Lead Story | Self-Publishing Review

The Past, Present, and Future of Ebooks

In Andrew Sullivan’s follow-up to his post about print on demand, he links to this excellent quote by Edgar Allen Poe, predicting and advocating self-publishing:

… authors will perceive the immense advantage of giving their own manuscripts directly to the public without the expensive interference of the type-setter, and the often ruinous intervention of the publisher. All that a man of letters need do will be to pay some attention to legibility of manuscript, arrange his pages to suit himself, and stereotype them instantaneously, as arranged. He may intersperse them with his own drawings, or with anything to please

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:44:22+02:00February 3rd, 2009|Categories: Features, Lead Story|

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|

The Do-It-Yourself Book Tour

Big publishers, when they are trying to make a bestseller, put authors on a 20-city book tour. The idea is to create media buzz, so these combine media interviews and book signings, and are rather expensive. A self-published author, however, can do something similar without breaking the bank. It won’t be 20 big cities, but you will sell books if you do it right.

The first principle here is to combine book signings with travel you were going to do anyway. Our big three-part tour last year was structured around a family reunion, three science fiction conventions, and a high […]

Francis Hamit2009-12-31T21:08:19+02:00January 28th, 2009|Categories: Lead Story, Resources|

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|

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: 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|