Henry Baum | Self-Publishing Review

About Henry Baum

Author of three self-published novels and one traditionally published (Soft Skull Press, Canongate, and Hachette Littératures). Recipient of Best Fiction at the DIY Book Festival, the Gold IPPY Award for Visionary Fiction, and the Hollywood Book Festival Grand Prize. He lives with his wife Cate Baum in Spain. He's the founder of SPR.

Reminder: You Can Post Here

Just wanted to remind people that you’re open to publish posts here. The site gets a lot of requests for book reviews, but far fewer submissions for new posts, even though a post will have a similar impact to a book review. Sure, it’s nice to put in your promo material – “This book rules.” Self-Publishing Review – but the other main point of a book review is to increase awareness of a book. And it’ll cost you nothing to cross-post something from your own blog about your self-publishing experience, or to write something original.

That, or you could fill […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:26:49+02:00May 24th, 2010|Categories: Resources|

A Mind Adrift: An Interview with Craig Lancaster

An interview with Craig Lancaster, author of 600 Hours of Edward, the forthcoming The Summer Son, and the newest member of the Backword Books collective. Reminder: writers have the opportunity to fill out this interview as well. Details here.

Self-Publishing Review: How did you come to self-publish? Did you try to get published traditionally?

Craig Lancaster: For me, the decision to form my own small literary press and shepherd my own projects (and others’ projects — I hope to have some exciting news about that soon) represents a full circle. I originally self-published my first book, “600 […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:15:11+02:00May 24th, 2010|Categories: Interviews|

Now: Bookmasters Enters Self-Publishing

This seems fairly inevitable, though perhaps not as inevitable as Barnes & Noble’s entrance into self-publishing. Book manufacturer and distributor, Book Masters, is starting a self-publishing service called Auturo:

Auturo (o-tour-o)

• Fluent in many languages and media

• Covering all digital conversion and distribution needs.

• Consolidates reporting and remittance for digital sales.

• Cost-effective, hassle-free services reaching the global market.

• Combining print and digital products for distribution globally.

Auturo Proposal Request

Why us?

• You own your own files

• Automatically updates your distribution profile with any new opportunities

• Bundle digital and hard copy

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:15:49+02:00May 20th, 2010|Categories: News|

The Future of Media

There’s a fascinating post by author Daniel Pinchbeck at Reality Sandwich about new independent media. He’s currently my favorite writer in any medium – non-fiction or fiction – for his willingness to take on far-out ideas with some well-reasoned sobriety. He manages to be both eloquent and concise. All in all, his writing is a huge influence on my own novel. The piece basically condenses my own worldview and why I think self-publishing is so dynamic and important.

In the piece, he talks about releasing an independent film in this new climate:

In the new model that is still

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:16:05+02:00May 20th, 2010|Categories: Features|

JA Konrath’s Deal with Amazon

An interesting development for JA Konrath which has implications for self-publishing and it also…doesn’t. Amazon Encore is going to release Konrath’s next novel digitally and in print. AmazonEncore is “a new program whereby Amazon will use information such as customer reviews on Amazon.com to identify exceptional, overlooked books and authors with more potential than their sales may indicate.”

Konrath doesn’t exactly fit that profile, as his novels are doing well, but this has the feel of the beginning of the future – once self-publishers are able to mimic what Konrath has done without a traditional publisher, the role of traditional […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:16:40+02:00May 19th, 2010|Categories: News|

Barnes and Noble Offers Self-Publishing Service

Via Publisher’s Weekly:

Barnes & Noble is entering the self-publishing business with the summer launch of PubIt! by Barnes & Noble that will allow independent publishers and self-publishing writers to distribute their works digitally through Barnes & Noble.com and the Barnes & Noble eBookstore. Publication and distribution will be limited to digital works with no sales through the B&N stores. The company said it will release details of the royalty model and compensation process at a later date.

To distinguish itself from other companies offering digital self-publishing services, B&N is highlighting access through the Nook and other devices compatible

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:16:53+02:00May 19th, 2010|Categories: News|

A New Indie Distribution Model

An interesting development out of Boulder, Colorado that is both a good and bad sign. Self-published writers can now pay for being stocked on the shelves or more:

The store charges its consignment authors according to a tiered fee structure: $25 simply to stock a book (five copies at a time, replenished as needed by the author for no additional fee); $75 to feature a book for at least two weeks in the “Recommended” section; and $125 to, in addition to everything else, mention the book in the store’s email newsletter, feature it on the Local Favorites page of

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:17:10+02:00May 18th, 2010|Categories: Lead Story, Resources|

Hay House Signs Up with Author Solutions

Via Publisher’s Weekly comes news of the publisher Hay House signing up with Author Solutions in order to create a self-publishing division similar to the one with WestBow Press and the ill-fated Harlequin Horizons:

Author Solutions has signed its third deal with a traditional publisher to create a self-publishing division, inking an agreement with Hay House to create Balboa Press. According to Hay House CEO Reid Tracy, the publisher receives “thousands of manuscripts annually, but we can publish only 100 products a year.” Similar to agreements with Harlequin and Thomas Nelson, Hay House will monitor the self-published titles to

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:18:48+02:00May 14th, 2010|Categories: News|