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 April 2012, 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 Listing Optimization Our professional copywriters spend a lot of time around books. We know what makes shoppers buy books. And our marketing folks know what content search engines respond to. By combining these skills with the Amazon Listing Optimization option, your Search Engine Optimized and “Polished” sales content means more people can potentially find your book with less effort on your part.

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 There are OVER 2 MILLION books available on Barnes & Noble’s NOOK. If your book isn’t one of them, you are missing out on tapping a very important, and growing, market of readers. Now, with this option, you can you reach this audience that is already waiting to buy your book.

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.

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.

Apple iPad with Private Label Distribution Millions of iPads have been sold and iPhone revenues account for over HALF of all smart phone revenue in the United States. Is your book a part of this growing market? It can be, simply and conveniently, with enhanced, independent distribution of your own iPad/iPhone electronic edition of your book through Apple’s iBooks bookstore.

Personal Marketing Assistant The Outskirts Press Personal Marketing Assistant option is ideal for authors who want marketing assistance that is personal and specific. The Personal Marketing Assistant is available to work with you in five hour blocks of time to promote your book in accordance with your plan and goals.

Readers Favorite Award Submission Want to gain notoriety as a self-published author? The best way is to become an award-winning author. With our Readers Favorite Book Award Submission, you have an opportunity to not only gain that notoriety but also receive additional free targeted book marketing services/promotion. Scroll down to Product Details for more information.

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

Outskirts Press knows that stocking up for the big book-selling push can get pricey. We want to ease the burden so you make the most of a season of sales. So, through the end of May we’re giving all currently published authors FREE SHIPPING on orders of 50 or more within the continental U.S.

Chances are you’ll need extra books for upcoming promotional events. By combining free shipping with our bulk order discounts, you’ll be well-stocked for summer promotions – without depleting your bank account!

Here’s how free shipping works:

1. Login to your Publishing Center and place an order for 50 or more copies of your book(s) in a single format before May 31.

2. Select normal ground shipping with a delivery address in the continental United States.

No promotion code is necessary. You will see the free shipping reflected once you place your order. It’s a snap!

If you’re not sure how to approach marketing your self-published book and haven’t yet taken advantage of Outskirts Press’ many promotional services, consider contacting a Personal Marketing Assistant to come up with a solid action plan for this summer.

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.

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:

Thanks in advance for your participation.

“We hope David will have many hours of reading pleasure from his new NOOK e-Reader,” said Outskirts Press CEO Brent Sampson.  “It’s just our special way of saying thank you to all of our enthusiastic fans for liking Outskirts Press on Facebook.”

The Barnes & Noble NOOK e-Reader is a high tech treasure for any 21^st century reader.  Over 2.5 million (and growing) books, magazines, newspapers, comics, and more can be downloaded with this handy device. Paired with available free in-store support and in-store reading, the NOOK is a great complement to any reader’s collection.

Readers also cut down on their entertainment expenses with available library borrowing available on the device.

The NOOK itself is very lightweight and compact.  It weighs less than eight ounces and fits handily in any pocket or small purse.  It can hold a personal library of books – and the new E Ink screen reads as easily as real paper.  There is no glare, and one can read as clearly outside under a bright sun as in the muted light of one’s own living room.

A single charge of the battery keeps readers turning pages for over two months – made all the easier with NOOK’s faster new page turner function — and there is always free WI FI access at AT&T hotspots across the country.  One can also connect to WI FI hotspots at home or on the road.

Exclusive Outskirts Press anthologies, announcements and contests through its social channels are just another way the self-publishing company helps keep its social friends and authors united and engaged in the act of writing, reading, and publishing.   In fact, just recently, Patricia A. Hawkenson, author of Magnetic Repulsion: 100 Poems From Desire to Disgust, was awarded a free iPad 2 from Outskirts Press for her “Video Valentine” submission, which was voted the most popular in a public poll. “Wow! Thank you, Outskirts Press! This was a FUN opportunity, and [runner-up] Rev. Judy Neal is very deserving of her prize. I am so glad she is to receive a special gift, as well. It was a close nail biting race, and I enjoyed the competition more because our results kept changing as our friends, family, and supporters came to vote for each of us. Thank you, again, to all involved. I’m feeling the luv!”

The prize runner-up Judy Neal won was an iPad e-book edition of her book, Another Woman at the Well…, also published by Outskirts Press, which offers e-book publishing and distribution options for the three largest e-book platforms: Amazon (http://outskirtspress.com/p/kindle), Barnes & Noble Nook (http://outskirtspress.com/p/nook) and the Apple iPad (http://outskirtspress.com/p/ipad).

Is your book ready for prime time? Let’s talk...

“All of our packages have always included free standard book formatting, but as self-publishing has become more competitive, we’ve found authors to be increasingly attentive to the production qualities of their books,” said Outskirts Press Director of Author Services, Wendy Stetina.  “Only with Outskirts Press can authors receive an Enhanced Interior that lets them customize their own distinctive and individual style. And this value-added service is free if they publish with our Diamond or Pearl services this March.  It’s a great way to help their books stand out in the marketplace.”

Authors taking advantage of the Enhanced Interior simply fill out a personalized design form that allows them to customize the appearance of their title page, chapter headings, headers, and footers. They can customize the font style, font size, line spacing, margins, and even consistent graphic elements that really add that extra level of polish to a publication, thus setting their book apart from all others — especially books that are “spit out” by machines at “author mill” publishers.

With these custom requests from the author, the technical experts at Outskirts Press design a custom “style sheet” that acts as the blue print for the book’s interior design.  The author and designer collaborate together on the individual style sheet to ensure  maximum potential for the unique and individual appearance of the book.  The author then receives a sample lay-out to see the custom elements in practice and to review and approve the look and “feel” of the book. Then,  Outskirts Press experts design the book according to those custom, author approved specifications.

By choosing a consistent, individual formatting style, the aesthetics of the physical book itself are enhanced, thereby accurately reflecting the tone, theme and content of the author’s text.  A book is a complete package.  By using the Enhanced Interior option, an author can ensure that all elements of it align to create the greatest impact on the reader or potential reader.

And best of all, it’s free this March with this promotion code: Enh0312 at http://outskirtspress.com.

What are you waiting for?

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

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.

Neal’s self-published book – The Adventures of Chip Doolin has captured the hearts of many readers that have left positive feedback for Neal’s work. You can check out Neal’s book at Amazon’s Kindle store.

You are probably wondering as to how Neal did it, and perhaps if you could use the same technique to launch your self-published book.

Before I tell you that, here is another quick fact about the book’s ranking, as of when I’m writing this post: The Adventures of Chip Doolin is ranked #8 in Amazon’s paid Kindle store in the Baseball category. Pretty cool, right?

So here is how Neal did it:

He gave it away for free.

Seriously.

One fine Sunday morning, Neal gave away his book for free – just for one day. By giving away something for free, that otherwise costs nearly $7, Neal managed to draw in huge crowd of readers, thus catapulting his book into Amazon’s best seller list.

So did he actually lose out on any sales? I don’t have any numbers to prove or disprove this, but offering something for free and then selling it further actually entices more people to purchase. The simple reason that everyone is reading the book (hence the book is on Amazon’s best seller list) as well as purchasing it justifies many readers opening up their wallets to make a purchase.

Several authors have attained great success from selling Kindle-ready books.

Are you interested in becoming a bestseller? We can help make that happen.

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.

What are you waiting for? Order your Kindle Edition Today and become a bestseller!

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?