What I Tell Myself FIRST | Self-Publishing Review

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|

Chionophobia and Other Sticky Problems: The Darryl Sloan Interview

Guest interview by Michael Reed. Originally commissioned by Strange Horizons, but it was not posted on that site. Strange Horizons replied, “Although some sections, notably on the author’s local inspirations and self-publishing, stand out as offering a fresh perspective, it’s a problem for our purposes that the interviewee doesn’t seem to be particularly active in new fiction projects right now.”

Read Self-Publishing Review’s review of Darryl Sloan’s Chion.

Chionophobia n. A fear of snow

Chion is Northern Ireland based Darryl Sloan’s second self-published novel. As he did with his first novel, the 2002 release Ulterior, Darryl has […]

Guest Post2011-10-08T19:59:58+02:00April 10th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

But They Do Judge a Book by its Cover: An Interview with Book Designer Cathi Stevenson

Having been told more than once by reviewers that the cover for Homefront leaves much to be desired (one of them even said she passed over reading my book several times just because of the cover), it’s becoming increasingly clear that a book cover can have an enormous impact on potential readers.

It’s certainly possible to make your own cover using photo-imaging software, but according to cover designer Cathi Stevensen, owner of Book Cover Express, that’s not always – rather, is very rarely – a good idea.

Cathi discusses what every cover should have and why you really shouldn’t […]

Kristen Tsetsi2011-10-08T19:24:51+02:00March 24th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

One of the Many Author Sins I'm Most Enjoying

I seem to have put myself in a sticky spot: I want to be represented by an agent and sold by a publisher, but I’ve committed the cardinal sin of self-publishing. All I can say to defend myself is that if I were to have waited for an agent to say “yes” to my book, it would still be sitting un-read as a stack of paper rather than being read and enjoyed by readers. Still, I continue to query agents for this very novel. Foolishly? Naively? Just plain stupidly? Maybe. But I have to believe the meager sales I’ve been […]

Kristen Tsetsi2011-10-08T19:25:05+02:00March 21st, 2009|Categories: Features, Lead Story|

Interview: MCM, author of The Pig and the Box

This interview welcomes the first children’s book writer/illustrator to Self-Publishing Review. I found the author via a post by Wil Wheaton and MCM has all the right ideas about DIY publishing. Read SPR’s review of The Pig and the Box.

Self-Publishing Review: Your book The Pig and the Box has been downloaded over 1.5 million times, and translated into 15 languages. How did that happen? That’s pretty intense distribution.

MCM: I think it all boils down to the subject matter. At the time I wrote it, there was a controversy about a project called “Captain Copyright,” which was […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:02:18+02:00March 12th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Interview: Christopher Meeks, author of The Brightest Moon of the Century

Christopher Meeks has published three books via Lulu: The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea, Months and Seasons, and a play, Who Lives? His first novel, The Brightest Moon of the Century, was just released to stellar reviews, including one from the Self-Publishing Review.

Self-Publishing Review: The Brightest Moon of the Century has its origin in a story in Months and Seasons. Why was this the character you chose to write a longer work of fiction about?

Christopher Meeks: I’d already written a few drafts of The Brightest Moon of the Century by the point I […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:26:34+02:00March 4th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Interview: Rudy Rucker on the Present and Future of Self-Publishing

On the heels of the interview with Tessa Dick, last wife of Philip K. Dick, comes an interview with Rudy Rucker, often called the heir apparent to Philip K. Dick. Winner of two Philip K. Dick Awards, Rudy Rucker is the author of the novels Frek and the Elixer, Spaceland, and many others. He also has a interest in self-publishing: putting out a book of paintings through Lulu, allowing a free download of his novel Postsingular, and publishing ebooks with e-reads. Here the visionary writer talks about mixing traditional publishing with the new publishing technology.[…]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:05:28+02:00February 19th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Bad Self-Published Books

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 […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:43:50+02:00February 14th, 2009|Categories: Features|

Homefront by Kristen Tsetsi

There’s something about discovering a great self-published novel that’s different than discovering a novel that’s traditionally published, no matter how small the press. On the hand, you’re happy to have found something good, on the other hand you think, “Why did this have to be self-published?” For anyone who thinks that if a book is great it will find a publisher is just wrong and Kristen Tsetsi’s Homefront is the perfect example.

It may be understandable why the novel didn’t find takers – though the novel’s about the biggest thing imaginable, war, there’s no great overwhelming dramatic arc – no […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:27:36+02:00January 9th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Guest Post: Kevin Gerard on Book Marketing

Kevin Gerard talks about his incredibly unique and ambitious marketing techniques to promote his young adult series, Conor and the Crossworlds. This article shows the lengths that self-published writers can – and should – take to promote a book.

“And what are you prepared to do, now!”

I love that line in the Untouchables, where Kevin Costner has all but given up, and Sean Connery grabs him by the scruff and asks for more. In the world of self published promoters, there couldn’t be a more fitting question.

In February of 2004, I had finally had enough with […]

Guest Post2009-12-31T21:32:56+02:00January 7th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|