To identify the best of the best, Inc. Magazine asked a panel of venture capitalists to review their annual Fast 500 list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in America. The Fast 500 was announced in the September issue of Inc. Magazine. Outskirts Press was the only self publisher on the list, at #268, with a 3-year growth rate of 850%. In the October issue, Inc. Magazine recognized 5 companies from the list, including Outskirts Press, as being the “best of the best.”

“I love the conceit of the company,” Foundation Capital’s Adam Grosser said. “Blogs and wikis have made it easy for people to get their views out there, but if you have something long to say—like a play or a book—then it’s incredibly hard.”

Not so for authors using the full-service custom self publishing services of Outskirts Press, which publishes approximately 160 unique, high-quality books each month. The competitive difference and contributing factor to Outskirts Press authors’ successes is that, unlike competing companies in the industry, Outskirts Press also offers their writers marketing support and services for book promotion after publication. Indeed, one Outskirts Press author, Gang Chen of Irvine California, recently earned over $111,000 in author royalties in just six months.

“In this day and age of blogs and quote-unquote ‘free publishing’, truly successful authors have the potential to separate themselves from the pack by publishing with a full-service, custom publishing company that provides support before, during and after publication,” said Outskirts Press CEO Brent Sampson.

The top five Inc. Magazine “Best of the Best” companies as identified by the panel of venture capitalists were Kiva Systems of Woburn, Massachusetts; SkullCandy of Park City, Utah; Centro of Chicago, Illinois; Outskirts Press of Parker, Colorado; and Enalasys of Calexico, California.

Look for the October issue of Inc. Magazine on newsstands and publish with confidence with Outskirts Press.

Ready to publish a book?

Fast, flashy, and fun, the book teasers are an ideal, cost-effective way to kick-start your online video and social networking promotional efforts for your book.

With sites like YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn getting all the social networking buzz, the question stops becoming WHERE to network and starts becoming WHAT to network.  Having a fun, exciting, and short video is exactly the type of content that is popular for these social networking and video sharing sites.

That’s where the 30-Second Teasers come in. You will receive a high-quality .mp4 video file that you can immediately upload to sites like YouTube and iTunes and then start embedding onto your social networking pages on FaceBook, MySpace, and elsewhere.

Each teaser highlights the cover of the book, the title, the price, the online availability, and the author’s photo if provided during the book production phase.  Every teaser is visually different.

Here’s a sample of a book teaser we produced for one of our Amazon bestsellers, Mary Singer Wick:

The purpose of a book teaser is to capture attention for the book.   Mission accomplished!

This is different from our other video and distribution service, the Book Video Trailer option, where the author can customize the video more specifically to arrive at an overall tone for the video. Once the professional 60-second book video is produced, the .wmv file is provided to the author and is also distributed to all major social video sharing sites like YouTube, Viddler, Google, Aol, Yahoo, and others.

For comparison, here is the 60-second Book Video Trailer we produced for Mary.

Regardless of whether you want a fast, flashy teaser, or a longer, more customized book video trailer, Outskirts Press can help you get your social networking and video sharing promotional efforts off to an exciting, high-quality start.   Outskirts Press published authors can order either option, or both, from the Marketing Options screen of their Author’s Center.

Not yet published with professional marketing options like these?

Check out our most recent video, highlighting a small sample of our gorgeous Christian book covers…

Ready to get published?

As publications like The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal legitimize self-publishing, authors are still left with the burden of marketing a book after publication. New book marketing packages like those offered by one of the leading self-publishers, Outskirts Press, can help authors with their promotional efforts.

5 New Book Marketing Packages Answer Self Publishing Authors Needs

Outskirts Press, the fastest-growing full-service self-publishing and book marketing company today introduced five new, inclusive book marketing packages to its growing family of over 4,000 authors. Each package combines a select number of a la carte marketing products and services with a specific focus at a 25% savings.

“Authors are discovering how fast and easy self-publishing a book has become,” Outskirts Press Director of Author Support Kelly Schuknecht states.  “However, book marketing continues to be a hurdle.  Not so for Outskirts Press authors.  Once published, we share ‘The 7 Tactics of Successfully Published Authors’ with our writers. And now our new book marketing packages help our authors fulfill these tactics quickly and easily.”

One tactic is “Enhancing Your Online Presence,” which is supported by the new Amazon Extreme Marketing Package.  This package combines a Kindle edition of the book with Search Inside the Book and keyword search submissions.

Another tactic is “Announcing Your Publication,” which is supported by the new Book Blast Marketing Package. This package combines a custom press release with the services of both a PR Publicist (to professionally distribute the custom release), and 5 hours of personal marketing assistance with a marketing professional. The book is also submitted to ten reviewers who commonly review self-published books. Lastly, a 60-second book video trailer is produced and then distributed to social networking and video sites like YouTube, MySpace, and many others.

Rounding out the new packages are the Promotional Materials Package (delivering to the author 2,275 branded marketing materials like bookmarks, postcards, business cards, and more); the Global Book Tour Package (showcasing the book at 4 different book events in 4 different countries); and the Book Award Submission Package (entering the book into 6 renown book awards including Writer’s Digest, Benjamin Franklin, and ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards).

“From The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal, self-publishing is recently starting to receive the recognition and kudos it deserves,” Schuknecht continues. “Our new book marketing packages are designed to make book promotion just as easy, fast, and convenient as self-publishing has become, and the only way to experience the ease of book marketing like this is to publish through Outskirts Press.”

To learn more about publishing and marketing with the full-service support of Outskirts Press, authors can visit http://outskirtspress.com/authors.php for a free author’s center without obligation.

About Outskirts Press, Inc.:

Outskirts Press, Inc. offers full-service, custom self-publishing services for authors seeking a cost-effective, fast, and flexible way to publish and distribute their books worldwide while retaining all their rights and full creative control. Available for authors globally at www.outskirtspress.com and located on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, Outskirts Press represents the future of book publishing, today.

But many of our authors are having such extraordinary success with direct sales that we want to support those wonderful marketing efforts by offering even greater savings for larger orders.  Now, you can save up to 50% off your already-discounted author copy base price when ordering your book in larger quantities through your Author’s Center.

Specifically, full color (Pearl) books and hardcopy books in single order quantities of 2000 or more will receive a 50% discount on the author copy price. 

Black/white paperback books ordered in quantities of 2000 or more will receive a 35% discount.

The discounts begin at 1000 copies for hardback books and full-color (Pearl package) books.

Let’s take a look at an example. A 24 page full-color children’s book that retails for $13.95 and has an author copy base price of $7.64 is already receiving a 46% discount.  By taking advantage of the additional 50% savings, the author’s price drops to 3.82, which is an amazing 73% off the retail price.

To take advantage of these discounts, order the appropriate quantity in your author’s center and read the additional information that pops-up on your screen. This information includes details about alternate production schedules and turnaround times for these drastically discounted books. The quality remains the same superior OP quality you are accustomed to.

Not yet a published author with post-publication promotions and discounts like this?

Are you ready to start self-publishing?

1. Write a book

You’ve done this already, right? If you haven’t, consider it. You may find yourself closer to a finished manuscript than you realize. Writing a publishable book from your knowledge or experience is often a matter of simply putting your expertise on paper.

2. Publish your book

A published book becomes a calling card to line-up speaking engagements, freelance writing gigs, and other opportunities. Don’t become a victim of “Catch-22 Paralysis” where you can’t promote because no one knows about you, but no one knows about you since you can’t promote. Instead, become a “Catch-all front runner” where you’re an expert because you have published a book, and your published book proves your expertise.

3. Promote your expertise

Two good places to begin are AOL and ABOUT.COM. Both have category-specific forums in which you can participate. By mentioning that you are the “author of such-and-such” within the scope of your communication, you begin to label yourself as an expert. Other forums about just about every topic under the sun can be found in Yahoo Groups and Google Groups.

Web-logs, or “blogs” are also a cost effective, efficient way to promote your expertise. Blogs utilize .xml and RSS feeds to provide dynamic, up-to-the minute publication across a variety of searchable platforms. The integration between blogs and contextual search engines becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy toward recognition. If you write about something, people searching for the topic will invariably find you, and that makes you an expert!

4. Overcome the fiction hurdle

Being recognized as an expert in a technical or non-fiction category is admittedly easier than the largely subjective category of a “fiction expert.” Even so, if you have written a work of fiction, becoming a recognized expert in your genre is not only possible, but necessary. Just look at Clancy, Rowling, and Robbins.

5. Explore the possibilities

Whether you’ve penned a techno-thriller, children’s fantasy, or romance, there is a forum in which to voice your expertise. The Internet is full of chat rooms, writing groups, genre-sites, and more. They’re all thirsty for content from published writers. You just have to know where to look. Conducting a Google search is a good place to start.

6. Join, participate, schmooze

Seek out conferences, associations, and other experts to help you. At Outskirts Press, we are members of IBPA, SPAN, CIPA, FWA, SWWA, and the BBB, just to name a few. This leads to professional relationships with experts, mentors, editors, writers, and many other professionals who can offer help or support.

Remember, keep on writing, keep on reading, and keep on promoting your published book.  Becoming a published author may feel like a once-in-a-lifetime experience when it first happens, but like everything else in life, success requires tenacity and passion.

Not yet a successfully published, author?

This article was reprinted with permission from Brent Sampson, president/CEO of Outskirts Press.

In a word, Amazon.

Amazon’s blog lets you upload your video directly to your book listing page.  How do you do that? By following these simple steps:

1. Create an AmazonConnect account if you don’t already have one at http://amazon.com/connect
2. Create a new blog posting
3. When the blob interface appears, click the tab that says “Video”
4. Browse your hard drive for your video file and upload it
5. Complete the form and click the Save button.

Your video will be in your Amazon blog within a few minutes. Further details about AmazonConnect are provided to Outskirts Press Diamond and Pearl authors after their books are published. Book video trailers and Amazon are just the beginning of the self-promotion marathon, but they are good beginnings:

Above is an example of the book video that plays from the Self-Publishing Simplified book listing on Amazon.

Or visit the Amazon page for The Daughter-in-Law Rules for another example of a book video created by an author.

For more details about book video trailers, see the previous blog posting.

To experience self-publishing simplified first-hand, visit Outskirts Press.