Interviews

Introduction: Carol Buchanan is the author of the self-published novel God’s Thunderbolt: The Vigilantes of Montana, winner of the 2009 Spur Award for Best First Novel. I met Carol Buchanan online, when we were both posting to the boards of the Amazon Shorts program. Both of us were frustrated by the barriers currently erected by the mainstream publishing industry to new fiction, and both of us decided to do it ourselves. She gave my book a great review and I read hers and was honestly able to reciprocate. When her book won the 2009 Spur Award, given by […]

Guest interview by Michael Reed. Originally commissioned by Strange Horizons, but it was not posted on that site.  Strange Horizons replied, “Although some sections, notably on the author’s local inspirations and self-publishing, stand out as offering a fresh perspective, it’s a problem for our purposes that the interviewee doesn’t seem to be particularly active in new fiction projects right now.”

Read Self-Publishing Review’s review of Darryl Sloan’s Chion.

Chionophobia n. A fear of snow

Chion is Northern Ireland based Darryl Sloan’s second self-published novel. As he did with his first novel, the 2002 release Ulterior, Darryl has […]

Poddy Mouth was an anonymous author who began reviewing print on demand books in 2005, back when self-publishing was more frowned upon than it is today.  She still remains the most prominent and successful POD reviewer – in part because she came from the world of traditional publishing.  As she says on her blog:

I am an author and instructor, in that order (for now.) My debut novel (which debuted in the midlist) was released by Penguin Putnam in 2004 and my second novel was released early 2006. As for this blog, it has been profiled in many online magazines,

At Self-Publishing Review we receive a lot of books for review.  By far the greatest number of books that come directly from a publicist come from Author Marketing Experts.  Here CEO Penny Sansevieri and COO Paula Krapf talk about what self-published writers can expect from hiring a publicist.

Self-Publishing Review: How long has Author Marketing Experts been at work?

Penny Sansevieri: We’ve been doing this for over ten years.

SPR: How many books do you normally promote a year?

Penny: That’s a tough question to answer but suffice it to say: a lot. Since we also offer one-on-one coaching […]

Having been told more than once by reviewers that the cover for Homefront leaves much to be desired (one of them even said she passed over reading my book several times just because of the cover), it’s becoming increasingly clear that a book cover can have an enormous impact on potential readers.

It’s certainly possible to make your own cover using photo-imaging software, but according to cover designer Cathi Stevensen, owner of  Book Cover Express, that’s not always – rather, is very rarely – a good idea.

Cathi discusses what every cover should have and why you really shouldn’t […]

This interview welcomes the first children’s book writer/illustrator to Self-Publishing Review.  I found the author via a post by Wil Wheaton and MCM has all the right ideas about DIY publishing.  Read SPR’s review of The Pig and the Box.

Self-Publishing Review: Your book The Pig and the Box has been downloaded over 1.5 million times, and translated into 15 languages.  How did that happen?  That’s pretty intense distribution.

MCM: I think it all boils down to the subject matter.  At the time I wrote it, there was a controversy about a project called “Captain Copyright,” which was […]