Features

Somewhere on the internet I’ve mentioned that Cantarabooks-Cantaraville was inspired by Hogarth Press, founded in 1917 by the writers Leonard and Virginia Woolf. Like authors before them—and certainly authors after—they began their small press as a way to ensure that their own works, and the works of their friends, would always find publication. As far as Hogarth Press’s scale of operation, the Woolfs’ ambitions were modest: a tabletop handpress, tools, lead type and a how-to pamphlet on typesetting were their only capital assets. Truly, Hogarth Press was a do-it-yourself strategy that would not have been out of place in the […]

Obviously, I’m a self-publishing advocate, but I can acknowledge that there are some hilariously bad self-published books out there.  Thankfully, they haven’t come my way in the form of submissions.  Maybe my reviews have been too critical, but it’s my experience it’s the people who write the better books who are the most obsessed with marketing – see Kristen Tsetsi and Frank Daniels.  So maybe the people who write more-ridiculous titles don’t send their books out that often.

Thankfully there are sites like Selfpublishedbooks.info, which is a kind of anti-Self-Publishing Review, as it only lives to mock self-published […]

A fascinating new study about people’s attachment to objects has been conducted at Ohio State University.  What’s this have to do with self-publishing?  A lot.  We’ve mentioned here before that the ability to actually feel a book in your hands can do a lot for book sales.  This why having a book in bookstores is so paramount. Stellar reviews on an Amazon page are no doubt helpful, but no web-based sales can approach seeing, and feeling, an object in store.

It’s not just a case of reading an excerpt and seeing if you like the person’s writing.  By picking up […]

There’s a new article in the New York Times about self-publishing.  Not as interesting as Time Magazine’s recent piece about self-publishing – and certainly not the first article in the Times about self-publishing – but piece by piece self-publishing is gaining clout.  The article says,

Vanity presses have existed for decades, but technology has made it much easier for aspiring authors to publish without hefty upfront costs. Gone are the days when self-publishing meant paying a printer to produce hundreds of copies that then languished in a garage.

This could be one of the things to further the cause of […]

From an excellent comment by Frank Daniels, which could be a post in itself, comes a link to this article about self-publishing in Time Magazine, which basically echoes why the SPR began in the first place. Articles like this could signal the beginning of self-publishing being taken seriously. In a dream future, which is quickly approaching, as technology increases daily, self-publishing could be regarded as a first resort, not a last resort.

At the very least, it will not be seen as the avenue of the pathetic and untalented – which, truth be told, is how many people regard […]

Today can’t go by without mentioning the inauguration of Barack Obama.  I can think of no better metaphor for what’s happening than the landing of the plane in the Hudson last week.  George Bush’s presidency was marked by the nightmare of 9-11.  Last week, a plane landed safely in Manhattan – bookending Bush’s presidency.  Hopefully Obama can take the mess Bush has left to a safe landing.

I don’t think it’s any accident that the publishing industry became so money-centered during the last decade.  Really, the thing that affected the housing industry and the bank collapses was the result of […]

In a strange way, self-published books are held to a higher standard than traditionally published books. Here’s what happens: a reviewer or reader receives a book and is informed that it’s self-published. The reader then reads the book looking for clues about why the book was self-published. And when you’re looking for something to criticize, you’re going to find it.

By all means, there are self-published books that should never see the light of day. But the same can be said for some traditionally published books as well. I’m not a great fan of writers like John Grisham or Dean […]