“I could save hundreds of dollars on copywriting and marketing,” you theorize. “I’m a writer and a great communicator: I’ll just do it all myself.” Oh, if only it were as simple as that!

Theoretically, you could save thousands of dollars in car or home repairs, home improvements and landscaping as well, just by learning to do them yourself. However, when you do the math, you’ll discover quickly that the time and effort you put into learning a new skill and putting that learning into practice not only negates all potential savings but distracts you from other pursuits that are more suited to your inherent skills and interests.

Remember, your time really is money, especially if writing is currently your sideline. Each hour you spend on marketing your book yourself is costing you one way or another. Perform this exercise: Determine how much each hour of your time is worth monetarily, whether it’s the average salary (remember to include the value of your benefits) of your day job or the rate you charge as a freelancer or consultant. Apply that rate to the amount of time it will take you to finish a given task, such as learning how to write a search-engine-optimized description for your Amazon Books page and then writing it, or writing and submitting optimized press releases.

Now consider that the same task could have been performed very effectively in a fraction of the time by a specialist with specific marketing expertise in that task. Because their experience allows them to complete the work more quickly, it’s usually less costly and will yield better results. So, you get a great product for less money, no effort and the odds of improving your books sales are greater? It’s a no-brainer!

But by far the most important benefit to delegating tasks is the freedom it provides. The more marketing duties you can put in the hands of trained marketing professionals, the more time you’ll have to:

• Plan or write your next book
• Network with other authors
• Market your book at local outlets, where the author’s presence is meaningful
• Boost sales through book signings
• Take a break!

Delegate marketing services that are small but vital–they truly are small in the hands of an expert–and breathe easier. Talk to an Outskirts Press personal marketing assistant about the most cost-effective marketing options for you.

Attendees will walk away from this LIVE online webinar session with:

• Successful Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn tips most users don’t know (or use!)
• Knowledge about how to use YouTube as a sales driver
• Knowledge about how to get the most out of your blog presence & efforts
• Best practices of successful Social Media users

MARK YOUR CALENDARS. This live FREE 30 minute Webinar takes place on Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at 1pm Eastern Time. If you register today you will have a couple of days after the event to watch it again (or see it for the first time if you are unable to attend the live event).

Click here to register today.

Amazon Listing Optimization by Outskirts Press is designed to tailor Amazon sales pages to both human tastes and those confusing search engine algorithms.

As an author, you’ve mastered the art of colorful, descriptive writing. You know just what to say to paint a vivid image in a reader’s mind. However, writing to sell and to attract potential book buyers via Internet search engines is a different animal entirely. It may be unfair, but when it comes to Internet marketing, it’s simply not enough to be a fantastic writer. To channel readers to your page and get them to follow through with a purchase, online copy must balance a number of vital components:

• Relevant keywords and key phrases that get the page indexed appropriately by search engines such as Google or Yahoo! so that more potential buyers are directed to your sales page.
• Correct keyword-to-content ratio. Too few keywords and your page won’t turn up in readers’ searches; too many – a technique called “keyword stuffing” – and your page could be rejected entirely by search engines and virtually invisible to book buyers!
• Technically well-written text with spot-on grammar and punctuation.
• Enticing language that Instantly grabs readers and compels them to continue reading.
• Accurate representation of your book.
• The power to convince potential buyers to make the leap from simply reading the sales page to making a purchase.
• All the information a buyer needs to follow through with a purchase.
• Information in an arrangement that makes it convenient and easy for buyers to act on the impulse to buy.
• Content that is regularly refreshed to give your sales page a renewed bump up the search engine results page (SERP). It’s not sufficient to just write killer sales copy and leave it up in perpetuity; new content must be posted periodically to prevent the page from slowly dropping off the SERP.

In addition to all of these components, it’s also important that the content is produced with the product’s category or industry in mind – in this case, self-publishing — as well as the genre to which the self-published book belongs (fiction, nonfiction, self-help, reference, etc.). It’s enough to make your head spin!

Fortunately, Outskirts Press is uniquely positioned to fulfill all these requirements of Internet marketing copy through a new Amazon Listing Optimization service. As experts in the publishing industry, our staff understands what entices readers to buy. Additionally, our staff of professional marketers includes writers trained in SEO writing techniques, allowing us to improve how your sales page performs in Internet searches and attract more readers to your sales page.

We realize many of our authors, as talented as they are, may not have had the opportunity to train in marketing or SEO copywriting. Our Amazon Listing Optimization allows you to apply our expertise in these disciplines inexpensively and hassle-free, and reap the benefits: additional sales revenue.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Ready to self-publish?

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.

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.

What are you waiting for? Order your Espresso Book Machine Edition Today and become a bestseller!

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!

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?

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? 

Many authors struggle with valuing their work, which they often perceive to be unworthy of publishing. This negativity is often prompted when traditional publishing houses turn down books. For these publishing houses, books are business, and if a book does not make business sense, it won’t be published. Many authors who value their work, take up self-publishing.

But if you feel that your work isn’t up to scratch, let me give you these facts:

• If there is something you know, and are expert in, chances are someone else is looking for that knowledge or information.
• If you have a story to tell, chances are that there is someone looking forward to reading that story.
• If you have the enthusiasm to write a book, chances are that there are many self-publishing companies that can help you publish it and realize your dreams.

Outskirts Press is one of those companies. If you think you can write a book, and if you are looking for the right guidance – be it editing, book marketing or even advise – then Outskirts Press can not only point you in the right direction, but also give you the impetus that your dreams need.

The truth is, we all think our book should be out there. So really, if you know something that I don’t, chances are that I will read what you write.

So do you want to self-publish at an affordable price?