Jeff Bacot is self-publishing a book with Outskirts Press. And he wants your help with the book cover.
A beautiful day for a beautiful game. Just a game of golf to flee the flames of life, to forge a friendship, find some meaning, feel redemption, follow dreams. It was just golf course talk between two guys at first, a series of dude discussions over drinks during the game, but conversations that would reveal long held secrets and forever define who they were, where they came from, what they stood for, why they existed and then spiral into a final perilous confrontation that would reveal the dark foe and frightening underbelly playing on the golf course all around them, near them, next to them, and on the hole, within them.
Jeffrey T. Bacot grew up in and resides in Fort Worth, Texas. He graduated from Southern Methodist University with a BA in Political Science and BBA in Business Finance. He spent 25 years in banking before embarking on his writing career in 2010. He is an avid golfer thus is not married and has no children.
Please take a look at two possible covers below then vote on the choice you recommend for Jeff:
Last September we ran a poll asking you, our social community friends (who also happen to be our current, past, and future authors at Outskirts Press) what option you would like to see us offer to help you reach your writing, publishing, and marketing goals. There were three choices:
Amazon Featured Book of the Week, which received 40% of the votes
Social Media Market Research, which received 50% of the votes
Author Apps, which received 10% of the votes
As a result of your votes, we launched both the Social Media Market Research option and the Amazon Featured Book-of-the-Week option.
So once again we are asking you to help us help you. With The Avengers already breaking records and movies like Men in Black 3, The Dark Knight Rises, and the Amazing Spider-Man just around the corner, we are about to experience one of the biggest blockbuster movie seasons ever.
We want to give authors an opportunity to experience that phenomenon from the inside, by helping you on the path to turning your book into a movie. To help in that quest, we are considering three new service options that focus on one particular step of getting your book from page to screen:
Hollywood Action Plan – We will submit your book to a Hollywood production company where a credited Hollywood producer will provide feedback for a 3-5 page “coverage” analysis — the industry term for determining if a book has potential for movie or television adaptation and if so, in what format.
Hollywood Treatment – We will submit your book to a Hollywood production company where a treatment writer and credited Hollywood producer collaborate on a 7-10 page Treatment for your book. Treatments are the documents Hollywood insiders use to make purchasing/optioning decisions because they touch upon the major factors (genre, audience, characters, plot) while being quicker to read than a screenplay.
Hollywood Screenplay - Using your book as adaptable material, a credited Hollywood producer and Hollywood screenwriter will ghost-write a Hollywood caliber screenplay for you in industry standard format and presentation. Screenplays vary in length depending upon format (movie/tv), genre, and content, but are typically 100-130 pages in length.
In all cases, exclusive efforts to option your material to Hollywood is immediately set into motion for your convenience. Sound good? Which option would you like to see first?
Ellen Cumbess is self-publishing a book with Outskirts Press. And she wants your help with the book cover.
As part of a team-building exercise at work, Ellen Cumbess took a personality profile assessment that classified attendees as either lions, monkeys, turtles, or camels. Ellen was a lion. As this light bulb of realization began to flicker, the author experienced a historical recanting of events that led to the creation of this lion personality. This was the starting point of Ellen’s exploration of her life’s history, which took her down the road she’d always wanted to travel, the road she had been on her entire life—without a steering wheel.
Tales of a Lion is the memoir of a native New Yorker struggling to overcome anger and resentment stemming from the events of her early childhood. It is the story of a lion’s self examination of a life spent roaring in search of inner peace; and in the end provides an answer to the question: Does a lion always have to roar?
Ellen Cumbess and her husband have six grown children and four grandchildren. Her New York City upbringing and diverse family history provided her with an abundance of stories and opinions, “all of which I am compelled to share.” Ellen enjoys traveling and meeting new people, but she is happiest at home, in Alabama.
Please take a look at two possible covers below then vote on the choice you recommend for Ellen:
We need help with something, and as we’ve did last year, we’re turning to our valued family of published (and soon-to-be-published authors).
If we get enough interest, we are considering adding a new Book Translation option to our already expansive suite of writing, self-publishing, and book marketing services.
This option would allow participating authors to work with a specialist on translating their book into another language. This would allow you to tap into global markets in countries such as Spain, France, Italy, etc.
Help us determine if this is an option you would like added to the Outskirts Press list of writing services by answering this quick poll:
Linda Naomi Katz is self-publishing a book with Outskirts Press. And she wants your help deciding on a retail price for her paperback and hardback.
Written from the perspective of someone whose life has been challenged by mental illness, this book offers help, hope, and inspiration to others struggling with psychological disorders. It provides information about mental illness in general—and mood disorders in particular—valuable tips about treatment and medication, and resources and organizations dedicated to helping those suffering from these disorders.
Surviving Mental Illness helps break through the fear and stigma of mental illness and focuses on how to find health and happiness. The author shares her personal journey: the heartbreak and challenges of bipolar disorder, and the joy of making her way back to mental health. Through her own story, she shows that help is out there, and with a little faith, recovery is possible.
Linda Naomi Katz lives in Flushing, New York. Her faith in God has led her to recover in ways you cannot imagine. Life is having faith to overcome any obstacles, and that is what her recovery from mental illness is all about. Surviving Mental Illness is her first book.
The book is approximately 130 pages in length and is black/white on the inside with a full-color cover. One format is a perfect bound paperback and the other is a cloth-stitched casebound hardcover with a full-color wrap around dust jacket.
Dawna Lott is publishing a book with Outskirts Press. And she wants your help with the book cover.
On a small rural farm in Oak Grove, Georgia, five-year-old Emma Kirkwood’s life is a nightmare of hunger, pain, fear, and hopelessness. Abandoned by their parents, Emma and her brother and sister are at the mercy of their cruel and abusive grandparents. When her grandfather sexually assaults her, Emma seeks refuge in denial and repression of the terrible memory.
She manages to escape her circumstances when she goes off to college, her Greyhound bus ticket “a one-way ticket out of hell.” She marries, has children, and is successful in her career. But there are still obstacles to overcome before she can find true love and happiness, and sometimes the obstacles seem insurmountable. It takes great courage and perseverance for Emma to embrace her past and claim her future; Emma’s Journey is the story of her triumphant survival.
Dawna Lott was born in Tennessee and raised in Georgia. She worked in the executive administrative field for Fortune 500 companies for twelve years but now enjoys free time to fulfill her passion for creative writing and poetry. She currently lives in Virginia with her husband, Tom. Emma’s Journey is her first novel.
Please take a look at two possible covers below then vote on the choice you recommend for Dawna:
Cherie Beil is publishing a book with Outskirts Press. And she wants your help with the book cover.
Expressions of Light is the second book in a series of expressive poetry books written by Cherie Beil. This is a very unique poetry book with beautiful scenic photos woven throughout. Expressions of Light is a very fluent poetic expression of emotion that colorfully reflects life. It is often difficult to express emotions verbally. Expressions of Light sketches life’s issues in a way that is able to convey what is often felt.
Writing has been a passion for Cherie for some time. She finds it is a great outlet meant to encourage and inspire others. She hopes this book will remind people to make the most of their life, regardless of circumstances. To remember to run their race with purpose and know there is a plan for each one of us, regardless of what our volatile emotions will sometimes tell us. To put your trust in the One True Living God, Jesus Christ. And remember that a lifetime is really just a moment.
“..Each man’s life is but a breath” Psalms 39:5
“Show me Lord my life’s end and the number of my days;
Let me know how fleeting is my life.” Psalms 39:4
“…Run in such a way as to get the prize.” I Corinthians 9:24
Please take a look at two possible covers below then vote on the choice you recommend for Cherie:
Beverly Kinzie is publishing a book with Outskirts Press. And she wants your help with the book cover.
The story of Andrew and Jeannie was told to Audrey (Bainum) Kinzie and her siblings for years. As they matured and reached late mid-life, they wanted the story of their parents written down to preserve the everyday history of the pioneers that so many are forgetting. Audrey, already into her sixties by the time she started to write the story, worked on it until her death in 1982. The writing was filed away until years later when her daughter-in-law, Beverly Kinzie, picked it up and re-read it again. At the time she was working on another book, Early Woods County. Upon its completion, she once again picked up Audrey’s story to edit and submit for publication.
Author Beverly Kinzie has spent most of her life in Alva, Oklahoma. Beverly attended Oklahoma City University and Northwestern Oklahoma State University. She worked with husband Wayne in their international aviation business for forty-four years. A wife of fifty years and mother of four and grandmother of eight, the author discovered her ability to write and edit late in life.
Please take a look at two possible covers below then vote on the choice you recommend for Beverly:
Barry Damsky is publishing a book with Outskirts Press. And he wants your help with his book title.
Please take a look at five possible titles below and then vote on the choice you recommend for Barry.
Get My Drift?
The Peas Were Cold
Through These 4 Eyes
I Donno Bow Dat
Keep Schmylin
To help you decide, here’s a bit more information about the book:
The author is a general interest columnist and the book will include the topics he discusses on his regular column.
Which title should Barry Damsky choose?
Let us know your opinion with the poll vote above and our author will use the final results and comments to help make a decision. Outskirts Press helps writers make important decisions regarding their books by soliciting the important views of other writers, readers, and industry professionals through our exclusive Social Media Market Research Option. To receive full-service support like this, publish your book with Outskirts Press.
Through the rest of the year, we are going to try a fun little “Web 2.0″ experiment at Outskirts Press. We are going to take Social Media to a whole new level by harnessing the power of the people to help us make decisions around here. After all, those decisions affect YOUR books – you should get a say in what we offer, right?
When we ran our first attempt at this a couple of weeks ago it was a huge success, generating over 80 comments and insights. In that poll, we asked whether there was interest in a new “Featured Book-of-the-Week” option. The poll was overwhelmingly positive, with over 88% of the respondents being in favor of the new option.
Now that we know the vast majority of you were in favor of the new Featured Book-of-the-Week option, we need your help determining the order in which new options are made available. We cannot launch them all at once because each option takes a large amount of resources to develop, test, and administrate before we can make it publicly available. Your vote will help us prioritize our efforts.
Here are brief summaries of the options currently on the “table.”
1) Featured Book-of-the-Week - Featured title(s) spotlighted on an Amazon email blast to our 6,000 active authors, and to our social media channels with a posting on this blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc – All containing a direct link to buy the book on Amazon.com.
2) Author Apps - An iPhone 4/iPad application available in the Apple App Store for free download that highlights an author’s books and social media platform with up-to-date access to the author’s blog, Twitter account, Linked-In account, book videos, and books for direct purchase via your mobile device.
3) Social Media Market Research - Writing is often a solitary existence. Wouldn’t it be great if you could harness the opinions of a lot of other writers/readers/industry professionals to help you make decisions about your book? Have a question about which book title is best? Have a question about which custom cover design you should choose? Have a question about an ending, or a beginning, to your book? Your question will be posted to our social media network in poll form (just like you see below) and you will receive the results and comments to help you make an informed choice.
What option should we launch first?
Why do authors publish with Outskirts Press?
You keep 100% of your rights
You keep 100% of your royalties
You keep 100% of the control
You get to help make the decisions that affect you the most
