published in May 2012 in an edition of 1,000 and has since become a self-publishing phenomenon, winning her a place on the Deutsche Börse shortlist and now changing hands for over £1,000 a copy. “I had no clue what would happen when I made the book,” she says,

“This Is Kent”, an English local newspaper, reports on a sweet story of one pensioner whose self-published book was read by Princess Diana. There’s hope for us all.

Thanks to modern technology, writing and printing your own work has never been easier. And if you’re looking for more professional results, there are plenty of publishers willing to take on the job.

But back in 1990, when Josephine Butcher decided to design and print her childhood memoir, I Was Born on the Pantiles, self-publishing was often seen as a bit of a joke, at least in professional circles.

Not that the