My best friend Sally Zigmond has written a very useful post about the rush to self-publish to the Kindle. As is ever the case with Sally’z articles, this one is well worth a read.
Category Archives: self-publishing
Self-Publishing: The Perils And Pitfalls
Chuck Wendig has written a brilliantly funny blog-post about some of the many problems with self-published books. He takes no prisoners: but he does point out that when self-publishing is done properly, it can be a very good route to take. I’m concerned by the number of writers who are putting their work out on…
The Self-Publishing Review: Green Skies
A graphic novel called Green Skies makes an appearance at The Self-Publishing Review today. There are three things a graphic novel needs to be successful: a good story, good writing, and good illustrations. Did I find any of them in Green Skies? What do you think?
Necromancer At The Self-Publishing Review
Today at The Self-Publishing Review I look at a fantasy novel called Necromancer. I have done my best to be generous but I do so wish that writers would learn more about editing before they self-publish their work.
At The Self-Publishing Review: The Principle Of Ultimate Indivisibility
Today at the Self-Publishing Review I take a look at a collection of literary short stories called The Principle Of Ultimate Indivisibility. Short stories? Long title? There’s a lot that could go wrong. Brace yourselves.
The Author’s Big Mistake In Action
A couple of years ago I blogged about The Author’s Big Mistake which is, for those of you who don’t know, replying to a review with anything more than “thank you for your time”. If you want to see why it’s such a bad idea for a writer to comment on a review, read this…
I’m Moving!
No, I’m not moving house; and this blog is staying exactly where it is. What’s moving is my littler blog, The Self-Publishing Review, which today is moving from Blogger, here, to WordPress, here. Please change your bookmarks if you follow it (here are instructions for following a non-Blogger site on your Blogger dashboard); if you…
Brit Writers’ Awards
Earlier this year I began to see questions about the Brit Writers’ Award competitions cropping up on writers’ message boards. Writers were being notified left, right and centre that they had made it through to the various shortlists; very few writers who entered ended up being told that their work hadn’t made it that far;…
Reverse Vanity Publishing
You used to know right where you were with vanity publishers. They charged an extortionate amount to print a few copies of your unedited book and left you to do all the selling. That upfront charge was the way to spot them: no reputable publisher charges its authors anything. Eventually, most writers got wise to…
Mainstream Publishing Is Not Scared of Self-Publishing
(Not even when it jumps out from behind the literary sofa and shouts BOO!) A couple of weeks ago on the social whirl that is Twitter, someone suggested to me that the reason that commercial publishers are so dismissive of self- and vanity-publishers is that they are either scared of them, or in denial over…
Why Sales Statistics And Quality Are Inseparable
Last year, a blog post of mine about the sales statistics of vanity-published books sparked a lot of attention (I’ll have to quote Victoria Strauss more often). First, Publishers’ Marketplace linked to the piece and a few hundred extra visitors found their way here as a result; then literary agent extraordinaire Janet Reid linked to…
They Had It Coming Indeed: Part V
This is the last in a short series of posts in which I analyse an article written by David Rozansky, publisher of Flying Pen Press, regarding literary agent Andrew Wylie’s decision to set up his own publishing house in order to publish some of his clients’ works exclusively in Amazon’s Kindle format. You can read…
Mainstream, Vanity And Self-Publishing: What Are The Differences?
There are three different ways writers can get published: but I’d only recommend two of them. Guess which ones. Mainstream or commercial publishing, which pays advances and royalties, relies on editorial selection to find the best or most appropriate books for the market, and puts a considerable amount of professional expertise into producing the best…
They Had It Coming Indeed: Part IV
This is the fourth blog post in a shortish series in which I analyse an article written by David Rozansky, publisher of Flying Pen Press (discussed here at AbsoluteWrite), regarding literary agent Andrew Wylie’s decision to set up his own publishing house, and license e-book rights to some of his clients’ works exclusively to Amazon….
They Had It Coming Indeed: Part III
This blog post is the third in a series in which I analyse an article written by David Rozansky, publisher of Flying Pen Press, regarding the recent decision by literary agent Andrew Wylie to set up his own publishing imprint and license e-book rights to some of his clients’ works exclusively to Amazon. You can…
Why Self-Published Books Don’t Automatically Impress Agents
Several agents and editors have blogged about how self-publication doesn’t impress them as a publishing credit and when Janet Reid did just that (mentioning my blog along the way), she ran into a little criticism from one of her readers who accused her of considering sales more important than quality. I thought it was worth…
They Had It Coming Indeed: Part II
This blog post is the second in a series in which I analyse an article written by David Rozansky, publisher of Flying Pen Press, regarding the recent decision by literary agent Andrew Wylie to set up his own publishing house and license e-book rights to some of his clients’ works exclusively to Amazon. You can…
When Argument Is Futile
For those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter, my user-name there is @hprw and I use this tiny picture of a peacock as my avatar. Remember the picture: it will be important later. A few days ago I encountered a self-published writer on Twitter who had some rather strange views about how self-publishing…
The Writing Business: Part III
This is the final part of the talk I gave at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. You can read part I here, and part II here. The Writing Business 44) So, once you’re sure your writing is as good as it can be, you have to work out where to submit it. How can…