This book is not nearly as thorough or as useful as The Self-Publishing Manual. It provides a few additional tips but nothing worth the price of admission. ( )

This is the book for anyone even remotely interested in self-publishing. The author starts from the beginning in what can be a very daunting process and breaks each bit into manageable pieces. He gives great advice, case stories and tons of VERY valuable resource and contact information. I highly recommend this book! ( )

Peter Bowerman is a successful freelance writer in the commercial market who rocketed to success with his first self-published book, "The Well-Fed Writer," followed that up with "The Well-Fed Writer: Back for Seconds," and has now packaged the keys to his success for other writers in "The Well-Fed Self-Publisher" (TWFSP). He chose to self-publish for several reasons: greater control of the process was certainly one of them, but he also felt he could do better by overseeing the process himself than by handing it over to a publisher. He believes that unless you're selling to a mainstream market, many of the marketing efforts of a publishing company will be ineffective compared to the highly-targeted efforts you can put together yourself. Besides, these days publishing companies expect you to do much of the marketing yourself anyway, so why not pocket more of the profits as well?

TWFSP is aimed at authors of niche market books--primarily non-fiction--who have written quality products and seriously wish to market and sell them to make a profit. If you want to self-publish a novel for the mainstream market or a family history just for friends and family you'll still find handy information in here, but the book isn't aimed at you and you'll find much of it irrelevant.

For folks who fit the book's intended audience, however, "The Well-Fed Self-Publisher" is a dragon's hoard of clear, well-presented information. Because of the tight focus, Bowerman is able to present highly targeted and relevant information that walks you through each step of the process. This makes the whole thing feel less overwhelming (although it's hardly simple!).

If you're a talented writer in a niche market who wants to write and sell her own book, "The Well-Fed Self-Publisher" provides an incredible amount of information as well as plenty of pointers to more. It's written in an accessible, friendly style full of information to absorb. It's encouraging in tone, yet never tries to soft-sell the amount of work involved.

Full review at ErrantDreams ( )