Outskirts Press, the fastest-growing full-service self-publishing and book marketing company, today announced its top twenty-five best-selling titles for 2011 according to combined data from Ingram Book Wholesalers and Outskirts Press Direct via http://outskirtspress.com/bookstore. These authors have likely created a solid book promotion strategy and put it into motion either by themselves or with the help of a Personal Marketing Assistant.
In alphabetical order, the top twenty-five best-selling books in self publishing during 2011 were:
Congratulations to our best-selling authors for 2011!
How can you get your book on the bestseller list? While we can’t make any guarantees on sales success, many of our most successful authors invest time and money in marketing themselves and their book. Some of our most popular services are the Personal Marketing Assistant, Virtual Book Tour, and Custom Press Release/PR Publicist.
All of these books (and other Outskirts Press titles) are available from all major online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powells, Books A Million, and others, plus conveniently from the Outskirts Press Direct bookstore at http://outskirtspress.com/bookstore for discounts ranging from 10% – 55%.
Are you ready to put a book promotion strategy in place for your self-published book?
Publishing a book has become easier, largely due to improvements in technology. A process that would involve huge management overheard and subsequently take over 6 months, can now be completed within a couple of months, and that too effectively.
Cost-Effective Solution: Self-publishing is an affordable way to publish a book. Numerous would-be authors were previously discouraged to publish due to the excessive costs involved in writing, publishing and marketing their work. But now, technology can be leveraged to mass-produce books, thus reducing the cost impact on the author.
Ease of implementation: Self publishing has become very easy to implement. Technology allows authors to concentrate on writing their books and novels, forwarding most of the other responsibilities on automated systems that track and assess everything from book marketing to book sales.
Increased Exposure: These days, someone in Japan could be reading a self-published book written by an author from a remote town in the USA. As a self-publisher, all you have to do is submit your manuscript and it can be soon made available to many countries across the world.
Learn and Improve: The internet provides a huge resource for benefiting from other’s experiences and knowing their life-story. Connecting with readers has become much simpler because of the internet, and many authors encourage feedback and increased participation from their readers.
Publish Electronically: Perhaps the cheapest and easiest way to self-publish books, electronic publication allows your book to reach millions of ebook readers across the world. The margins in this segment of publishing are higher than traditional book-publishing.
So, what do you think? Share your experiences of how technology has simplified self-publishing for you! I would love to know!
Yesterday I talked a little bit about a book marketing option that is revolutionizing the ease with which readers can get their hands on one of your books.
Admittedly, I left out some details on purpose!
It would be too easy to give out everything at once!
So following up from my last post, I will tell you how you, as a self-publisher, can take advantage of the Espresso Book Machine (EBM).
Espresso Book Machine allows instant ordering and printing of your self-published book at numerous locations (currently including universities and libraries across the world). A simple process allows patrons to quickly order your book from a collection of over 7 million books, available in digital format.
The process has been simplified to keep overhead costs low, and improve user experience. This innovation has been awarded the Time Magazine’s reputed “Invention of the Year” award, bringing a personalized ordering and reading experience to your nearest library, and coffee-shops.
As a self-publisher, EBM will provide numerous benefits to improve your book exposure and in effect, the revenue it generates. Some of the benefits of this new marketing option include:
Run book marketing on auto-pilot. Once you sign up with the Outskirts Press Espresso Book Machine Edition, you can sit back and let us do the work.
Cater to thousands of readers through EBM available at multiple locations around the world. Moreover, you can reach international readers through this platform.
Highly affordable and standard service, requiring little or no further marketing investment.
Now your books will never run out-of stock!
So does this sound like something that could add some sales and improve exposure to your book, and in turn, you?
How long does it take to get a cup of coffee from your local Starbucks?
This is not a trick question.
From standing in the queue to getting your steaming espresso – 2 minutes, tops?
How long does it take to order and print a book?
2 days? An hour?
Think again!
If the newest Time Magazine’s ”Invention of the Year” is anything to go by, then you can have your book ordered and printed in less than 1 minute!
If your reaction right now is one of total amazement, you are not alone! I felt the same way when I saw that Outskirts Press were offering access to the Espesso Book Machine (EBM), an option that will make your book available from multiple sales channels within record time.
What is Espresso Book Machine (EBM)?
Put simply, the EBM is an automated book-making machine. The operator selects a title to print, and within a few minutes a book emerges, with a full-color cover, trimmed to an exact size, and indistinguishable from the publisher version.
At present, the EBM is the only unique digital-to-print retail solution on the market. The content of these books is fed to the machine via EspressNet, On Demand Books’ growing digital network, consisting of over seven million titles. The benefits of EBM (if you haven’t already figured them out), include:
Made to order books, printed and compiled within minutes.
Increased points of sale, available at numerous EBM locations.
Increased exposure within the publishing industry.
So thing about it, how would you feel if you walked into a coffee shop, and saw a reader sipping Latte with one hand, and flipping pages of your recently published and printed “hot-of-the-press” book.
As an author in this economy, you have to come up with creative ways to market a self-published book. While book tours are a great way to connect with your readers, they aren’t the most affordable method of promotion. However, technology has made it possible for an alternative.
Take note from self-publishing Outskirts Press author, Charles L. Fields, who is taking his latest book, Broken Spirit, on tour – a virtual book tour, that is. He will be featured on several blogs over the weeks and months ahead so keep your eyes peeled to learn more about him and his book.
Luckily for us, Charles was kind enough to answer a few questions as the tour was getting started so that we can give you a sneak peek into the mind of the creator of Broken Spirit.
OP: Tell us a little bit about Broken Spirit. What is it about?
CLF: This is the third in the Charles Stone series and finds the protagonist involved with racial tension and an extreme secessionist movement in Hawaii. What is thought as a paradise becomes a tropical hell.
OP: Why did you decide to write this story?
CLF: I had left out a lot of my island experiences out of my memoirs and wanted to draw on personal travel adventures to create a dramatic fictional situation for my protagonist Charles Stone.
OP: What types of readers would be interested in this story?
CLF: My Charles Stone series will appeal to adult readers who enjoy travel, adventure and mystery.
OP: What is special about your book? What differentiates it from other books in the same category?
CLF: This book is different because it employees a duel genre of both travel and mystery. The reader will not only be fully informed but taken for a thrill ride as well.
OP: Have you published any other books? Do you plan to publish more?
CLF: Yes.
Many Lands Many Hearts-More than a Memoir
Sentimental Me- A travel mystery involving the murder of a Border Patrol Agent
Canyons of the Soul- A travel mystery involving confrontation with a sadistic Polygamist Mormon Prophet
Tainted Dish- A sequel to Broken Spirit involving military industrial espionage ( pre-publication stage)
OP: Thanks for your time, Charles! We look forward to learning more about you as you visit other bloggers!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Charles L. Fields grew up surrounded by the seaside beauty of Rockport, Massachusetts and the artists who attempted to depict it. His varied and bizarre careers went from banana boat engineer to lobster dealer to chicken hatchery manager and include being an author, poet, sculptor and world traveler. These life time experiences enriched his published Memoir, Many Lands Many Hearts and add realism and depth to his fictional writing. He is married and divides his time between Massachusetts and Arizona. This book follows Sentimental Me and Canyons of the Soul in the Charles Stone travel mystery series.
This author purchased the Virtual Book Tour marketing option, which allows self-publishing authors to connect with bloggers and harness the power of the blogosphere by taking their book on the “virtual road”. Learn more about this service by visiting your Publishing Center and reviewing the available marketing options.
Are you an author looking for help to market your self-published book?
Graham Parke, the author of No Hope for Gomez!, has created a number of technical publications in his career, recently patenting a self-folding map. No Hope for Gomez! is Graham’s fiction debut, and has been widely received, winning numerous awards throughout 2011.
Kirkus review recently announced their Best Indie of 2011 list, and Graham’s fictional debut has made the prestigious list. The novel has received rave reviews from California Chronicles and Readers Favorite:
Extremely witty and clever writing that contains keen insights into human nature. –California Chronicle
The antics in this book will leave the reader laughing. Graham Parke is a genius. –Readers Favorite
The story revolves around the experiences of one Gomez Porter. This is what Kirkus Review had to say about the book:
A drug trial participant blogs about his experiences on an experimental medication and questions whether the strangeness in his life is a side-effect or just weirdness as usual.
As a test subject in an experimental drug trial, Gomez Porter is asked to a keep a blog to chronicle any strange experiences, an exercise that quickly alerts him to just how many odd things seem to be happening around him. He soon finds himself wrapped up in a possible murder mystery, stalking a stalker for a woman he thinks he loves (though it might just be the drugs), while his life and the characters in it get ever more absurd—and increasingly dangerous.
Parke’s debut novel melds screwball comedy, hipster-style irony and an old-fashioned unreliable narrator into a quirky whodunit that challenges our perceptions about how we think and interact with the world around us. The blog-style entries are unique, providing a firsthand view of events from Gomez’s perspective, a perspective that even the character himself actively joins the reader in doubting. When Gomez goes so far as to admit he edits his posts, we’re left to wonder what got cut, what he isn’t telling us and why, if he is cutting things, he still records his more embarrassing, frightening or unflattering moments. These layers of ambiguity, combined with the novel’s wit and some of its more subtle humor (often overshadowed by its bigger laughs), give the book the distinction of being a work most will want to revisit.
The most notable shortcoming is the ending; it isn’t hugely satisfying, and the tone doesn’t fit with the rest of the book. But this is largely forgivable as the real charm of the novel is in the humor of its journey rather than its surprisingly solemn destination.
At times laugh-out-loud funny, occasionally just weird for the sake of weird, but consistently entertaining.
This work of fiction has been reviewed on Amazon as interesting, delightful and filled with intriguing suspense!
At Outskirts Press, our authors are what make us special, and Graham Parke is a perfect example of that. Graham, we’re amazed with everything you do. Keep it up!
Are you ready to kick-off your professional career with a growing collection of high-quality books?
Do you remember going to the library to borrow a book? I do.
Most libraries would allow me to borrow a book for 2 weeks, and I would read the book in my own time and return it when I was done. Based on library fee for the year, my total cost to borrow one book was less than 10 cents. But that was in 1990s.
Now, since late 2011, Amazon has kick-started a new venture for digital readers – kdp select.
What is kdp select?
Kindle Direct Publishing project allows self-publishers (and publishers) to distribute books through the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library and reach the growing number of US Amazon Prime members. KDP Select has provided over $6 million throughout $12 million, allowing participating authors to earn royalty through the lending library. The program offers other benefits including:
Promote your book for free to readers worldwide - The newly launched Promotions Manager tool will allow you to directly control the promotion of free books.
Instant feedback - Check real-time performance of your books in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.
Enrolling in kdp select is very simple. If you have already published a book to Kindle, you can enroll existing book by visiting the bookshelf. New books can be enrolled during the publishing process. You can simply select the “Enroll this book in KDP Select” option and proceed to publish the book as you normally would.
The catch? Your book has to be available exclusively on Kindle for a period of 90 days. During the period of exclusivity, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc. However, you can continue to distribute your book in physical format, or in any format other than digital.
Recently, I wrote a post about Neal Bogosian, on how his book The Adventures of Chip Doolin reached #8 in Amazon’s paid Kindle store in the baseball category. He tried a unique and innovative approach to add to his fame, and bottom line.
Its time that you should too.
What are you waiting for? Order your Kindle Edition Today and become a bestseller!
As an author in this economy, you have to come up with creative ways to market a self-published book. While book tours are a great way to connect with your readers, they aren’t the most affordable method of promotion. However, technology has made it possible for an alternative.
Take note from self-publishing Outskirts Press author, Robert De Filippis, who is taking his latest book, Faith, Stirred not Shaken, on tour – a virtual book tour, that is. He will be featured on several blogs over the weeks and months ahead so keep your eyes peeled to learn more about him and his book.
Luckily for us, Robert was kind enough to answer a few questions as the tour was getting started so that we can give you a sneak peek into the mind of the creator of Faith, Stirred not Shaken.
OP: Tell us a little bit about Faith, Stirred not Shaken. What is it about?
RDF: Exploring the dark space between science and religion. This is the dark space of inquiry that we’ve left since science split from philosophy about 400 years ago.
OP: Why did you decide to write this story?
RDF: To propose a new dialog that allows science and religion to work together to find new explanations of our universe.
OP: What types of readers would be interested in this story?
RDF: Those who know that humankind is on an unsustainable trajectory. Those who know that contemporary religion is part of the problem. Those we can still think for themselves in this age of amplifying resonance from echo chambers disguised as the news media..
OP: What is special about your book? What differentiates it from other books in the same category?
RDF: This is not the usual theist / atheist argument. That argument is irrelevant because it consists of two proposed explanations of the unknown. What they’re missing is the significant difference between the unknown and the unknowable. Theists and atheists are arguing about the unknowable and proposing that one explanation is right and the other is wrong. We can’t explain the universe from our position in it.
OP: Have you published any other books? Do you plan to publish more?
RDF: I’ve published You, Your SELF and the 21st Century and The Flowers were Talking to Me. Yes, I will continue to write and publish.
OP: Thanks for your time, Robert! We look forward to learning more about you as you visit other bloggers!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Robert De Filippis is a retired Organizational Development Consultant and Executive Coach. During his 45 year career, he worked in the U.S., Canada, Central America and Eastern and Western Europe. His interest in writing about and understanding the deeper questions of “what it means to be human” has evolved into his final career as an author. He has written for various professional journals and authored two previous books. He currently writes a weekly Op/Ed column for a regional newspaper based in his hometown of Herrin, Illinois where he retired 47 years after leaving.
This author purchased the Virtual Book Tour marketing option, which allows self-publishing authors to connect with bloggers and harness the power of the blogosphere by taking their book on the “virtual road”. Learn more about this service by visiting your Publishing Center and reviewing the available marketing options.
Are you an author looking for help to market your self-published book?
One of my fellow bloggers wants to publish a book but she has three hurdles to overcome:
1) She doesn’t want to worry about interior design, cover design, and all that stuff required by those DIY places.
2) She already has a full-time job. She just wants her book published.
3) She doesn’t have the spare cash to pay for full-service book publishing and marketing expenses.
Maybe you are facing the same situation?
Chances are that many of you could use the option of publishing your book now and paying for it later.
Outskirts Press has now included Paypal’s Bill Me Later service on their checkout page as a payment option. Bill Me Later services allow you to make a purchase now and pay later, and can be used at various outlets, including eBay.
In this recessionary economy, many retail companies are providing a simple solution to a typical problem faced by consumers – lack of liquid cash. Most customers that are interested in purchasing necessary long-term products and services do not have the required cash for it. For authors falling into this category, Outskirts Press provides the solution.
What does this mean for you as a writer?
You can now purchase high-quality, full-service book publishing and book marketing options without paying anything upfront. Outskirts Press has incorporated this facility into their secure online shopping cart, along with the already available options of paying securely by credit card or by check or money order. With Paypal’s “Bill Me Later” funding option, you can order now and pay later, via installments orchestrated via PayPal.
So you can get full-service, high-quality self-publishing and book marketing services today without any upfront costs. Does that sound like a good deal?
(As with any other purchase now and pay later services, you might have to pass the first credit check, as suggested on Bill Me Later page and as conducted securely by PayPal, so please consult their FAQ before using this option)
So, are you ready to self-publish the easy, full-service, high-quality way?
One of the biggest dilemmas that self-publishers face is deciding on the appropriate printing process. The ‘How to Print’ decision can be a bit easier once you know your target market and budget. Still, there are many options available to you, such as digital printing with print-on-demand distribution or offset printing and physical fulfillment.
Publishers use three major methods of book printing, which are:
Digital printing is perhaps the simplest and the fastest growing printing process. Normally, the files for printing are held at computer servers and can be printed, glued and bound together to produce a high quality book in under 10 minutes. This method works excellently for producing one-demand single copy of the book, as the whole book is produced in one cycle.
Offset printing on the other hand is more suitable for bulk-printing. This traditional type of print-press is fed one sheet at a time, or a complete web of paper, which can be printed in real-time. The web of sheets is then cut up and organized by special bindery equipment. The folding, trimming and assembling of the printing press is carried out right at the end, making sure that more than one book can be prepared at a time.
Letterpress technology is unquestionably the oldest form of printing, and largely unavailable due to its inefficient and time-consuming approach. In this kind of printing, pictorial engravings or etched metal plates are inked, and a single sheet of paper is rolled over them. The process only works for one sheet at a time, and is typically used for very fine, limited edition books.
As you can see, there are a variety of different printing options available to a self-publisher. While offset printing can yield deeper discounts (on a per copy basis), print-on-demand offers the flexibility of a smaller upfront investment. We offer both offset printing/bulk ordering as as well print-on-demand as options for all of our authors. That means – we’re here to save you money regardless of the printing process you choose.
So, are you ready to have 100% control over your self-publishing experience?
Kindle Direct Publishing project allows self-publishers (and publishers) to distribute books through the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library and reach the growing number of US Amazon Prime members. 
