Cate Baum | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Doomed Soul: Reflections of a Man Without Faith by Robert Boomsliter ★★★★★

The delightful, whimsical cover of this book and tongue-in-cheek cover quote (“I am almost certainly going to end up in Hell”) alerts you right away to the fact that you are getting more—far more—than another of the currently popular anti-religion screeds. Boomsliter has tremendous respect, bordering on hero worship, for Richard Dawkins, Dan Dennett, and Sam Harris. But he wisely takes a slightly different tack in this book. Boomsliter, you see, has a sense of humor (in this he owes more to Christopher Hitchens than the triumvirate mentioned above, although Boomsliter’s wit is just a tad less acerbic than Hitchens’). […]

New SPR Publishing House Kwill Opens Its Doors To Indie Authors

SPR has launched a publishing house, Kwill Books, to meet the demand for indie authors who want the perks of self-publishing without the hassle of doing everything for themselves. Here, Cate Baum, founder, explains to SPR reviewer Lysa Grant why she and co-founder, husband Henry Baum, embarked on this exciting venture.

How did you come up for the idea of starting your own press?

When we came up with the idea for Kwill, we were finding that our clients at SPR were asking for more and more services for their books that were not being met at a reasonable, […]

Cate Baum2015-09-09T07:48:47+02:00September 9th, 2015|Categories: Features, News|

Review: Blind Thrust by Samuel Marquis ★★★★

Blind Thrust by Samuel Marquis A Blind Thrust is the term that describes an earthquake that occurs on a fault that is hidden from view – these sorts of earthquakes can be the most destructive – and here Marquis uses this as a metaphor in his thriller mystery of the same name, in the vein of Dan Brown, but instead of religion we get science, and instead of Langdon we meet a protagonist in the form of geologist Joe Higheagle, a man passionate about his work, and the environment.

Are the blind thrusts across the Front Range in Colorado the result of fracking, or something […]

Cate Baum2019-01-22T15:09:30+02:00September 7th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Action and Adventure Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: Lessons From The Edge of Life by Kyle Garlett ★★★★★

Kyle Garlett Kyle Garlett is a four-time cancer survivor, and a survivor of the many illnesses caused by the cancer treatments he has taken off and on since his first cancer appeared when he was a junior in high school. Lessons From The Edge of Life, however, is not a cancer memoir. (I understand that he has written a story of his cancer experience, and though I have not read it, if it is anything like this book, it is a well-written and captivating read.) This book, though, is so much more than that. Here Garlett’s cancer is used only as […]

Cate Baum2015-09-09T08:11:03+02:00August 6th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Non-Fiction Book Reviews, Self-Help Book Reviews|

How To Hate Friends and Alienate (Virtual) People – 12 Tips To Stay Happy Online

You may well be reading this online, on a group forum. Your forum may be wonderful and friendly. (Almost certainly if I posted it there.) But how about other groups you’re thinking of joining for advice, questions, and for promoting your book or book services? How will you fare? I share here a cautionary tale along with 12 tips for happy surfing as a group member.

When I joined a professional group on Facebook, which shall remain nameless for my genuine concern for my safety, I thought I was joining a group for book professionals from all over the world. […]

Cate Baum2015-08-05T07:41:09+02:00August 5th, 2015|Categories: Features|

Writing Behind Bars Part II by Jamila T. Davis

Jamila T Davis is serving more than a decade as an inmate in federal prison. Here, she describes how she started a self-help publishing imprint from behind bars to inspire and changes womens’ lives through writing, in the second of her two-part series on self-publishing from prison.

During my first few months in federal prison, I met a woman named LaTanya Jones; she is a former prisoner and the author of a book entitled “Cannon Love.” At the time, I was extremely depressed and had no clue how I would cope with serving a decade plus sentence behind bars.[…]

Cate Baum2015-07-28T03:05:14+02:00July 28th, 2015|Categories: Features, Interviews|Tags: Non-Fiction Book Reviews|

When To Use Compound Words In Your Writing – And When Not To

Here’s a list of some of the words I see when editing authors’ books that have been written as one compound word and shouldn’t have been, and two words that should have been compounded into one.

Nevermind/Never mind

There’s a whole bunch of people, maybe thousands or even millions, who grew up with Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album, mostly in their late thirties to early fifties, who think this is one word, meaning, “don’t worry about it.” In fact, “nevermind” as one word is actually a noun.

It seems to uniquely feature in the old-fashioned Southern idiom, “don’t pay me […]

Cate Baum2015-07-06T04:56:43+02:00July 6th, 2015|Categories: Features|

Review: The Modern Mughal Mentality by Dr. Afshan Naheed Hashmi ★★★★

The Modern Mughal Mentality In this slim volume, India-born business advisor and entrepreneur, Dr. Afshan Naheed Hashmi presents examples and case studies detailing how Indian businesses have confronted challenges and created successful enterprises, both within India and internationally, using the principles of jugaad.

We are told in the preface that the Indian word jugaad means many things and can be interpreted in many different ways, however Hashmi defines jugaad as “obtaining your objectives by maximizing resources through thinking outside the box.” Not exactly a mind-blowing business concept. While each example in the book illustrates one aspect of jugaad, there is nothing new or […]

Cate Baum2020-02-21T05:46:52+02:00July 1st, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Business Book Reviews|