SPR | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Snapshots: Say Cheese! The World is Watching by Cara Cilento

Say Cheese! The World is Watching by Cara Cilento

Poems and short prose pieces are mated with vibrant photos in the emotive collection Snapshots: Say Cheese! The World is Watching by debut writer Cara Cilento.

The two dominant themes are Cilento’s acceptance of herself as a lesbian, and her decision to adopt two boys, a bold move, especially as both children are African American. Cilento is of Italian descent, this made clear as she describes messages (“The Facts”) from her upbringing:

…I was made from two parents

who went to school to get out of the ghetto

who tried to forget their last name had too many vowels in

[…]

SPR2019-05-03T13:09:47+02:00May 2nd, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: LGBTQI+ Book Reviews, Poetry Book Reviews|

Review: Colored Armpits: Poems for Social Justice by James Kityo Ssemmanda

Colored Armpits: Poems for Social Justice by James Kityo Ssemmanda

Ugandan born poet Ssemanda casts light on critical issues that we all need to explore in the collection of personal, political, and perceptive works, Colored Armpits: Poems for Social Justice.

Ssemanda’s book of verse is divided in three sections – “The Mzungu,” “The Armpits,” and “The African African.” Each touches on different aspects of the human condition, and particularly, the condition of African and other third world people in connection or confrontation with first world denizens and value systems.

Mzungu is the African language term used in Uganda and elsewhere to designate white people – whether they be colonialists, […]

SPR2019-06-03T08:46:18+02:00May 1st, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Poetry Book Reviews|

Twitter’s New Design Isn’t Going to Be Great for Book Marketing

If you’re in the Twitter bookspace at all, you know that authors like to post their book covers. A lot. Twitter is going to have an upgrade and it’s changing the way images are displayed. Instead of variable sizes of images, there is going to be one main size – which isn’t conducive to book covers.

Here’s an example from author Neal Asher’s Twitter account:

Twitter Book Cover

And here’s what it looks like in new Twitter. It’s taking a small image and blowing it up horizontally, which means old posts are not going to be rendered very well:

New Twitter

Currently, not everyone […]

SPR2020-02-21T07:44:32+02:00April 18th, 2019|Categories: News|Tags: Social Media|

An Interview with Maxx Powr: Author of The Promise

Maxx Powr Maxx Powr is a husband and father. He loves dogs. His dream situation would be a huge rescue farm taking in strays.

Tell us about your book.

The Promise is a fun sci-fi space opera romp. It has action, humor, adventure, romance and a little sex, but not erotica. The main characters have been DNA enhanced and possess special abilities, useful in fighting the invading alien Klix. They are well trained, but untested. They are brothers, sharing the same DNA and history, trained at the Piecer Academy. A trusting humanity has become complacent, believing in a false truce. When the […]

SPR2019-04-18T10:00:34+02:00April 18th, 2019|Categories: Interviews|

Self-Publishing: What Not to Do

There is some degree of impatience that goes along with self-publishing. Why wait around for a publisher when you can have a book now? That’s one of the bigger fallacies of the industry, because if you choose to do everything yourself it can (and should) be more work. Writers are still driven to cut corners because it can be so difficult to handle every side of the business. So long as you understand there’s difficulty every step of the way, you will hopefully give each step in the process the attention it deserves.

Here’s a primer on the common […]

SPR2020-02-21T03:47:02+02:00April 18th, 2019|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Book Cover Design Tips, Book Editing Tips, Book Formatting Tips, Book Promotion Articles, Writing Tips|

An Interview with Vercie Lark: Author of Make it Rain

Vercie Lark Vercie Lark, author of Make It Rain is a recently retired executive vice president and head of DST Systems Financial Services business with revenues of approximately $1 billion, was accountable for providing industry leading products and services to asset management, brokerage, retirement, banking and insurance investment firms throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

While working for several Fortune 500 firms over the past 35 years Lark also owned or invested in various small businesses including an online clothing business, investing in an early stage technology company, a restaurant, multifamily real estate, and a well-known gasoline and convenience […]

SPR2019-04-18T11:28:41+02:00April 18th, 2019|Categories: Interviews|

An Interview with Jimmie Martinez: Author of Cajun Chameleon

Jimmie Martinez Jimmie Martinez is the author of a total of four books. He has a BA degree from Louisiana State University in New Orleans, now the University of New Orleans. His interests include traveling, reading and watching classic film noir movies. He is also a passionate Saints and LSU football fan.

The former New Orleans Policeman and Chief Administrative Officer of the City of Kenner, Louisiana and co-founder and CEO of a civil engineering firm is now retired. Born and raised in New Orleans, he resides in Kenner and his beach condo in Orange Beach, Alabama with his wife Gale.

Tell […]

SPR2019-04-18T10:03:09+02:00April 18th, 2019|Categories: Interviews|

Review: Effective Leaders and Leadership by Mildred Stallworth

Effective Leaders and Leadership by Mildred Stallworth

In this straightforward and surefooted guide to becoming an effective leader, author Mildred Stallworth offers a compendium of ideas that can prove helpful to people in all aspects of professional and personal life in Effective Leaders and Leadership.

Leaders, Stallworth says, create a vision that others can then follow. Comparing the leader of an organization to the head of the human body, she suggests that the “head” of a group has the responsibility to think and make decisions to control the actions and directions of the group as a whole. The head literally oversees the body; if the head […]

SPR2019-05-28T11:56:23+02:00April 17th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Business Book Reviews, Leadership Book Reviews, Religious Book Reviews|