Lead Story | Self-Publishing Review

From Self-Published to Simon and Schuster: An Interview with Lori Culwell, Author of Hollywood Car Wash

Lori Culwell is the author of the novel Hollywood Car Wash, a novel that won first prize in Project Publish:

Via Project Publish, Touchstone Books was the first major publisher to put our market-based method for evaluating media content to the test…a team of editors, including Touchstone publisher Mark Gompertz, evaluated the 50 top scoring book proposals on Media Predict. They selected five book proposals as Project Publish finalists, and eventually one grand prize winner.

The novel – originally published through iUniverse – was put out by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, in May 2009. Publisher’s […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:56:36+02:00May 26th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Self-Published Literary Fiction: Sea Changes by Gail Graham

Finally. In the past on this site, there’s been discussion about the overall direction of self-publishing, with some seeing it mainly as an avenue for mainstream writers who weren’t able to make the cut in the traditional system. I’ve seen self-publishing as a route for more-unique writing that wasn’t able to find a home in a publishing industry that doesn’t exactly reward innovation. For the new paradigm in publishing to take effect, not only will niche writers have a platform with self-publishing, but everybody: including literary fiction.

But sometimes I think I’m fooling myself because the majority of the books […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:57:05+02:00May 22nd, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|

An Interview with Brad Grochowski of Authors Bookshop

On the heels of the story about Indie Reader, which led to some controversy, here’s an interview with Brad Grochowski, the man behind the site Authors Bookshop – a site that allows authors to list and sell books. Authors Bookshop is one of the best indie-friendly places online. Check out the site and visit Brad’s blog, Indie Bookman.

Self-Publishing Review: What is AuthorsBookshop and why did you start it up?

Brad Grochowski: AuthorsBookshop is an online bookstore that specializes in independently published books. It is also a community of authors and publishers who have chosen the indie […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:07:39+02:00May 18th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

The Two Wings of Self-Publishing

Self-publishing seems to fall into two separate camps:

1. Those who want to use self-publishing as a stepping stone to being traditionally published.

2. Those who don’t care about the traditional system whatsoever and want to sidestep it.

The vehement reaction in the Publishing Renaissance debate against traditional publishing makes me want to write about the second. And this post might just get me into trouble. I wrote a comment on that post that I enjoyed the debate, but it’s been kind of weighing on me. It’s weird to be on the side against self-publishers, as I’m such a staunch […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:08:49+02:00May 17th, 2009|Categories: Features, Lead Story|

An Author Creates a Website for Consumers: IndieReader

IndieReader—which will go live in June—promotes, markets, and sells self-published/POD books. Authors set the retail price for their books and receive 75% of the transaction. IndieReader also provides authors with their own Web page with their own URL (no unintelligible code!). What Sundance has done for indie films—making what’s outside the mainstream “cool”—IR will do for indie books and authors. Amy Edelman, who started the site, has published with Crown and Simon & Schuster. Her interview at Editor Unleashed goes into further detail about the site.

Where did the idea for IndieReader come from? It was primarily my […]

amyedelman2011-10-08T19:10:44+02:00May 13th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Pay to Play: Should Writers Pay for Reviews?

Spurred by a post (that was taken down) on the New Podler, there has been a debate about whether or not it’s ethical for self-publishing review sites to charge authors for reviews. I come down on the side of it being not that big a deal: so long as the reviews are honest and thorough and writers understand that payment is no guarantee of a good review, it doesn’t seem like the worst practice.

That said, I’ve made a point of not charging for reviews because it just feels wrong. I do charge though – for going up in […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:14:48+02:00April 27th, 2009|Categories: Features, Lead Story|

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|

This is Why Self-Publishing isn’t Taken Seriously

Via Pod Peep comes news of Lulu buying out Poetry.com and replacing it with their own brand and self-publishing service. Here’s a screenshot.

Let me count the ways this is problematic. I can understand if Lulu.com central is more of a generic, corporate brand, as they want to attract more business-minded people who are interested in creating brochures and other promotional materials, or non-fiction manuals. But this is Poetry.com – something that is only an expression of a person’s artistic vision, so having such a cold and sterile environment just seems antithetical to a place where people are going to […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:59:07+02:00April 15th, 2009|Categories: Features, Lead Story|