Features | Self-Publishing Review

How Paid Reviews Sell Books – Facts and Figures

As one of the most trusted professional review services, and one of the first self-publishing sites around, it’s SPR’s job to make sure we are bringing books to readers with our paid review service, and we’d like to put the “don’t pay for reviews” myth being spread around by certain self-publishing pundits to bed with some hard, analytical, independent facts. The plain truth is, paid reviews do sell more books in the majority of cases.

Distinguishing Experts From Pundits

There are many independent studies available from trustworthy sources that have nothing to gain from approving of paid review services, and […]

Cate Baum2019-02-03T09:30:03+02:00December 15th, 2015|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Promotion Articles|

Ten Easy Steps To Get your E-Book Ready For Editing

As an independent author, there’s no getting away from the fact you will need to get your e-book edited professionally by the sort of editor who knows the differences between e-book and print book. However, these quick ten steps will help you prepare your book for the edit and final publication early on in the process. This is a ragbag of formatting and grammar tips, but trust me, your e-book editor will love you forever if you prep your book this way!

1. Strip out styles and fancy formatting

E-books don’t need styles manually applied in Word. The first thing […]

Cate Baum2015-12-08T06:28:48+02:00December 8th, 2015|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Editing Tips|

Best WordPress Portfolio Themes for Authors & Creatives

Earlier, we posted the complete list of free and premium WordPress themes for books. Another option, and perhaps less commercial-looking, is a portfolio template. Normally, portfolios are used for designers and photographers, but they can double just as easily for writers. These themes look very sleek and modern, and are generally easy to configure.

I’ve selected only portfolio templates that easily allow users to upload a tall rectangular (i.e. book cover-shaped) image for the homepage. There are a lot of portfolio sites with other image sizes (example here), and these can potentially be hacked to change the […]

Henry Baum2015-11-13T11:17:52+02:00November 13th, 2015|Categories: Features, Resources|

New SPR Publishing House Kwill Opens Its Doors To Indie Authors

SPR has launched a publishing house, Kwill Books, to meet the demand for indie authors who want the perks of self-publishing without the hassle of doing everything for themselves. Here, Cate Baum, founder, explains to SPR reviewer Lysa Grant why she and co-founder, husband Henry Baum, embarked on this exciting venture.

How did you come up for the idea of starting your own press?

When we came up with the idea for Kwill, we were finding that our clients at SPR were asking for more and more services for their books that were not being met at a reasonable, […]

Cate Baum2015-09-09T07:48:47+02:00September 9th, 2015|Categories: Features, News|

How To Hate Friends and Alienate (Virtual) People – 12 Tips To Stay Happy Online

You may well be reading this online, on a group forum. Your forum may be wonderful and friendly. (Almost certainly if I posted it there.) But how about other groups you’re thinking of joining for advice, questions, and for promoting your book or book services? How will you fare? I share here a cautionary tale along with 12 tips for happy surfing as a group member.

When I joined a professional group on Facebook, which shall remain nameless for my genuine concern for my safety, I thought I was joining a group for book professionals from all over the world. […]

Cate Baum2015-08-05T07:41:09+02:00August 5th, 2015|Categories: Features|

Writing Behind Bars Part II by Jamila T. Davis

Jamila T Davis is serving more than a decade as an inmate in federal prison. Here, she describes how she started a self-help publishing imprint from behind bars to inspire and changes womens’ lives through writing, in the second of her two-part series on self-publishing from prison.

During my first few months in federal prison, I met a woman named LaTanya Jones; she is a former prisoner and the author of a book entitled “Cannon Love.” At the time, I was extremely depressed and had no clue how I would cope with serving a decade plus sentence behind bars.[…]

Cate Baum2015-07-28T03:05:14+02:00July 28th, 2015|Categories: Features, Interviews|Tags: Non-Fiction Book Reviews|

When To Use Compound Words In Your Writing – And When Not To

Here’s a list of some of the words I see when editing authors’ books that have been written as one compound word and shouldn’t have been, and two words that should have been compounded into one.

Nevermind/Never mind

There’s a whole bunch of people, maybe thousands or even millions, who grew up with Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album, mostly in their late thirties to early fifties, who think this is one word, meaning, “don’t worry about it.” In fact, “nevermind” as one word is actually a noun.

It seems to uniquely feature in the old-fashioned Southern idiom, “don’t pay me […]

Cate Baum2015-07-06T04:56:43+02:00July 6th, 2015|Categories: Features|

Writing Behind Bars – by Author Jamila Davis

What’s it like to be a writer in prison? Jamila T. Davis, called by the media “the woman who brought down Lehman” for her part in a multi-million dollar fraud, is a self-published author currently serving 12.5 years in the real “Orange is The New Black” facility, Danbury FCI. This is part one of our two-part guest blog post with Jamila about writing from prison, and how she has found purpose with self-publishing.

Each morning I open my eyes, I am surrounded by dreary walls that remind me of my past mistakes. For the last 7 years I’ve been locked […]

Cate Baum2015-07-01T04:34:41+02:00June 30th, 2015|Categories: Features, Interviews|Tags: Prison Book Reviews, Writing Tips|