In fact, according to the Huffington Post (“Why You Can’t Find Indies in Bookstores,” April 12, 2012),
lovers of literature are scooping up self-published books in unprecedented numbers. So-called “indie” authors recently claimed more than half of the top 20 spots on Amazon’s “Movers & Shakers” list. The list, which is updated hourly, ranks books that rose most quickly in sales over the last 24 hours.

It wasn’t so long ago that self-published authors just didn’t seem to get any love. So why the change of heart? In short, readers recognize a good value when they see one. Self-published ebooks tend to be less expensive than big publishing house offerings, and thanks to author services such as those provided by Outskirts Press, their quality is comparable.

Another factor pushing self-published authors up the sales ladder is the availability of promotional tools and services that weren’t as accessible or as easy or cheap to utilize in the days before the dawn of the Internet. Readers fear what they don’t know. The more self-publish authors like you get the word out about their work, the more those works will be appreciated — and the more they’ll sell!

Learn more about increasing book sales by reading more Outskirts Press’ self-publishing and author inspiration blogs and by visiting the Outskirts Press website to get familiar with what services are available to self-published authors.

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.

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!

Here’s this week’s Featured Book-of-the-Week available now on Amazon.com!

Command Influence

by Robert A. Shaines

 (8 Customer Reviews)

Price: $26.95

A story of Korea and the politics of injustice…

Here’s this week’s Featured Book-of-the-Week available now on Amazon.com!

Danger Has a Face

by Anne Pike

 (5 Customer Reviews)

Price: $17.95

The most dangerous psychopath is educated, wealthy, and socially skilled…

Here’s this week’s Featured Book-of-the-Week available now on Amazon.com!

Tierra Red

by K. P. Vorenberg

 (15 Customer Reviews)

Price: $21.95

Will Lily and her true love survive the consequences of learning the truth?

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?

Of the 7,302 books published by Outskirts Press that were for sale on Amazon as of July, 55% have received a rating.

Compare that with the other five major online publishers, where that percentage is 42%, 30%, 25%, 21%, and 15%. Since one-star ratings are included among all these percentages, receiving a rating doesn’t necessarily equate to “quality.”

But receiving a rating does relate to engagement by the author in terms of marketing effort, and engagement by the consumer in terms of readership, which ostensibly relates to higher readership and higher author royalties, a consensus shared by the book Top Self-Publishing Firms by Stacie Vander Pol that lists Outskirts Press as #1.

Outskirts Press is also #1 in terms of percentage of reviews that are 4 stars or higher, which does relate to quality. In fact,  Outskirts Press is significantly higher than the other five major online publishers on this front:

When you figure that these percentages are coming only from the percentage of books that received any sort of rating, that means 95% of Outskirts Press books that receive a rating are rated four stars or better.

“We have always known Outskirts Press helps authors publish a stellar book and have an exemplary publishing experience, especially in comparison to the other options out there,” said CEO Brent Sampson. “It’s nice to see Amazon readers confirming this fact with their ratings and reviews.”

In August, Outskirts Press is giving all new authors an incredible incentive to experience this kind of high-quality self-publishing for themselves.  With the purchase of the top-of-the-line Diamond book publishing package or the full-color Pearl package, new authors can enter a promotion code good for a free custom cover design. See all the details at http://outskirtspress.com/promotion.html

April 5, 2011 – Denver, CO – Outskirts Press, the fastest growing self-publishing and book marketing company, announced today it is offering three of its most popular marketing options (a $300 value) to authors who start their publishing process by Tax Day, April 15^th.  These options include the Amazon Kindle Edition, Amazon’s Search Inside the Book submission and Amazon Keyword Search/Tagging. Also included is a free paperback copy of Sell Your Book on Amazon by Brent Sampson.

Authors who start publishing with Outskirts Press by choosing the Diamond, Ruby, or full-color Pearl publishing services will receive over $300 of Amazon marketing options free: the Amazon Kindle edition of their published book, Amazon’s “Search Inside the Book” submission service, and the Amazon Keyword Search tagging function once their book is listed on Amazon.com.  These authors will also receive a free copy of the Amazon bestseller Sell Your Book on Amazon by Outskirts Press CEO Brent Sampson.

“The combination of these Amazon marketing tools are not available with any other publisher,” said Outskirts Press Director of Author Support Kelly Schuknecht.  “Taking advantage of these proven Amazon promotional functions is the perfect — and perfectly economical — way for authors to launch their book sales with gusto by choosing to publish now with Outskirts Press.”

The first prong of the Outskirts Press triple marketing approach is a free Kindle edition of the author’s book.  An Amazon Kindle edition is the proven method to introduce an author’s book to the fast growing audience of Kindle e-book reading device owners.  More than eight million Kindles were sold in 2010 alone.  Because Amazon.com customers love reading actual books, Kindle is an inexpensive way for them to sample a book before buying the paperback or hardback edition.  This is especially true for readers who love fiction.

With Amazon’s Search Inside the Book feature, authors can also dramatically increase their chances to sell their books.  Amazon has found that books that participate in this program are significantly more successful, on average, than books that do not participate.  Being able to browse through sections of the book increases the confidence the customer has in the product and makes it far more likely they’ll purchase a copy of the book.

The third marketing strategy of the Outskirts Press marketing package for authors who begin publishing before April 15^th is the Amazon Keyword Search tagging service.  Customers who are looking to buy a book are not usually familiar with an author’s name or even the title of the book.  They search instead by keywords or phrases that describe their interest.  Books participating in this option are “tagged” with ten applicable terms and keywords on Amazon’s Product Detail page.  This encourages other visitors to “tag” the book with the same keywords or phrases and this can give more weight to those terms – and hence the author’s book –  in Amazon’s search results.

Authors who wish to receive high-quality publishing services and over $300 in Amazon marketing services need only enter the valid promotional code while they order their publishing package and place it in their online shopping cart. For details and the promotion code, visit http://outskirtspress.com/promotion.html .

About Outskirts Press

Outskirts Press offers high-quality, full-service self-publishing and book marketing services for writers and professionals who are seeking a cost-effective, fast, and flexible way to publish and distribute their books worldwide while retaining 100% of their rights, 100% of their profits, and 100% of the creative control. www.outskirtspress.com.

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Outskirts Press, Inc., 10940 S. Parker Rd. – 515, Parker, Colorado 80134

http://outskirtspress.com 1-888-OP-BOOKS