Search results for: lulu

SPR Listed One of the Top Ten Blogs for Indie Authors

April Hamilton who runs the excellent Publetariat site and the Indie Author blog – and is generally one of the best advocates of independent publishing – has put together a list of the ten best blogs for indie authors on Blogs.com.  Included on the list are SPR’s own Mick Rooney, as well as Populist Publisher, Publishing Renaissance, and the Creative Penn.

Funnily enough, this runs counter to a bad review yesterday of the self-publishing book review blogosphere, which indirectly critiqued Self-Publishing Review – without mentioning the site by name.  Can’t please everybody, and if you run a website you’re up […]

2011-10-08T20:29:29+02:00April 1st, 2009|Categories: News|

The Dream of an Instant Book

“I’m a reader, I have identified a book that I would like to read, and I want it now.”

Throughout most of the centuries that manuscripts have been set in type and bound into books, the sequence of thoughts expressed above would have framed an immense impossibility. Books were far away and difficult to find. In the twentieth-century, the spread of libraries and corner book stores brought books closer to us, and by the 1940s drugstores and groceries began to offer racks of paperbacks. The system worked best in cities and towns, not so well in isolated rural communities. Even […]

2011-10-08T19:19:16+02:00March 31st, 2009|Categories: Features|

Hewlett Packard Enters the POD Business with Magcloud

Yesterday, the New York Times reported the new magazine publishing venture by Hewlett Packard, Magcloud. The service uses the traditional “free” print on demand model – it costs nothing until you print it up. From Magcloud’s site:

It costs you nothing to publish a magazine on Magcloud. To buy a magazine costs 20¢ per page, plus shipping. For example, a 20-page magazine would be four bucks plus shipping. And you can make money! You set your issue price and all proceeds above the base price go to you.

In contrast, a 20-page saddle stitch publication on Lulu runs as high […]

2011-10-08T19:19:31+02:00March 30th, 2009|Categories: News|

Guest Post: Laura Dawson of Authorweb

Reprinted from LJN Dawson’s Authorweb site – a site that offers services for self-publishers, such as:

• Get listed (or enhance existing listing) on Amazon/B&N.com for print sales
• Enhance your listing with Books in Print
• Enhance your listing on FiledbyAuthor and other websites

The Danger of Obscurity

“Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.” – Tim O’Reilly

I went to college to be a writer. I took all the writing workshops there were, wrote upwards of three hours every single day (it helped that it was an all-women’s college), and moved to

[…]
2011-10-08T19:22:09+02:00March 27th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

Andrew Sullivan to Publish a Book Print on Demand

Blogger Andrew Sullivan is becoming one of the better, more high-profile advocates of print on demand publishing. With a readership of over 100,000 a day and being a possible meme-starter, his support of POD is important.  This is in line with Wil Wheaton publishing with Lulu – another well-known writer using the technology. In the past Sullivan has said about the state of publishing and print on demand:

My own view is that the publishing industry deserves to die in its current state. It never made economic sense to me; there are no real editors of books any more; the

[…]
2011-10-08T19:23:35+02:00March 25th, 2009|Categories: News|

Self-Published Sales Figures Don't Matter

Fact: It’s incredibly hard to sell a self-published book, especially self-published fiction.  Opinion: this doesn’t matter.

There’s a post on Janet Reid’s blog today calling out writers who mention they’ve been published by AuthorHouse, iUniverse, etc. because this implies that they haven’t sold a lot of books.  The point I make there in the comments section is that sales figures shouldn’t be the main determining factor in taking on a writer, but unfortunately it is.  As I write about in this blog post, a self-published writer shouldn’t be judged on the ability to sell 5000 books via Lulu.  The […]

2011-10-08T20:43:15+02:00March 18th, 2009|Categories: Features|

The Next Indie Revolution?

In life, certain things have a way of happening just at the right time. This week’s book publishing news was no exception. I have two quotes below from two senior principles from very diverse areas of the book publishing world, who in their own right believe they are making a difference. Here are the quotes. Follow the theme.

Quote One:

“We regard ourselves as independent in the sense of independence of third-party corporate ownership and feel at home with the other members.”

Quote Two:

“Now, through indie book publishing companies like AuthorHouse and iUniverse, authors can let the readers decide […]

2011-10-08T20:38:21+02:00March 15th, 2009|Categories: Features|

Letter to the Editor

Dear SPR,

No matter how much positivity surrounds self-publishing today (it’s a growing trend, more “good” writers are self-publishing their work, etc.), it still has a long way to go before people are able to overlook the stigma that invariably goes along with it .

I agree that it can be rewarding to self-publish. I’ve enjoyed having worked to sell my book, I’ve enjoyed the reviews it’s received absent of a big-name publisher logo often required to get people to read past the cover, and I’ve enjoyed knowing that, even without that publisher, many have been able to enjoy my […]

2011-10-08T20:02:52+02:00March 11th, 2009|Categories: Features|

Interview: Anna Lewis from CompletelyNovel.com

There are more hybrid social network/book marketing sites coming online now.  A few examples: BookaBook, Webook, Long Tale Press.  Even HarperCollins has gotten into the act with Authonomy.  Each of those offers a rating system, where readers can vote on their favorite books.  This is far from the most perfect solution, as it can turn into a popularity contest – the person with the most traffic wins, as opposed to the person with the most compelling book.

Completely Novel takes the competition out of the social network by purely offering writers a place to promote books.  […]

2011-10-08T20:03:23+02:00March 9th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|

The Brightest Moon of the Century by Christopher Meeks

Christopher Meeks is a self-publishing success story.  No, he hasn’t landed a huge publishing contract, but he’s establishing a very serious writing career via the self-publishing route – one that could be the model of how to do self-publishing right and how it can be the avenue for serious and entertaining fiction.

I’ve read every one of his books that he’s put out via Lulu: two short-story collections – The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea and Months and Seasons – and a play – Who Lives?  I’ve also seen a performance of Months and Seasons with stories read by […]

2011-10-08T19:26:16+02:00March 4th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|
Go to Top