Lead Story

Lead stories from SPR’s ever-growing independent book portal

Self-Published Book Awards

Some make the argument that book contests are a way to rip off writers. Authors submit a book and a fee for the hopes of winning the contest and the grand prize, usually a sum of money. The majority of writers will receive nothing from the contest and be out the $50-$100 it normally costs to enter the contest. Meanwhile the contest promoters are making tens of thousands of dollars in application fees.

Perhaps I am biased because I actually won one of these contests – the Hollywood Book Festival – but I do not regard contests as a way […]

2010-01-19T11:26:52+02:00January 25th, 2009|Categories: Lead Story, Resources|

Interview: Kristen Tsetsi, author of Homefront

Kristen TsetsiKristen Tsetsi’s Homefront (reviewed by the Self-Publishing Review) is one of the most moving and evocative portratits of people left back at home while their spouses fight overseas. Her own husband was stationed in Iraq.  Here Kristen Tsetsi talks about the origins of the novel and her experience with self-publishing.

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

Kristen Tsetsi: I did try the traditional route. I sent an initial series of queries, the first three of which were (to my great excitement) met with requests for first chapters. Once the first […]

2018-05-15T16:06:12+02:00January 9th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Guest Post: Kevin Gerard on Book Marketing

Kevin Gerard talks about his incredibly unique and ambitious marketing techniques to promote his young adult series, Conor and the Crossworlds.  This article shows the lengths that self-published writers can – and should – take to promote a book.

“And what are you prepared to do, now!”

I love that line in the Untouchables, where Kevin Costner has all but given up, and Sean Connery grabs him by the scruff and asks for more. In the world of self published promoters, there couldn’t be a more fitting question.

In February of 2004, I had finally had enough with […]

2009-12-31T21:32:56+02:00January 7th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Guest Post: N. Frank Daniels

On November 11, 2006, I wrote an article for Susan Henderson’s lit website LitPark, titled “After the Goldrush.” The article was a death knell for my pursuit of a writing career and a salute to all of us who have this same affliction. I’d doggedly chased a publishing deal for close to 3 years. I built a fanbase, I self-published, I marketed, I went on a self-funded book tour. Countless, innumerable hours had been spent writing and editing and editing and editing and chasing down leads and trying to connect with already-established writers, as well as up-and-comers like […]

2009-12-31T21:38:07+02:00January 5th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Guest Post: Christopher Meeks

Christopher Meeks is the author of two self-released short story collections: The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea and Months and Seasons, as well as the play, Who Lives? – all with professionally-designed covers and well-reviewed.  He can be reached at his site ChrisMeeks.com.  Here he writes about creating his own self-publishing imprint, White Whisker Books.

While I’m self-publishing technically, I see what I’m doing on another level. My main occupation is writer, and my secondary business is publishing. I have a fairly good grasp at how the book business works, and one of the things is that for […]

2009-12-31T21:39:17+02:00January 4th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Self-Publishing Review Blogs

In the early days of blogging, self-publishing blogs were few and far between.  Now there’s a long list of self-publishing litblogs.  Some self-publishing bloggers come and go, like Poddy Mouth, the pioneer in self-publishing review blogs, but some are here for the long haul, such as Pod People, a blog that has seen other self-publishing reviewers come and go.  At one point, there was a “De Facto POD Review Ring” that only contained five blogs.  Now the number of bloggers interested in self-publishing is expanding.

This is mostly culled from Breeni Books’ POD review ring, with a few […]

2009-12-31T21:44:03+02:00December 27th, 2008|Categories: Lead Story, Resources|
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