“Our new, all-inclusive One-Click package is a smooth, stress free way for children’s book authors to avoid unnecessary problems and to simply publish the book of their dreams,” said Outskirts Press Vice President, Kelly Schuknecht.  “It’s never been faster, more convenient, or more affordable to publish a full-color, fully illustrated children’s book.”

The One-Click Children’s book package from Outskirts Press includes fifteen full-color, custom illustrations as well as a full-color custom cover for both a perfect bound paperback and laminated case bound format.  Professional cover scribing and copyediting for up to 15,000 words are also part of the One-Click package.

During and after production, Outskirts Press handles the myriad essential details that need to be taken care of to assure widespread, competent distribution.  For instance, Outskirts Press handles the official copyright registration, the assignment of a Library of Congress number, the book’s barcode and the tagging of a Private Label ISBN that can either be Outskirts Press’ or the author’s own imprint.

The publisher secures unlimited worldwide distribution-on-demand through Ingram to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powells, Books-a-Million and literally thousands of other book outlets.  When applicable, Spring Arbor Christian distribution of the book is also available as part of the package.

The final components of this extensive publishing package are the marketing and promotional services that place the book brightly in the public eye.

In addition to the standard publication press releases which are sent out, the publisher commissions a custom press release for each One-Click book and this custom release is distributed to hundreds more media outlets with professional PR phone-call follow-up.  A professional quality, 60 second book promotion video is also created and distributed to popular internet viewing channels such as YouTube and the book is given “face out” exposure at the renowned Bologna Children’s Book Fair.  Finally, five hours of personal one-on-one marketing assistance are provided, in addition to the Marketing COACH tips the One-Click author will receive via email for two years after publication.

Everything that every children’s book author has ever wished for has suddenly come true with this remarkable and surprisingly affordable package that is available as of today through Outskirts Press.  Authors ready to begin publishing their own Children’s book can get started now at www.outskirtspress.com/p/children.

To keep you productive, we’ve compiled a list of 31 book marketing tips that you should find valuable… and with the new a la carte marketing options available through Outskirts Press, no matter where you may have published, you can start your book marketing efforts the right way.

Mar 1 – Make a goal to set up your author platform. The first start can be with social media. If you aren’t familiar (or comfortable) with social media and need a bit of assistance, our Author Platform Set-up Through Social Media Option is a good way to start.

Mar 2 – Contact other independent published authors in your area (through local associations you may belong to) and combine your resources to fully exploit the opportunities during this month. There’s a lot to do, and four hands are better than two. With the advent of social networking sites, this is easier than ever. In fact your publisher may already have a group on such sites as MySpace or FaceBook or a following on Twitter to help you connect with other writers. Here is the Outskirts Press Facebook community.

Mar 3 – Contact your local bookstores and suggest they offer discounts on Small Press books this month (since March is Small Press Month). Bring in yours and offer it to them at a discount to get them started. Show them the rest of this calendar as a way of indicating your commitment to making their event successful. Offer to leave a free copy with them along with a sales sheet. Here’s a link to the ABA Bookseller directory.

Mar 4 – Make a 60 second book video trailer and distribute it to video and social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook. Don’t know the first thing about how you would do that? Outskirts Press can do it for you, affordably and professionally – just click here.

Here’s a sample:

Mar 5 – Send a press release to the local media (newspapers, radio, television) mentioning Small Press Month and your independently published book. If you secured some events, mention them in the release. Don’t yet have a press release? Outskirts Press can compose and distribute a custom press release on your behalf.

Mar 6 – Follow-up on your press release from yesterday with the local media via telephone. Reiterate Small Press Month, your planned events in the community, and your Small Press book. Send them a review of your book that they can use as a foundation. (Less work for them). Outskirts Press can perform a PR Publicist Campaign for your custom press release which includes additional distribution, phone-call follow-up, and more.

Mar 7 – Consider taking your book on a Virtual Book Tour. You can save 15% on this option through the rest of March when you check out using the promotion code VBT15PCT.

Mar 8 – Contact your local libraries and suggest they feature Small Press titles, including yours. Offer to leave a free copy with them, along with a sales sheet. If you’re an Outskirts Press author, you can generate a sales sheet automatically in your Publishing Center here. You can even change it and update it first through your Author Toolkit by modifying and updating your author webpage.

Mar 9 – If you haven’t yet sent out review copies for book, now is the time. For published Outskirts Press authors, your Book Review Starter Kit has many book reviewers listed, and you also have the option of the Book Review Submission service.

Mar 10 – Contact local schools in your area and tell them about Small Press Month. Mention that you are a local published author and offer to speak to their assembly about the topic of your book; or, even, on how to accomplish their dreams of being published. This is particularly effective if you have a children’s book you can then sell after the assembly. Plus, you can earn affiliate commissions by recommending our full-color Pearl publishing package. In addition to cookbooks or art books, the Pearl package is perfect for children’s books (since over 30 different artistic illustration packages are available – click here to view them).

Watch the Pearl Package video…

Mar 11 – Contact local universities and colleges. Same concept as yesterday — promote yourself and your book by sharing your knowledge of how to write a book and get it published. Sell copies of your book in the back of the room, and earn 10% referral commissions by referring other authors to our Publishing Services.

Mar 12 – Schedule a seminar or tele-seminar on “How to Write and Publish a Book” and offer a “Small Press Month” discount on the registration fee. Send out a local news release about your class. GoToMeeting.com offers a free 30 day trial to create your own webinar. Give it a try!

Mar 13 – March 13th will be lucky for you when you hire a professional marketing assistant to help you complete these 31 ideas (along with other marketing tactics you may not even know about). 5 hours of personal marketing assistance is available by clicking here.

Mar 14 – Some authors put themselves into their books. Now you can do it literally, by ordering a custom t-shirt featuring your book cover on the front and back. It’s available no matter where you published. Click here to order.

Mar 15 – Advertising independently can be expensive. A single full-page ad in the New York Times costs over $40,000! But, thankfully, Outskirts Press offers its family of published authors co-op advertising opportunities in ForeWord Reviews, Spirituality & Health, Publisher’s Weekly, and the New York Times.

Mar 16 – Contact all the local radio producers in your area and pitch them on Small Press Month. The Radio Locator website makes it easy to find a radio station’s contact information.

Mar 17 – Think St. Patrick’s Day thoughts and then “go green” by making sure you have published your book with a book publisher like Outskirts Press, who offers 30% post-consumer recycled materials in the most popular paper choices.

Mar 18 – Make sure your book is available in all formats. We offer Kindle, iPad, and NOOK formatting options to all authors.

Mar 19 – According to Amazon, books that participate in their Search Inside the Book feature sell many more copies than those that don’t, so be sure YOUR book is a part of “Search Inside.” Outskirts Press offers Search Inside Submissions for authors published with Outskirts Press and elsewhere. Order by clicking here.

Mar 20 – This may be the month to switch publishers if you have published elsewhere. Look at the publisher you chose and ask yourself: Is your retail price too high? Is your profit too low? Is your author’s copy price too high? Are your marketing options too costly? (Read this 2009 blog posting about one of our options that costs $99 for our authors and costs over one THOUSAND dollars through one of our competitors). Compare and save potentially thousands of dollars.

Mar 21 – Small Press Month is just one month out of 12. Prepare for other months by showcasing your book at international book fairs like the London Book Fair, Book Expo of America, Beijing, and Frankfurt. Or make it easy on yourself with the Global Book Tour marketing package: 4 events in 4 countries in 4 months.

Mar 22 – Get your book reviewed by Amazon reviewers. You can find a list of the most popular and prolific Amazon reviewers by clicking here.

Mar 23 – Contact the Learning Annex (or similarly themed Adult Education Program) in your area and offer to teach a class on the subject of your book. As a published author, you are qualified to teach on your subject since you are an expert. Your book may even be required reading for each student! Cha-ching! If you’re published through Outskirts Press, send them to our bookstore so they receive a 10% discount off other online retailers (and you still earn your full 100% profit royalty). Cha-ching, again!

Mar 24 – Create a social networking account on Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. Follow us on Twitter for book marketing suggestions and news in 140 characters or less.

Mar 25 – Contact the public libraries in each state and mention your involvement with Small Press Month. Send them information about your book. Here’s a link that will get you started: http://www.publiclibraries.com/

Mar 26 – Start preparing for April (National Poetry Month), especially if you have a book of poetry.  We publish high-quality, award-winning volumes of poetry all the time.  In fact, Outskirts Press authors swept the Poetry Category in the 2009 Reader’s Views Literary Awards. See how we do this year when all the finalists are announced on this blog tomorrow.

Mar 27 – Help other writers you know get published and earn a 10% commission for the referral after their book is published. Register for the exciting Outskirts Press affiliate program by clicking here. 

Mar 28 – Start a blog and keep it active and up-to-date. Register it with blog directories so others start reading it and participating. There are many blog programs to help you get started. Conduct a search on Google for the one that works for you. We use WordPress.

Mar 29 – Submit your published book to the Google Base listings. It’s free. http://base.google.com

Mar 30 – Publish a “Large Print” edition of your book. With the world’s demographics growing older, “large print” editions are becoming more and more popular. Featuring 14 or 16 point fonts, these editions appeal to the aging community because they are easier to read. You’ve already written the book, now re-publish a new “Large Print” edition to increase your revenue and double the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives. It’s easy to get published here.

Mar 31 – Relax! It’s been a busy, productive month. Fortunately, Outskirts Press makes publishing and marketing a book easy. Check out our most popular Diamond publishing service by kicking-back and watching the video below:

Diamond Book Publishing

We have taken our decade of experience self publishing children’s books and built the ideal publishing package for children’s book authors. Picture this: 100% royalties and 0% confusion. You get everything you need and we take
care of it all! Easy!

Here’s everything you get for one single, affordable price:

• A professional production team and publishing consultant
• 5.5 x 8.5 perfect bound paperback format
• 5.5 x 8.5 laminated casebound hardback
• Full-color custom cover
• Professional cover scribing (back cover copy polish)
• Full-color custom designed interior (up to 50 pages)
• Up to 15 full-color custom illustrations (click here to see all the available styles)
• Copyediting (up to 15,000 words)
• Official copyright registration
• Library of Congress number
• Expedited service
• Private Label ISBN (either yours or ours)
• Barcode
• Unlimited, worldwide distribution-on-demand via Ingram to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powells, Books-a-Million, and thousands more.
• Spring Arbor Christian distribution (if applicable)
• Publication press release
• Custom press release
• PR Publicist campaign
• Electronic clipping service
• 60 second book video & distribution to YouTube
• Bologna Children’s Book Fair “face-out” exposure
• 5 hours of personal marketing assistance
• Marketing COACH tips via email for 2 years

With our all-inclusive “One-Click” package for children’s book authors, you get everything in one easy-to-purchase bundle. It’s never been faster, more convenient, or affordable to publish the full-color children’s
book of your dreams, with amazing, award-winning, custom illustrations included! Click here for more details or to order.

P.S. Already have your illustrations? Don’t need custom interior design or a hardback?  Perhaps you only need full-service full-color publishing and distribution services. If so, our full-color Pearl package may be just the ticket. Click here for more details.

P.P.S.  Not publishing a children’s book but still want all the “one-click” convenience? Our other one-click package may be right for you. Click here for details.

Mar 1 – If you do not have enough author’s copies on hand, contact your publisher and order more so they arrive in enough time to pursue these other tips throughout the month. For Outskirts Press authors, here’s a direct link to your book ordering page where you can receive free domestic shipping via UPS Ground within the continental United States  if you order 50 or more copies before Saturday, March 5th, 2011. No promotion code needed!

Mar 2 – Contact other independent published authors in your area (through local associations you may belong to) and combine your resources to fully exploit the opportunities during this month. There’s a lot to do, and four hands are better than two. With the advent of social networking sites, this is easier than ever. In fact your publisher may already have a group on such sites as MySpace or FaceBook or a following on Twitter to help you connect with other writers. Here is the Outskirts Press Facebook community.

Mar 3 – Contact your local bookstores and suggest they offer discounts on Small Press books this month (since March is Small Press Month). Bring in yours and offer it to them at a discount to get them started. Show them the rest of this calendar as a way of indicating your commitment to making their event successful. Offer to leave a free copy with them along with a sales sheet. Here’s a link to the ABA Bookseller directory.

Mar 4 – Make a 60 second book video trailer and distribute it to video and social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook. Don’t know the first thing about how you would do that? Outskirts Press can do it for you, affordably and professionally – just click here.

Here’s a sample:

Mar 5 – Send a press release to the local media (newspapers, radio, television) mentioning Small Press Month and your independently published book. If you secured some events, mention them in the release. Don’t yet have a press release? Outskirts Press can compose and distribute a custom press release on your behalf.

Mar 6 – Follow-up on your press release from yesterday with the local media via telephone. Reiterate Small Press Month, your planned events in the community, and your Small Press book. Send them a review of your book that they can use as a foundation. (Less work for them). Outskirts Press can perform a PR Publicist Campaign for your custom press release which includes additional distribution, phone-call follow-up, and more.

Mar 7 – If you haven’t yet published your book, today is the day to start. Outskirts Press, the fastest-growing full service self-publishing and book marketing service is offering an instant 10% discount on their 3 best publishing services. Click here for the necessary promotion code and promotion dates.  Then listen to an audio recording from a recent author, Joanne Bodin, author of Walking Fish.

Mar 8 – Contact your local libraries and suggest they feature Small Press titles, including yours. Offer to leave a free copy with them, along with a sales sheet. If you’re an Outskirts Press author, you can generate a sales sheet automatically in your Publishing Center here. You can even change it and update it first through your Author Toolkit by modifying and updating your author webpage.

Mar 9 – If you haven’t yet sent out review copies for book, now is the time. For published Outskirts Press authors, your Book Review Starter Kit has many book reviewers listed, and you also have the option of the Book Review Submission service.

Mar 10 – Contact local schools in your area and tell them about Small Press Month. Mention that you are a local published author and offer to speak to their assembly about the topic of your book; or, even, on how to accomplish their dreams of being published. This is particularly effective if you have a children’s book you can then sell after the assembly. Plus, you can earn affiliate commissions by recommending our full-color Pearl publishing package. In addition to cookbooks or art books, the Pearl package is perfect for children’s books (since over 30 different artistic illustration packages are available – click here to view them).

Watch the Pearl Package video…

Mar 11 – Contact local universities and colleges. Same concept as yesterday — promote yourself and your book by sharing your knowledge of how to write a book and get it published. Sell copies of your book in the back of the room, and earn 10% referral commissions by referring other authors to our Publishing Services.

Mar 12 – Schedule a seminar or tele-seminar on “How to Write and Publish a Book” and offer a “Small Press Month” discount on the registration fee. Send out a local news release about your class. GoToMeeting.com offers a free 30 day trial to create your own webinar. Give it a try!

Mar 13 – March 13th will be lucky for you when you hire a professional marketing assistant to help you complete these 31 ideas (along with other marketing tactics you may not even know about). 5 hours of personal marketing assistance is available by clicking here.

Mar 14 – Some authors put themselves into their books. Now you can do it literally, by ordering a custom t-shirt featuring your book cover on the front and back. It’s available no matter where you published. Click here to order.

Mar 15 – Advertising independently can be expensive. A single full-page ad in the New York Times costs over $40,000! But, thankfully, Outskirts Press offers its family of published authors co-op advertising opportunities in ForeWord Reviews, Spirituality & Health, New York Review of Books, and soon (you heard it here first), Publisher’s Weekly.

Mar 16 – Contact all the local radio producers in your area and pitch them on Small Press Month. The Radio Locator website makes it easy to find a radio station’s contact information.

Mar 17 – Think St. Patrick’s Day thoughts and then “go green” by making sure you have published your book with a book publisher like Outskirts Press, who offers 30% post-consumer recycled materials in the most popular paper choices.

Mar 18 – Make sure you have an Amazon Kindle edition of your book. One of our most popular services for OP authors, as well as authors published elsewhere, is our Amazon Kindle option, available by clicking here.

Mar 19 – According to Amazon, books that participate in their Search Inside the Book feature sell many more copies than those that don’t, so be sure YOUR book is a part of “Search Inside.” Outskirts Press offers Search Inside Submissions for authors published with Outskirts Press and elsewhere. Order by clicking here.

Mar 20 – This may be the month to switch publishers if you have published elsewhere. Look at the publisher you chose and ask yourself: Is your retail price too high? Is your profit too low? Is your author’s copy price too high? Are your marketing options too costly? (Read this 2009 blog posting about one of our options that costs $99 for our authors and costs over one THOUSAND dollars through one of our competitors). Compare and save potentially thousands of dollars.

Mar 21 – Small Press Month is just one month out of 12. Prepare for other months by showcasing your book at international book fairs like the London Book Fair, Book Expo of America, Beijing, and Frankfurt. Or make it easy on yourself with the Global Book Tour marketing package: 4 events in 4 countries in 4 months.

Mar 22 – Get your book reviewed by Amazon reviewers. You can find a list of the most popular and prolific Amazon reviewers by clicking here.

Mar 23 – Contact the Learning Annex (or similarly themed Adult Education Program) in your area and offer to teach a class on the subject of your book. As a published author, you are qualified to teach on your subject since you are an expert. Your book may even be required reading for each student! Cha-ching! If you’re published through Outskirts Press, send them to our bookstore so they receive a 10% discount off other online retailers (and you still earn your full 100% profit royalty). Cha-ching, again!

Mar 24 – Create a social networking account on Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. Follow us on Twitter for book marketing suggestions and news in 140 characters or less.

Mar 25 – Contact the public libraries in each state and mention your involvement with Small Press Month. Send them information about your book. Here’s a link that will get you started: http://www.publiclibraries.com/

Mar 26 – Start preparing for April (National Poetry Month), especially if you have a book of poetry.  We publish high-quality, award-winning volumes of poetry all the time.  In fact, Outskirts Press authors swept the Poetry Category in the 2009 Reader’s Views Literary Awards. See how we do this year when all the finalists are announced on this blog tomorrow.

Mar 27 – Help other writers you know get published and earn a 10% commission for the referral after their book is published. Register for the exciting Outskirts Press affiliate program by clicking here. 

Mar 28 – Start a blog and keep it active and up-to-date. Register it with blog directories so others start reading it and participating. There are many blog programs to help you get started. Conduct a search on Google for the one that works for you. We use WordPress.

Mar 29 – Submit your published book to the Google Base listings. It’s free. http://base.google.com

Mar 30 – Publish a “Large Print” edition of your book. With the world’s demographics growing older, “large print” editions are becoming more and more popular. Featuring 14 or 16 point fonts, these editions appeal to the aging community because they are easier to read. You’ve already written the book, now re-publish a new “Large Print” edition to increase your revenue and double the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives. It’s easy to get published here.

Mar 31 – Relax! It’s been a busy, productive month. Fortunately, Outskirts Press makes publishing and marketing a book easy. Check out our most popular Diamond publishing service by kicking-back and watching the video below:

Diamond Book Publishing

The CITRUS STYLE features vibrant and bright colors and is also priced in our most affordable tier. Get full-color original illustrations for
your children’s book or full-color publication for as little as $100 each with Outskirts Press.

Have you been looking high and low for professional, full-color illustrations that are affordable and where you do not have to split your royalties with the artist? Look no further. Outskirts Press can help. To view all the illustration styles and pricing, visit our art page at http://outskirtspress.com/art.php and then watch the illustration video below.

Can you imagine YOUR children’s book with original, affordable full-color illustrations?  Check out these recent book videos featuring our full-color work…

Blue Ice Mountains

Aurora of the Northern Lights

On Angels Wings – Softball

Are you ready to publish your full-color children’s book with an industry-leading 5 different paperback trim sizes and 18 different illustration styles to choose from?

Believe it or not, it is easier than you might think. With full-color on-demand publishing, children’s books as short as four pages can be designed, printed, published, and distributed worldwide.

Here are 3 quick tips for writing your children’s book:

1. Write for your audience - Do not use words that are inappropriate for the age group. For instance, did you know the longest word in the English language is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcaniconiosis?
2. Make every page count – While Outskirts Press can publish children’s books as short as 4 pages, the two most common lengths are 16 pages and 32 pages.
3. Maintain a moral - It’s important that someone in the story demonstrates positive traits. Children seek role models in stories.

What about original full-color illustrations?

It used to be that adding full-color drawings to your children’s story was the largest obstacle of all. Children’s illustrations used to be very expensive, they would take forever to be finished, and the artist often wanted to split the royalties with you.

No longer! Now you can choose from over a dozen different styles, starting as low as $100 per full-page original illustration. Plus, you don’t have to split any of your royalties with the artist!

Take a peek at some of the award-winning illustration styles available when you publish your full color children’s story with Outskirts Press:

 

See all of our illustration styles here.

(Hint: Full-color publishing works for non-children’s books, too. Any book that requires full-color interior printing will do…)