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.

Wheatmark Books Review

Wheatmark is unique among self-publishers: it’s a kind of hybrid self-publisher/publisher. Not that they turn anyone away – which is the main dividing line between a traditional publisher and a self-publisher – but they do give each author more personal contact. So Wheatmark acts as a traditional publisher would: they try to help books get sold. As a business model, this makes sense – if books get into the hands of more people, more new authors will want to sign up for the press.

Otherwise, self-publishing is kind of an isolated process. On the one hand, this is good news: […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:37:45+02:00January 6th, 2009|Categories: Publisher Reviews|

Creating a Self-Publishing Imprint

Creating a self-publishing imprint can reduce the stigma of self-releasing your own book. Instead of having your book on one of the major self-publishing sites (Lulu, AuthorHouse), you can instead choose to print up your books independently under your own company brand. Alternately, you could use a major self-publisher like Lulu to handle the printing and processing of your book and create your own separate imprint – possibly with its own website and list of authors. A self-publishing imprint really depends on how it’s marketed: as an independent entity or part of a larger self-publishing site.

Note: Technically, a […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:38:57+02:00January 4th, 2009|Categories: Resources|

New Self-Publishing Success Stories

New success stories in the news: this comes from an article in Publisher’s Weekly about new self-published writers who have hit the big time. Note: these are all either non-fiction or youth-related books, though fiction for the adult market can have success as well, as noted in the review of Futureproof by N. Frank Daniels.

On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman

This book is the exception, not the rule, as Nancy Tillman was able to sell 35,000 copies (not a typo) of her book before finding a publisher. Getting a publisher was a virtual inevitability. The book […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:40:26+02:00January 3rd, 2009|Categories: News|

Self-Publishing and the Blogosphere

There’s a phenomenon particular to the arts, where people don’t realize their degree of talent. Call this the American Idol phenomenon. On the first few shows of American Idol, people gawk and laugh at the contestants who have so little clue how little talent they actually have. Self-publishing is full of the same types of writers. (Note: this is not in reference to anyone who has contacted the site, so don’t be worried).

Because self-publishing has no filter, there is some stuff that gets released that should never see the light of day. Really, there’s some stuff that gets released […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:40:41+02:00January 3rd, 2009|Categories: Features|

Self-Publishing Scams

Self-publishing seems to be a place that is tailor made for scam artists. The combination of money changing hands and people desperate to see their name in print can lead to writers being taken advantage of. On forums you can read about people gleefully saying, “I got published!” only to find out that they were contacted by a site like Publish American saying that they’ll put out a book. Publish America – one of the least scrupulous self-publishers – begins correspondence using words like “Congratulations!!!” knowing full-well that this will dupe people into thinking they’ve been selected by a traditional […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:40:59+02:00January 3rd, 2009|Categories: Resources|

Outskirts Press Review

Most people who self-publish will likely look into the big self-publishers first: AuthorHouse, iUniverse, and Lulu. The thinking may be that it is hard enough to get readers for a self-published novel – going with a major self-publisher will make it more likely that you’ll find prospective readers within that publisher’s community.

This is not necessarily true. Just because you’re on Lulu’s site, which gets more traffic than a smaller self-publisher, does not necessarily mean that you’re going to find more takers for your book. While the Lulu community does offer feedback and review requests between Lulu authors, there is […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:41:22+02:00January 2nd, 2009|Categories: Publisher Reviews|

Futureproof by Frank Daniels

Futureproof is a self-publishing success story. Begun as a Lulu book, it is set to be released by Harper Perennial this month. For anyone looking to promote a self-published novel, N. Frank Daniels is proof that aggressive marketing of a self-published novel can reap rewards – and getting a book out into the world can lead to good things. Frank Daniels was able to sell thousands of copies of a Lulu book and then land a publishing deal with a mainstream publisher.

The novel began as this:

In January 2009, it will be released as this:

His marketing tactics were […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T21:41:50+02:00January 2nd, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Where to Get Self-Published Book Reviews

Getting book reviews is one of the harder parts of self-publishing – and truth be told getting a lot of book reviews by no means guarantees book sales (unless it’s an Oprah review, which isn’t going to happen). However, it can be gratifying, so long as the reviews are good, and instructive if they’re not. It’s important to keep in mind that even if you publish a book with a traditional small press it will likely be up to you to bring in reviews and interviews, so it is a good skill set to have for any writer.