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.

SPR Interviewed on Tuesday Shorts

I was interviewed by Tuesday Shorts, a great flash fiction (100 words or less) site. I’d like to thank Kristen Tsetsi, one of the site’s editors, for putting this together.

This interview gives me a reason to write about something I’ve wanted to touch on: the idea that self-publishing will hurt your future chances in publishing. Saying that self-publishing will ruin your career prospects is almost like saying that the only reason to write is to make money – i.e. that career is the only worthwhile ambition.

How does this apply to the interview? Because it shows things […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:32:08+02:00February 5th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

Interview: Eddie Wright, author of Broken Bulbs

Eddie Wright’s excellent Broken Bulbs is a science fictional take on addiction – but what makes the novel so good is that it is not classifiable. Here he talks about writing a hybrid screenplay/novel and the ups and downs of self-publishing.

Self-Publishing Review: How did you come to self-publish? I mention in the review that it would be hard for Broken Bulbs to get published based on its length alone. Did you consider submitting to chapbook publishers?

Eddie Wright: Self-publishing seemed to be the only real option for me because of the length and unorthodox style of Broken Bulbs. […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:32:30+02:00February 5th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Contest Swings into Gear

The subject of some amount of controversy, this week signals the beginning of submissions for Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award. People have accused Amazon of creating the contest merely to get people to publish via CreateSpace and BookSurge. This may well be true, but Amazon fires back saying that 4 out of the 10 finalist from last year’s contest were offered publishing contracts. Last year’s winner, Fresh Kills, has a hardcover out on Putnam.

Additionally, Amazon has cut down the number of submissions this year, as it has also been criticized for a sort of factory-line approach to reading submissions, […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:32:47+02:00February 4th, 2009|Categories: News|

How to Get a Self-Published Book into Libraries

One of the major ways that mainstream authors sell books is to library chains across the U.S. Even if a traditionally published novel does not sell to the reading public, libraries can significantly make up the difference. There are over 16,000 public libraries, plus thousands more university and specialty libraries in the U.S., so this comprises a significant sales opportunity. Though libraries buy on a discount, let’s say libraries buy a $16.00 self-published book for half price. The resulting figure is hundreds of thousands of dollars if the book is widely bought by libraries.

That’s the good news – and […]

Henry Baum2011-10-13T00:35:37+02:00February 4th, 2009|Categories: Resources|

Wordclay Review

Wordclay publishing offers similar free self-publishing tools similar to Lulu. Of course, there’s no such thing as free self-publishing, as you’ll have to pay for each book, which can be more expensive than printing in bulk or using a service like Outskirts Press, which will design a book cover and cost less per book. In my own experience, I went with Lulu to save money on going with an entire publishing package, but when all was said and done – after hiring a designer for the cover, ordering books, and marketing, it might have made sense to go […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:33:39+02:00February 4th, 2009|Categories: Publisher Reviews|

The Past, Present, and Future of Ebooks

In Andrew Sullivan’s follow-up to his post about print on demand, he links to this excellent quote by Edgar Allen Poe, predicting and advocating self-publishing:

… authors will perceive the immense advantage of giving their own manuscripts directly to the public without the expensive interference of the type-setter, and the often ruinous intervention of the publisher. All that a man of letters need do will be to pay some attention to legibility of manuscript, arrange his pages to suit himself, and stereotype them instantaneously, as arranged. He may intersperse them with his own drawings, or with anything to please

[…]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:44:22+02:00February 3rd, 2009|Categories: Features, Lead Story|

Andrew Sullivan on Print on Demand

Andrew Sullivan, political blogger for The Atlantic, weighs in on print on demand. He says,

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 distribution network is archaic; the technology of publishing pathetic; and the rewards to authors largely impenetrable. I still have no idea what my occasional royalty statements mean: they are designed to be incomprehensible, to keep the authors in the dark, to maintain an Oz-like mystery where none is required.

The future

[…]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:42:03+02:00February 1st, 2009|Categories: News|

Interview: Mark Coker, Founder of Smashwords

Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords.com, talks about his ebook directory and the future of ebooks. Check out Self-Publishing Review’s post about places to list an ebook for other ebook sites.

Self-Publishing Review: First, what is Smashwords?

Mark Coker: Smashwords is a digital publishing platform and online bookstore for self-published authors and their readers.

Authors upload their manuscripts as Microsoft Word files and then we automatically convert them into nine different DRM-free ebook formats, ready for immediate sale online. Authors set the price and determine the sampling percentage, and receive 85 percent of the net sales proceeds from their books.

SPR: […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:31:17+02:00February 1st, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|