lulu | Self-Publishing Review

Shelf Unbound Opens Up Book Competition for Self-Publishers

Shelf Unbound and Bowker have a new book competition for self-publishers.

Shelf Unbound book review magazine announces the Shelf Unbound Writing Competition for Best Independently Published Book, sponsored by Bowker. Any independently published book in any genre is eligible for entry. Entry fee is $40 per book. The winning entry will be selected by the editors of Shelf Unbound magazine.

“Independently Published” books include self-published books and e-books (such as those published through CreateSpace, Lulu.com, iUniverse, etc.) and/or books and e-books published through small presses releasing less than five titles per year. Books entered in last year’s competition are

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Henry Baum2017-03-24T07:35:38+02:00June 14th, 2014|Categories: News|Tags: Competitions|

Self-Publishing Can Be Just As Creative As Writing

I could say creative writing is right-brained and publishing is left-brained; writing is artistic, publishing all business. I could say that and I’ve heard it said by some “experts” but, even though I did just say it, my experience of both realms forces me to say it ain’t so.

For twenty-some years I wrote creatively and paid scant attention to publishing. I used Lulu.com to get my books published but never saw many sales. In fact, all my books except the one I’m working on now are free to download. I could apply what I’ve recently been learning about […]

Alexander M Zoltai2014-04-21T13:53:17+02:00April 21st, 2014|Categories: Member Blog|Tags: Writing|

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Review

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) has established itself as the single most recognisable DIY self-publishing platform for authors wanting to publish their books in e-book. Amazon launched Kindle Direct Publishing back in 2007 in beta form and pitched it initially to ‘publishers’ via marketing emails. Amazon had also just launched the first Kindle e-reader hardware—a basic e-ink, black and white text device.

It was clear even back then Amazon saw the Kindle experience as both a facilitator for readers and author/publishers. Since 2007, the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform is available to authors in many countries including USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, […]

Mick Rooney2020-02-21T04:33:24+02:00April 18th, 2014|Categories: Publisher Reviews|Tags: Amazon|

9 Reasons Why I’m Choosing to Self-Publish

I’m writing a book! Did you hear? I’m writing a book! A bonafide, original content book! And I’m going to publish it. All by myself.

That’s right. No agent. No publisher. No distributor. No PR machine. No query letters or manuscript submissions or external validation. I’m doing it by my own damn self.

Recently a friend mentioned something to me that made me firm up my decision to do this on my own. She pointed out that the sample of the manuscript I sent her was in the wrong font and spacing for agents to read and that they would […]

Pavarti K Tyler2014-03-31T11:47:30+02:00March 4th, 2014|Categories: Member Blog|

Publishing Progress – The Highs and the Lows…

Writers, almost all of them, want to be published. Not so many years ago, the only way to be published that let the multitudes receive your work was to find an agent and have them present your work to editors who then might decide to work with you toward publishing.

There are many stories of writers’ works being published in forms that they really didn’t like; yet, they really wanted to be published so they caved…

To be fair, most respectable publishers worked hard to bring the manuscript to a form that was marketable as well as true to the […]

Alexander M Zoltai2020-02-21T07:17:56+02:00January 19th, 2014|Categories: Member Blog|

The Dawn Of The Self-Published Critic

Cate Baum muses over the state of the self-publishing industry as sales figures show that consumers have indeed taken over the asylum.

In the days of traditional publishing, pre-internet – and even some time past the internet really kicking in around the end of the 20th century, the days of hovering in bookshops on word of mouth hunts for gems still existed. Pre-dating sites, potential lovers would sift through Proust and Kundera to up their game, whilst pre-Facebook, glossy hardback photo books remained the only true way to connect with subcultures and style.

Newspapers such as The Guardian in the […]

Cate Baum2014-01-08T13:46:04+02:00December 26th, 2013|Categories: Lead Story, Member Blog|

Review: The Oasis of Filth by Keith Soares

The Oasis of Filth by Keith Soares is a short story written as the memoirs of a man surviving through the modern “zombie apocalypse”. While many people may be thinking “oh no, not again”, let me put your fears to rest that this is not yet another Walking Dead or World War Z. This is a death of society by society, not by undead monsters; by the living, not the dead.

In 2013, several simultaneous cases of a dual instance of rabies and leprosy in patients, something incredibly unexpected by medical professionals of the time including the writer, a doctor […]

James Grimsby2019-01-21T09:38:52+02:00November 22nd, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Apocalyptic Fiction, Horror, Zombie Fiction|

Two Good Self-Publishing Posts

A couple of good posts that cover well-trod info about self-publishing, but good nonetheless.

The Fortress Walls Have Been Breached, Captain

In 1917 Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard unpacked a small printing press in the front room of their home. They set up the Hogarth Press to enable them to print small volumes of books that “the commercial publisher would not look at”. The Hogarth Press gave the writers of the Bloomsbury circle, which included TS Eliot and EM Forster, the freedom to write what they wanted, rather than write what established publishers judged saleable.

Nearly one hundred

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Henry Baum2013-08-23T13:49:34+02:00August 23rd, 2013|Categories: Features|

Review: Flight Into Darkness by Roger Hardy

What’s more terrifying than al-Qaeda run by Osama bin Laden? A terrorist organization that is organized, well-connected, and has resources.

Roger Hardy’s Flight Into Darkness takes place after bin Laden’s death. When a new hi-tech jet vanishes in the night over the Saudi desert not many people notice. The aircraft was touted as the safest in the world, so what happened? James Hayward is an air accident investigator for the Directorate of Aviation Security. Nothing about the crash has appeared on newscasts or on the Internet. Furthermore, no official report was filed. Who submitted an anonymous report, and more importantly, […]

T B Markinson2013-01-10T12:11:26+02:00January 10th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Thriller|

Review: Aeternum Ray by Tracy R. Atkins

William Samuel Babington, the protagonist of Aeternum Ray, by Tracy R. Atkins, was born in the twentieth century and spent his youth in the same world we now inhabit. But by the time Babington succumbs to the heart defect he inherited from his father, the world and humans have changed dramatically. Told in the form of Babington’s letters to his son, Benjamin, Aeternum Ray recounts the personal history of Babington and the larger history of humanity from the late twentieth century until the birth of Benjamin in 2161. The main action of the book is set after humanity has […]