lulu | Self-Publishing Review

Copyright, Publication Rights, Kindle, and YOU

Cross-posted at Pod People.

It recently came to my attention that Amazon is aggressively verifying licensing and copyrights for works published through the Kindle DTP Platform.

After taking a leisurely walk around the DTP message boards, it became apparent that Amazon instituted additional verification procedures beginning sometime in September 2009. While this might be upsetting to some who publish through Kindle, I am all in favor of proactive measures to ensure author’s rights are not being violated, so I wanted to talk about what this means for the self-published author.

As the author of intellectual property, the copyright to […]

Cheryl Anne Gardner2018-10-29T12:12:29+02:00December 3rd, 2009|Categories: Resources|

More on Harlequin, Vanity Publishing, and True Self-Publishing

One of the major things revealed by the Harlequin self-publishing debacle is how much of a stigma about self-publishing still lingers. Some would say that it’s not self-publishing that’s the problem, but vanity publishing – the subsidy houses that charge too much for too little. But in much of the dialog about the controversy, self-publishing was talked about as a single entity: as if a writer is ever shelling out any amount of money to publish, this is an illegitimate road. Nora Roberts chimed in with “When a big brand publisher uses its name and its resources to sell this […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:48:23+02:00December 2nd, 2009|Categories: Features|

The American Book Release

In an interview I recently did with the Creative Penn, Joanna Penn asked how I used the Self-Publishing Review to market myself. Beyond the footer which contains links to my books at the bottom of each post, I haven’t done a lot of plugging my own books in the posts. But it’s my site – I started it and do most of the writing – so here we go. My novel, The American Book of the Dead, is now out.

The reason I started this site in December 2008 was because I knew I’d be releasing a […]

Henry Baum2009-12-28T20:59:16+02:00November 27th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|

On Collectives and Crowdsourcing

There have been two new developments in the last two weeks showing just how much digital publishing is changing. When this site was started a year ago, there was still some holdover from the previous assessments of self-publishing – that is was a fringe type of publishing meant for people with limited talent. This stigma is quickly diminishing, due in part because of the very high-profile people who are looking to self-publishing as a legitimate model.

Recently, Book View Cafe released a press release about their straight-to-digital publishing collective:

Traditional publishing, new media, ebooks, and now “vooks”… the publishing world

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T20:34:25+02:00November 11th, 2009|Categories: News|

The Quartet Press Story

One of the things that’s not talked about enough is that self-publishing is no different than starting your own publishing company – if it were couched in these terms, perhaps it would get more respect. How can there not be respect for someone who’s in charge of every facet of the publishing process? The trouble is this isn’t always the case. When you publish with Lulu, it’s possible to have a book printed in ten minutes using one of their cover templates. It’s no more difficult than signing up with Blogger. This is great, but it’s a different animal than […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:49:11+02:00September 15th, 2009|Categories: News|

Call Out for Reviewers

An idea – wondering if writers would be interested in taking on books to review. I could send each writer an ebook and he/she could write a review while offering a place to plug a book. As it stands, this site has more books coming in than can possibly be reviewed by the current staff, with more coming in daily. With Lulu boasting on its site, “Over 1000 New Titles a Day,” it’s no surprise that this site might be overwhelmed with books.

A representative from Outskirts Press recently offered to send the site 2 books a week to review. […]

Henry Baum2009-12-31T18:47:34+02:00September 15th, 2009|Categories: Lead Story|

Interview with SPR Editor in the Sacramento News & Review

I was recently interviewed for the Sacramento News & Review by Melanie Glover about self-publishing. I’ve got a lot to say on the subject but a small portion of the interview was actually used in the article. Check out the article here: Any way you want it, that’s the way they print it. Melanie Glover offered to let me print the interview in full here.

Melanie Glover: How long has the site been up and running? Why did you start it?

Henry Baum: I started it in December 2008. It’s only six months old, but it’s now listed #2 […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:49:41+02:00September 3rd, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

Smashwords Ebooks to be Distributed by Barnes & Noble

In a major development for self-publishers, Smashwords has reached an agreement with Barnes & Noble to have B&N distribute select titles on the site. From an email sent out to Smashwords members:

Smashwords is evolving to become a full service ebook distributor. Smashwords will soon begin distributing ebooks to major online retailers, the first of which is Barnes & Noble and their various properties including Barnesandnoble.com, Fictionwise and their eReader app. We’re thrilled about this development, because these new distribution relationships will dramatically expand your digital shelf space.

Not all Smashwords books will automatically qualify for distribution. To qualify, the

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:50:34+02:00August 28th, 2009|Categories: News|

UniBook Review

Amazon Titles – N/A

Unibook, short for ‘your own unique book are owned by Peleman Industries, a manufacturer of binding, laminating and presentation products for nearly seventy years. Unibook, formerly known as WWAOW, have offices in Europe as well as the USA. Unibook aim their business and services at self-publishing authors as well as the corporate and government sectors.

http://www.unibook.com/static/blog/

The website has plenty of information, though, it can take a while to find and extract what is needed. They list their authors’ books by bestsellers and new releases linked on the main web page and they have their […]

Mick Rooney2017-02-12T09:11:17+02:00August 16th, 2009|Categories: Publisher Reviews|Tags: Subsidy Publishing Articles|

Ransom Stephens on The God Patent and the Future of Publishing

Ransom Stephens has written one of the best assessments of the future of publishing that you’re likely to read (found via Pod People). Called Booking the Future, it needs to be read – more than once. Here we talk about the ideas put forth in the article and the success of his digitally-published novel, The God Patent, which basically proves the thesis of his essay: the future of publishing is going to look very different than it does today. It will have many elements of self-publishing writ large. As he says, “Though the role of publishing has […]