What I Tell Myself FIRST | Self-Publishing Review

Zombocalypse Now: A Review & Interview with Matt Youngmark

Zombocalypse Now is like the old Choose Your Own Adventure books. And when I say “like,” I mean exactly like. It consists of two-page chapters and at end of each chapter it says: if you’d like to do X, go to page X, if you’d like to do Y, go to page Y. Chance happens that I’d been rereading my old CYOA books with my daughter (they age well), so I have a sense of how these things read. With the old CYOA books they can be hit or miss. The main problem is that the choices either aren’t all […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:46:45+02:00December 15th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews, Interviews, Lead Story|

The American Book Release

In an interview I recently did with the Creative Penn, Joanna Penn asked how I used the Self-Publishing Review to market myself. Beyond the footer which contains links to my books at the bottom of each post, I haven’t done a lot of plugging my own books in the posts. But it’s my site – I started it and do most of the writing – so here we go. My novel, The American Book of the Dead, is now out.

The reason I started this site in December 2008 was because I knew I’d be releasing a […]

Henry Baum2009-12-28T20:59:16+02:00November 27th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|

600 (or so) Words with Craig Lancaster

This interview with Craig Lancaster, author of 600 Hours of Edward, was originally posted on the blog of Jim Thomsen – “An Aspiring Author’s Journey to the Promised Land of Publication … Where Nothing is Promised.”

Edward Stanton is a man hurtling headlong toward middle age. His mental illness has led him to be sequestered in his small house in a small city, where he keeps his distance from the outside world and the parents from whom he is largely estranged. For the most part, Edward sticks to things he can count on…and things he can count. But over

[…]

Guest Post2011-10-08T20:39:56+02:00November 14th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

West of Mars: An Interview with Susan Helene Gottfried

Susan Helene Gottfried runs the website West of Mars, where she will tell you she does very little talking about her writing. Instead, she writes. She engages readers addicted to her Demo Tapes, described on her website as “collections of short fiction that introduce you to Trevor, Mitchell, and the rest of the fictional band, ShapeShifter — as well as the world in which they inhabit.” But West of Mars, winner of twenty blog awards, isn’t all about Susan and her own writing. She also promotes other writers who want to reach readers. In the following interview, Susan discusses […]

Kristen Tsetsi2011-10-08T20:22:06+02:00October 30th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Drift by Sarah San Angelo

As readers we tend to have a hidden agenda as we pore over the words of a new story. Sometimes we just want to be wowed or possibly brought to our knees. There are times when we want exactly what we just had either in another story or by another author. There is a mental checklist we often carry with us that is comprised of what we consider a requirement to a good read. And as we progress through the story we mark off these specific items and at the end we quickly calculate the score to determine where the […]

Scott C. Rogers2011-10-08T20:23:58+02:00October 13th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Dorkisma: An Interview with Maria Bustillos

An interview by Erin Stropes with Maria Bustillos, author of Dorkismo: The Macho of the Dork: “Pure gold. Don’t just grab it for the [David Foster Wallace] chapter (good as it is) but for the celebration of everything that is dork.” Nick Maniatis, The Howling Fantods.

Self-Publishing Review: Hello, Maria, and welcome to the Self-Publishing Review hot seat. Your book, Dorkismo: The Macho of the Dork, is a collection of nonfiction essays celebrating the joys of dorkdom in everything from anime and “Star Wars” to Alexis de Toqueville and Jane Eyre. It’s written in a light, […]

Erin Stropes2011-10-08T18:51:38+02:00October 7th, 2009|Categories: Lead Story|

Reviewing the Reviewers Part II

This is a continuation of Reviewing the Reviewers: A Dialogue about Book Reviewing with Steven Reynolds and Carol Buchanan, which led to a very lively discussion.

Self-Publishing Review: When a self-published novel is awful, do you think the reviewer has any responsibility to spare the writer’s feelings?

Steven Reynolds: A writer will always be somewhat hurt by a negative review. You have to assume they’re reasonably happy with the book they published, otherwise why would they bother? So to have some stranger publicly detail its apparent failings is going to hurt.

When confronted with a book that doesn’t […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:52:29+02:00September 30th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Author John Lacombe's Response to the Winter Games Controversy

In response to the controversy over the SPR review of the novel, Winter GamesReviewing the Reviewers. – further explored in the post,

I was recently made aware of the controversy that followed Carol Buchanan’s review of my novel Winter Games. I have been following the string of comments below Ms. Buchanan’s review with mixed emotions.

On one hand, it stirs an amount of pride in me to see so many readers coming to the defense of Winter Games. On the other hand, the dialogue has, at times, reached a cringe-worthy level of vitriol. I belong to […]

John Lacombe2011-10-08T19:48:58+02:00September 18th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

Street Level Views of Book Marketing

We did another little book tour in August. It was time. The economy was creating a stagnant sales profile, and we know that doing a few book signings primes the pump. We made our arrangements with four Hastings Entertainment stores, two of which we were at last year. (This makes a total of sixteen book signings with Hastings Entertainment stores.)

Why the repeat appearances? Because we were on the same route to and from our house in Texas that we were last year. One of the book managers asked us to return because she had five signed copies we’d left […]

Francis Hamit2011-10-08T18:53:35+02:00September 17th, 2009|Categories: Features|

Reviewing the Reviewers: A Dialogue about Book Reviewing

The idea for this dialogue came after the controversy regarding the review of John Lacombe’s Winter Games. If you haven’t seen that thread, check it out, it’s a long one – it has a lot of interesting commentary about how writers and/or their fans should respond to reviews, including examples of how not to respond to a review. Carol Buchanan, who reviewed the book, didn’t like the novel. Steven Reynolds, who reviews for SPR, liked the book in a review for the now-defunct Podler. Carol and Steven got together to talk about the controversy and book reviewing in general. […]