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.

Andrew Sullivan to Publish a Book Print on Demand

Blogger Andrew Sullivan is becoming one of the better, more high-profile advocates of print on demand publishing. With a readership of over 100,000 a day and being a possible meme-starter, his support of POD is important. This is in line with Wil Wheaton publishing with Lulu – another well-known writer using the technology. In the past Sullivan has said about the state of publishing and print on demand:

My own view is that the publishing industry deserves to die in its current state. It never made economic sense to me; there are no real editors of books any more; the

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:23:35+02:00March 25th, 2009|Categories: News|

Help Me Pick a Book Cover

I’m gearing up to finish and release my novel. Note: anyone waiting for reviews, sorry for the extra delay, as I’ve got a lot on my plate right now, revising my novel and putting it together. I’m still reading and reviewing, just not as quickly.

My cover designer has come up with two different covers. I’m not going to give a synopsis because I’m curious what people think on a basic browsing-on-the-internet level. Please vote below.

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Henry Baum2009-12-31T20:19:29+02:00March 25th, 2009|Categories: Features|

Interview with Shelley Lieber on the Smashwords' Blog

Currently, there’s an interview up with Shelley Lieber on the Smashwords blog, which acts as a better manifesto about the value of self-publishing than has yet to be put on this site. Some nuggets include:

The industry has probably changed more in the past two years than it has in the previous 50 to 75 years. Of all the creative industries, publishing is the most conservative and slowest to change. As technology advanced and became more readily available and affordable, individual artists in every creative field began to take on more responsibility for all areas of their craft. Authors

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:24:07+02:00March 24th, 2009|Categories: News|

Two New Opportunities for Self-Publishers

These two things recently showed up in my inbox.

NextBigWriter.com: “Running its annual Strongest Start Novel Competition where writers submit the first three chapters of their novel for consideration. This is not a typical contest in that the novel does not have to be complete for it to be submitted. One of the goals of the competition is to provide writers with the feedback they need to perfect their opening. Writers can also edit their entry after they have submitted it based on the feedback they receive.

1st Place Winner Receives $500 and a $2,400 Publishing Package from BookSurge.[…]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:24:25+02:00March 24th, 2009|Categories: News|

The Pig and the Box by MCM

Yes, this is a kid’s story, but it’s about a serious topic, Digital Rights Management, so I want to use this review to talk about DRM, which hasn’t yet been covered in great detail by the site.

The basic mood from more progressive thinkers is that DRM is a flawed principle. Proponents of DRM say that it helps curb duplication of material, which can lead to lost sales. Opponents, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, say that it doesn’t achieve this and actually limits artists from reaching consumers. The main argument against DRM is that it is impossible to maintain […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:30:41+02:00March 21st, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

On Agents and Editors

The interview with Nathan Bransford @ Alan Rinzler’s blog has a couple of very fascinating comments. The first is a comment from someone who goes by AE, without a link to a homepage:

The statement about agents becoming the tastemakers is hopeful, at best, and obviously smeared in self interest. No agent wants to accept their demise. What is more likely is that editors will simply band together and form a brand of their own and through this brand the electronic works will be siphoned and accordingly, stamped with approval.

This is inevitable because the publishing houses will disappear as

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:30:58+02:00March 18th, 2009|Categories: Features|

Self-Published Sales Figures Don't Matter

Fact: It’s incredibly hard to sell a self-published book, especially self-published fiction. Opinion: this doesn’t matter.

There’s a post on Janet Reid’s blog today calling out writers who mention they’ve been published by AuthorHouse, iUniverse, etc. because this implies that they haven’t sold a lot of books. The point I make there in the comments section is that sales figures shouldn’t be the main determining factor in taking on a writer, but unfortunately it is. As I write about in this blog post, a self-published writer shouldn’t be judged on the ability to sell 5000 books via Lulu. The […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:43:15+02:00March 18th, 2009|Categories: Features|

Prelude to a Super Airplane by Brian Spaeth

Brian Spaeth has possibly written the snarkiest book ever written. Normally I don’t like much snark because it seems to be unserious for fear of being sincere, but Prelude to a Super Airplane is actually laugh-out-loud funny. Another thing I don’t like is the phrase LOL because it’s so overused, but I really did LOL at this book, and it takes a lot to make that happen.

In a sense Brian Spaeth has tried to write the worst novel ever written. He probably won’t like that description, but PTSA is a “bad” novel in the same way that Spinal Tap […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:36:47+02:00March 17th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|