Features

Running a site devoted to self-publishing, for however short a period, I’ve gotten a quick sense into some of the mistakes self-publishers make when sending out a book. I don’t want to single anyone out here by linking to anyone, but I wanted to point these things out. It occurs to me as well that scathingly attacking a self-published writer makes little sense. After all, the writer is self-releasing the book at his or her own expense, and will struggle to find readers. Why bother attacking someone who’s already struggling to be read? That said, I wanted to point some […]

Darryl Sloan, author of the novel, Chion – soon to be reviewed by the Self-Publishing Review – has some interesting thoughts about self-publishing. It is in line with the basic manifesto of the Self-Publishing Review: the fact that the ill-conceived books have come to represent self-publishing on the whole. And given the fact that it’s so hard to get the stamp of approval from the publishing industry that there no shame whatsoever in being self-published. The idea is to find readers and there’s great value in finding readers no matter how a book is released. I know from my own […]

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 […]

The simple truth is that the quality of most self-published books is terrible.  And unfortunately this fact is bringing down the entire culture around self-publishing, as people don’t trust a self-published book is any good.  At the same time, you can find people reading a book and saying, “I can’t believe this is self-published,” both happy to have discovered something new and lamenting the fact that so many prospective writers have to resort to self-publishing when ignored by traditional publishers.

Getting published is enormously difficult – mainstream publishers aren’t very adventurous and choose “marketable” books, and small presses – which […]