Member Blog

You may wonder why I chose to become an independent publisher, especially if you know how much I resisted the idea of self-publishing for years. My first children’s book The Haunted Igloo, was published in 1991 by a traditional publisher, Houghton Mifflin. But authors know that getting the second or third book published doesn’t always happen. Even if you have a toe in the door, that door is often slammed on it. Hard. The sequel to that book (Spirit Lights) was rejected, as was another one. But the fact is, after my husband became ill and went […]

Hello! I am new to this blog. My name is Stevie, and I am an illustrator/author/veteran self-publisher. I published my first book, Lizzie Fox-Top, in November 2009. From the back cover:
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“Lizzie with your hair so red, what’s that fox doing on your head?”

So demand the townsfolk of Lizzie’s world the morning after an abandoned baby fox wanders in through her moonlit window. When the fox finds comfort on top of the little girl’s red head, the pair become fast friends, despite the townspeople’s protest. After a few mishaps including one angry grocer, several stolen eggs, and a […]

Despite the fact that the UPS tracking showed my iPad in Guangzhou, China on April 2, the enchanting device showed up magically at my doorstep in the morning of Saturday, April 3. Amazing!

Growing up I used to love reading a good book while listening to music. Now I can have a vast number of books with virtually unlimited music selection (thanks to Rhapsody) and can take them anywhere! Would this not have been possible on my laptop and other tablets? Laptops don’t have the form factor to make it convenient. Having to fold open and close a laptop in […]

I’ve been away from Self-Publishing Review for several months, but now that I’ve fulfilled some of the obligations that kept me away, it’s good to be back. The biggest task was judging one of the Spur categories. Two other judges and I read about 30 Western novels, most of which were self-published.

Between a few of the self-published and the traditionally published novels, there was not much difference in quality. That argues against the prejudice that might linger against self-published novels as a category, despite Joseph Wideman’s well-publicized decision that Henry Baum discusses on the front page. The other two […]