lulu | Self-Publishing Review

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|

Outskirts Press Review

Most people who self-publish will likely look into the big self-publishers first: AuthorHouse, iUniverse, and Lulu. The thinking may be that it is hard enough to get readers for a self-published novel – going with a major self-publisher will make it more likely that you’ll find prospective readers within that publisher’s community.

This is not necessarily true. Just because you’re on Lulu’s site, which gets more traffic than a smaller self-publisher, does not necessarily mean that you’re going to find more takers for your book. While the Lulu community does offer feedback and review requests between Lulu authors, there is […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:41:22+02:00January 2nd, 2009|Categories: Publisher Reviews|

Futureproof by Frank Daniels

Futureproof is a self-publishing success story. Begun as a Lulu book, it is set to be released by Harper Perennial this month. For anyone looking to promote a self-published novel, N. Frank Daniels is proof that aggressive marketing of a self-published novel can reap rewards – and getting a book out into the world can lead to good things. Frank Daniels was able to sell thousands of copies of a Lulu book and then land a publishing deal with a mainstream publisher.

The novel began as this:

In January 2009, it will be released as this:

His marketing tactics were […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:41:50+02:00January 2nd, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Where to Get Self-Published Book Reviews

Getting book reviews is one of the harder parts of self-publishing – and truth be told getting a lot of book reviews by no means guarantees book sales (unless it’s an Oprah review, which isn’t going to happen). However, it can be gratifying, so long as the reviews are good, and instructive if they’re not. It’s important to keep in mind that even if you publish a book with a traditional small press it will likely be up to you to bring in reviews and interviews, so it is a good skill set to have for any writer.

There are […]

Henry Baum2011-10-18T13:39:08+02:00December 30th, 2008|Categories: Resources|

Vanity Publishing vs. Self-Publishing

Is there a difference between vanity publishing and self-publishing? Yes and no. Sometimes vanity publishing and self-publishing are interchangeable – especially when self-publishing is discussed with derision. The concept of vanity publishing – that an author is so vain that he or she must release a book despite it not finding a publisher – should be discarded. Because the publishing industry is so competitive and so driven by the market, there are plenty of books that don’t get bought by publishing houses but have every right to find readers. At the same time, the basic definition of the vanity press […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:42:46+02:00December 28th, 2008|Categories: Resources|

The Fundamentals of Good Book Design

One of the major issues with self-publishing is the quality of the book design. A great number of self-published books make it glaringly obvious that the book has been self-published. This is significant because it can lead to a book being ignored by reviewers or prospective buyers. The cliché “You can’t judge a book by its cover” never took into account self-published titles.

If you have a professionally designed book it will be much easier to gain reviews. A tip: if you set your own imprint with its own name and have a well-designed book cover, a prospective reviewer will […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:43:20+02:00December 27th, 2008|Categories: Resources|

Self-Publishing Review Blogs

In the early days of blogging, self-publishing blogs were few and far between. Now there’s a long list of self-publishing litblogs. Some self-publishing bloggers come and go, like Poddy Mouth, the pioneer in self-publishing review blogs, but some are here for the long haul, such as Pod People, a blog that has seen other self-publishing reviewers come and go. At one point, there was a “De Facto POD Review Ring” that only contained five blogs. Now the number of bloggers interested in self-publishing is expanding.

This is mostly culled from Breeni Books’ POD review ring, with a few […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:44:03+02:00December 27th, 2008|Categories: Lead Story, Resources|