ForeWord Reviews is delivered to librarians, booksellers, agents, and other industry professionals. Additionally, ForeWord is sent directly to small press buyers at the chains (Barnes&Noble, Borders, Chapters, Books-A-Million, etc). ABA’s Booksense also requests 500 copies of each issue for delivery direct to their members. ForeWord also is placed in the hands of agents and editors at larger houses, who may be looking for leads to bring into their fold from the small press sector. All told, the ForeWord circulation is approx 85% librarians, 12% bookstores, and 3% publishing professionals.

HOW TO ORDER:

Our ForeWord Co-op Ad option is now available for ALL authors – regardless of where they published their books. Shared advertising costs can help you reach your book promotion goals quickly and without all the high costs that independent/self-publishing authors normally pay.

Considerations:

Attending international book fairs personally is often cost-prohibitive for self-publishing writers when you factor in expenses such as airfare, hotel, food, and transportation. And those are just the costs of going international. Then there are the costs of the exhibit itself, like the exhibition fees, the exhibition stand, and the “giveaways” (often called “freebies” or “schwag.”)

Advantages:

But book fairs are also the place where self-published authors can “be discovered.” Outskirts Press helps its authors place their books at 5 international book fairs for a reasonable cost.

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is the world’s leading book fair focusing solely on children’s publishing with a focus on the sale of rights and international co-productions.  To increase your chances for success, your book must have full color illustrations inside the book to participate. Therefore, only our Pearl Full Color books are eligible.

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair occurs in March in Italy and hosts over 1400 international exhibitors and may be instrumental in forging industry connections or negotiating agreements or licenses for your work.

When you order the Bologna Children’s Book Fair from the Marketing Options Screen of your Author’s Center your book will receive valuable, face-out exposure on an exclusive shelf with 4 other Outskirts Press titles and a representative will be on-hand to personally answer questions about your book. Outskirts Press will provide the necessary copies of the book and all the necessary contact information for both the author and publisher, so interested parties can make further contact, during or after the fair. All inquiries Outskirts Press receives about your book will be forwarded directly to you for personal follow-up.

If you are a published Children’s book author with Outskirts Press and interested in exhibiting your book with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, you can register for this event conveniently from your author’s center Marketing Options screen. Space is limited and filled on a first-come, first served basis. Due to the specific requirements of Bologna, this event is not a part of our Global Book Tour package and must be registered for separately if you are interested.

The deadline for submitting your book to the book fair is Friday, January, 27, 2012.

Are you ready for Bologna?

I can tell you that from idea to implementation, publishing a book can be an expensive venture, especially if you are not careful. You are not just parting away with your precious time, but also with your hard-earned money. So it becomes important to side with self-publishing options that make this whole process affordable for you.

Self-publishing is entrepreneurship, and should not cost a lot of money to start-up. As a matter of fact, writing a book will weigh down on your time. But marketing, designing and selling your book requires some capital, which if you are not careful, could leave a big hole in your pocket.

So what can you do to control this cost and make the process affordable, yet highly professional?

Hire services from a self-publishing company.

It really is as simple as that. For example, if you invest in any of the affordable self-publishing packages offered by Outskirts Press, you could save a ton of money on creating a professional book.

Wouldn’t that be nice? I, for one, would like to finish a book without a huge debt on my shoulders. This way, all the money I earn from selling my work will go straight into my pocket, rather than in the pockets of different publishing houses.

Moreover, there’s an icing on the cake!

When it comes to self-publishing, using more than one self-publishing services can reduce the quality of the final product, while increasing your liability towards different publishing houses. So stick with one package that can cater for all your self-publishing needs.

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

The fact is, so can you!

But does that make me or you capable of publishing?

Maybe so.

But simply writing a book is not enough. Most of us with a traditional typewriter or computer and persistence could do that. Drafting and editing aside, there are other aspects of publishing that are important to consider.

Interestingly, self-publishing makes these ‘other’ aspects much easier than the traditional route.

The biggest stumbling block for many self-publishers is the pricing, marketing and publicity of their finished work. How do you price a book?

Many authors do it differently – they price their book based on the number of potential sales, the time they put into the product and often the demand on their work. Whatever price you go with, you have to keep the target market in mind, can they afford the book? Self-publishing help such as that offered by Outskirts Press can really help you drill down on a price.

What about the marketing and publicity?

As writers, most of us cannot handle the marketing and promotion of our finished book by ourselves. After all, writers are not really marketers. So what can you do?

Get expert help. Outskirts Press offers professional (and often promotional) marketing packages that can give your book a useful marketing facelift. By adding these modules to your self-publishing package, you will have an awesome final product.

So, are you ready to self-publish yet?

• Win a free Barnes & Noble NOOK!
  Didn’t win the free Amazon Kindle in our 25 Days of Christmas drawing? No worries! We’re still going to hold a drawing for a free Barnes & Noble NOOK once we reach 5000 “likes” on our Facebook page. Need a NOOK edition of your book? Click here.
• Free publication in our exclusive Facebook Fandemonium Volume II
  Our 2nd annual Facebook Fandemonium anthology is coming. In January we will solicit submissions from our Facebook friends. This is your chance to be published for free in our next collection of fiction and poetry, and help a good cause at the same time (royalties benefit the American Red Cross). Check out Fandemonium Volume I by clicking here.
• Receive over $300 of free Amazon marketing options
  Historically, publishing a book is the #2 New Year’s Resolution among all people (losing weight is #1).  You’re on your own with #1, but we’ve helped thousands upon thousands of writers fulfill that #2 New Year’s Resolution.  Are you ready to fulfill yours? We can help you, too. And if you start publishing right now, you can get a head start on marketing with over $300 of Amazon book marketing options. Click here for all the details. 
• Free 2012 Book Marketing Calendar for our published authors
  When is the deadline for participating in the Book Expo of America? When is the deadline for submitting your book to the Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Awards?  What should you do to promote your book during Small Press Month? (When IS Small Press Month)?  These questions, and others, are answered in the 2012 Book Marketing Calendar, available for all published Outskirts Press authors. And you can get it free in January! Stay tuned for details.
• Win a free Apple iPad 2!
  Yes, you read that right. We’ll be announcing the exciting details of our Share the Love promotion in February. In the meantime, if you want to start off 2012 with a premium edition of your book on the iPad and available in the iBooks bookstore, click here. It couldn’t be simpler.

And that’s just in the first two months! Stay tuned to this blog or our Facebook page for further details on all these opportunities as we help our new and existing clients fulfill their New Year’s Resolutions for this exciting New Year.

Happy New Year, from Outskirts Press!

The top-ranking options are determined by how many self-published authors sign up for them. Many of these products and services are even available to authors who did not publish with Outskirts Press. Visit our Marketing Solutions page to view the growing list of available book marketing options.

These are the marketing products and services determined to be most popular by our authors for November 2011 — listed below in alphabetical order:

Amazon-branded featured book-of-the-week This option helps you to get your book featured in an email sent directly to over 6,000 of our published writers. The book is also featured exclusively in a posting on our Outskirts Press blog as the featured Book-of-the-Week with an call-to-action Amazon order page.

Amazon Extreme Package This is a package deal that lets you save 25% on three amazing marketing tactics centered around Amazon: The Amazon Kindle Edition, Search Inside the Book, and the Keyword Search Submission Service. Plus a free copy of the Amazon best selling book, Sell Your Book on Amazon.

Amazon Kindle Edition The Amazon Kindle is a revolutionary wireless reading device that allows its owners to instantly download books and newspapers. This is the new way that people are buying books. However, only books that have been submitted to the Amazon Kindle via the required process and in the required format are available for Kindle readers to purchase and enjoy.

Amazon Search Inside the Book This service allows your potential buyer to browse your book online just as they would in a “traditional” bookstore. This alleviates a lot of the the anxiety associated with purchasing books online.

Barnes & Noble NOOK Edition This option will allow you to join 2 MILLION other books at Barnes & Noble NOOK store, showcasing your books in an untapped, and growing market of readers.

Barnes & Noble See Inside This option will allow you to turn Barnes&Noble browsers into buyers by allowing online shoppers to view select pages of your book digitally from the BN.com website.

Book Blast This package includes five of our most popular (and most effective) marketing services, making for very well-rounded book marketing solution. Every Book Blast comes with: a Custom Press Release, PR Publicist Campaign, Book Review Submission Service, Book Video Trailer, and 5 hours with a Personal Marketing Assistant for one price.

Custom Press Release Have our professional press release writer compose an original, unique press release for your book, submitted to you for your review/approval, and then distributed to our news wire service on your behalf.

Personal Marketing Assistant With this option, you can get help on developing a marketing plan, establishing your author platform, book signings as well as assistance with marketing campaigns lead follow-up.

Readers Views Literary Award By ordering this marketing package, you get a chance to become eligible to enter and win a Literary Award. As part of this package, you will also receive expert marketing assistance from renowned marketing experts.

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Is it time to get published and start receiving book marketing services like this?

Our new Amazon-Branded Featured Book-of-the-Week option allows self-publishing Outskirts Press authors to do just that.

Your book will receive it’s own permanent blog post here at http://blog.outskirtspress.com. We also send out an email blast with your book’s information and a link to purchase your book directly from Amazon.

There are only 52 weeks each year. Since only one author will be featured each week, only 52 authors can be featured in a year’s time. More specifically, there are only 7 more weeks before Christmas! Therefore, only 7 more authors will be featured during this critical time in the world of book promotion.

We schedule book features in order of payment received. This is a very limited promotional opportunity, so don’t wait!

Want to learn more about this new option? Ready to reserve your spot?

Although ePublishing offers very few barriers to entry, some authors still postpone offering their book via electronic channels. Why? More often than not, they are intimidated by the formatting and distribution process. That’s where Outskirts Press comes in. We offer a full suite of electronic publishing services available to all authors – regardless of where their book is published. In addition to our Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad formats, we now offer a Barnes & Noble NOOK edition for authors who wish to offer their eBook for sale through B&N’s distribution network.

When authors purchase this option, they experience the white glove service that is promised to any and all authors who purchase any self-publishing or book marketing services from Outskirts Press. We handle all of the “heavy lifting” (i.e. eBook conversion and formatting, submission to B&N’s distribution network, etc.) for you, and you earn all of the money. You can learn more about or place your order for this option by visiting our Barnes & Noble NOOK edition page.

Ready to get started?

Due to popular demand, we are now reporting the Top 5 Book Marketing Options each month (as opposed to the Top 10). This way, you’ll have a small list of recommended options and be able to better prioritize your book marketing efforts.

The top-ranking options are determined by how many self-published authors sign up for them. Many of these products and services are even available to authors who did not publish with Outskirts Press. Visit our Marketing Solutions page to view the growing list of available book marketing options.

These are the marketing products and services determined to be most popular by our authors for August 2011 — listed below in alphabetical order:

Amazon Extreme Package This is a package deal that lets you save 25% on three amazing marketing tactics centered around Amazon: The Amazon Kindle Edition, Search Inside the Book, and the Keyword Search Submission Service. Plus a free copy of the Amazon best selling book, Sell Your Book on Amazon.

Amazon Kindle Edition The Amazon Kindle is a revolutionary wireless reading device that allows its owners to instantly download books and newspapers. This is the new way that people are buying books. However, only books that have been submitted to the Amazon Kindle via the required process and in the required format are available for Kindle readers to purchase and enjoy.

Amazon Search Inside the Book This service allows your potential buyer to browse your book online just as they would in a “traditional” bookstore. This alleviates a lot of the the anxiety associated with purchasing books online.

Custom Press Release Have our professional press release writer compose an original, unique press release for your book, submitted to you for your review/approval, and then distributed to our news wire service on your behalf.

iPad/iPhone Premium Edition with Private Label iBooks Distribution Get enhanced, independent distribution of your own iPad/iPhone electronic edition of your book through Apple’s iBookstore with this option.

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Is it time to get published and start receiving book marketing services like this?

“Thank you and your staff for developing this vital marketing tool for your authors. As Writing as a Small Business stresses, a web presence is vital and the wave of the future for marketing and selling books. You all proved it.” said Nash Black, author of Writing as a Small Business.

Here are five steps to successfully launching your book:

1. Have a press release written and distributed by a professional writer.
2. Send your press release to industry contacts. Follow up with phone calls as appropriate.
3. Create a sixty second (or less) video trailer for your book and distribute it through online social networks.
4. Find book reviewers who are committed to providing quality and honest reviews for self-published titles. Submit your book to at least ten of them.
5. Hire a book marketing consultant to help you with the tasks you may not be feel comfortable working on yourself (i.e. developing a marketing plan, setting up book signings, etc.).

Previously, all of these services had to be ordered separately, but now all of them can be purchased together in a cost-effective package that “makes sense” of book marketing for self-publishing authors.

“With one easy order, any author can now save money and get the promotion of his or her book off to an explosive start,” said Outskirts Press Manager of Author Support, Elise Connors.

The Outskirts Press Book Blast Package is now available for all authors through the self-publisher’s web site www.outskirtspress.com/p/bookblast