As promised last week in our poll where we asked you to pick our next option, throughout the rest of the year, we are continuing a “Web 2.0” experiment at Outskirts Press. We are depending on our valuable author community to help us deliver the options and promotions you want. After all, those decisions affect YOUR books – you should get a say in what we offer, right?
Now that we know the vast majority of you are interested in the Featured Book-of-the-Week and Social Media Market Research options, we need your help determining what promotion we should offer to authors who start publishing their books next month. We wish that we can offer all three, but only the one you like the most will be chosen. Imagine that – if you’re planning on self-publishing a book, you can pretty much write your own ticket!
Here are brief summaries of the promotions we are thinking of offering next month (October). Tell us which one you want and it will be so.
1) Free Amazon Search Inside the Book and Barnes & Noble See Inside – These two very popular marketing options help authors increase their sales potential by allowing online buyers to take a “sneak peek” into the book before they buy it. Readers get the convenience of buying online with the benefit of purchasing in the store, and with this promotion, you can offer all of that to your potential book buyers at no cost to you!
2) 10% Off Your Publishing Package – This promotion offers an instant 10% savings on our 3 most popular publishing packages (Diamond, Pearl, and Ruby). If you publish with the Diamond, you will also receive $300’s worth of additional options free, like an e-book edition and press release, among others.
3) Mad Money! – Everyone has to have their stash of mad money. New Outskirts Press authors are no different. We will add a $300 credit to your account when you order your Diamond or Pearl publishing package. That $300 of “mad money” can be applied toward any available options purchased during the pre-production process, including our popular custom cover option or book marketing solutions.
So, what promotion should we run next month?
Here’s another question with an easier answer… Why do so many authors choose to 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
I would like to know if you have an affordable package with monthly payments, as I am on a fixed, monthly income. The price for almost all of these packages is my entire monthly allotment.
Hadassah, Paypal offers a BillMeLater option for you to pay off in 6 months with no interest. Try them. Maybe you can put some money upfront and finance the rest with Paypal.
Your comments reflect the Outskirts mindset: Money, money and money.
My advice is to invest your money toward training you authors’ reps. One of your reps kept sending the wrong files to the people who were assembling my book and the other rep just ignored my requests. So I had to address my complaints to their supervisor who was helpful.
The other issue that needs attention is the author’s revisions: The Outskirts procedure is for the author to send his / her corrections as a WORD doc. Text however in WORD docs is corrupted during transmission. I therefore had to send my corrections as PDF and WORD files.
Your ARTS department produced a fine book cover for my book.
Hi, Nicholas:
Thanks for your comments.
Our normal process is for authors to submit edits online via author center then submit all to create the next proof. Submitting the edits as a Word file was an exception and may have been what resulted in some problems along the way while you were in production.
Also, it is of my understanding is that you sent some rather obscene remarks by email to your Author Rep on more than one occasion. While we work to go above and beyond for all of our authors, this can be frustrating for everyone involved and slow the process. Hence, the need for supervisor involvement. I’m glad they were helpful to you in this respect.
I’m also very glad you like your book cover – it looks beautiful!
Hello Elise,
Your information regarding obscene remarks is baseless but try to understand the frustration of an author feels when the author’s rep sends the wrong files to the people who assemble his /her book repeatedly. Week after week . . . .Your two reps were hopelessly inadequate and supporting them is not the answer for any organisation.
Your system of sending edits on line is inapropiate. The author submits 25 edits and the system comes to a grinding halt for some time. Then the author has to move mountains to re-activate the sysyem. Moreover a large number of edits resulted from typesetting problems.
I’m disappointed Elise
I am looking forward to my next book publication with outskirtspress. I am delighted as a result of my first book publication with you. My only sad feeling is that I did not get the coverage I thought I should have gotten. ( You have to pay so much more money to market even after publication). It is so hard for self-published authors to get attention. I find that famous people get published in no time and more than likely do not have to pay like I do. I have already published two books and have two more ready for publication. I know what I have written is good but so many in the system do not give you a chance. Then too, with the money I have already paid to publish, it’s a shame I only receive a dollar and change for every book sold. Talk show host and other “famous people” get books published time after time. Hopefully, I can get started real soon. Sometimes I get discouraged and just come to a complete standstill. This is something I want to get done before I die. Maybe one day I can open my own bookstore since self-published authors have such a hard time getting a booksigning in Barnes&Noble bookstore. I really miss Waldenbooks because they really believed in me and let me have about 10 booksignings there before they closed.
Hi, Regina:
Thanks for your comments! You’re right. Traditional bookstores don’t always look favorably upon the self-publishing author – that is until you have proven yourself. What I suggest is that most authors focus on success with online sales (a more level playing field) and get involved with the community through libraries, community groups, and the like.
As far as your royalty – have you looked at your discount to see what it is? With smaller royalty amounts like what you mention, I’m inclined to think you are in a higher discount plan. You may consider a price change to get more money each time your book sells. If you have questions about this, you can certainly contact us at marketing@outskirtspress.com, and we can look into this for you.
Lastly, don’t give up! Being a successful author isn’t something that happens easily. You have to put a lot into it before you see a return. You may also consider talking with one of our Personal Marketing Assistants (if you haven’t already) – they can help you get on the right track.
I vote for 10% Off Your Publishing Package. I’m hoping to get my first Book which is ‘my Autobiography’ on how God raised me in the wilderness for 20 years, Praise God. Thank you very much.
Thanks for your comments! Did you also add your vote to the poll?
We look forward to seeing your book!
Hello, everybody. Story is ready to be published…
I am comparing two of your options, Diamond, $999.00, and Ruby, $699.00, with Virtual Book Worm Publishing. I, unlike someone who thinks that a POD company is not entitled to charge a fee for the job, have a normal approach to the issue: you are. My tiny problem is that your charge – and I am taking in consideration everything that comes with the charge – is not really comparable to the only other POD I’ve chosen: VBW Publishing. For much less money they do same amount of work and the books they publish are well written and well presented… I’ll wait for your response, thank you.
Hi Lazarus,
The easiest way to compare us against VBW, and in fact, any other publisher, is via our price calculator. Since we pay 100% profits back to the author, this is one of the main benefits of publishing with Outskirts Press. Our pricing calculator is at http://outskirtspress.com/pricing and when you compare an example 200 page 6×9 paperback with a retail price of $14.95 and a 25% trade discount, you see that you earn 44% more in royalties with the Outskirts Press Diamond package for every book sold online with Amazon or Barnes & Noble. That increases the higher you set your retail price; some of our authors are known to make 70% – 80% more in royalties when compared with our competitors, like Gang Chen, and you can view his Case Study here: http://outskirtspress.com/case-100.pdf. VBW offers a similar pricing calculator to ours, so you can conduct this pricing comparison yourself, too. There are other advantages, too, (like our much more extensive selection of marketing services, for example) and your publishing consultant would be happy to discuss all of the benefits of choosing Outskirts Press with you personally.
To assign your own publishing consultant, get a custom publishing profile, and receive a publisher’s evaluation of your manuscript, please visit http://outskirtspress.com/p/consultant
Sincerely,
Outskirts Press
..I have a real (and I know everyone has a story)book. This is not done for ego or to just say ,”hey I wrote a book.” Mine is the real deal . if you would like a shot at publishing it ,I will send you a copywrited manuscript. It is just sitting in a box in my closet. I will not pay someone to publish something that will probably be made into a movie . Bottom line ,if you want to be a real publisher you will read my book.,figure a marketing plan ,pay for it’s production …then we will partner up on the cash…savy?If not email some ego filled idiot and leave me alone . it ain’t bragging if it’s true!
Best regards J Robert Bell
Hi, J:
Congratulations on completing your story! All of our authors pay to publish with us. Have you already tried contacting an agent? Based on what you’re looking for, the traditional publishing route may work best for you. You can start this process by writing up a query letter to submit to potential agents and going from there. If you need a bit of help with this, you may consider hiring the services of a book marketing consultant.
Also, if things don’t work out, feel free to give us a call as one of our Publishing Consultants would be more than happy to discuss your publishing needs.
Best of luck to you!
I agree that i am very much wanting to pubish but don’t have the cash upfront right now! Could you all add a payment plan where they can do automatic drafts from our accounts each month until it has all been paid? I am disabled and on a fixed income and i am hoping that this can open the doors to much success!
Hi, Debbie:
We want to make self-publishing your book a reality. I will have one of our publishing consultants follow up with you via email to discuss your options. Or, if you’d like you can click the following link to get assigned to a consultant right away: Start Publishing.
Nowhere can I find the additional price for a hard cover add-on????? I’m interested in the diamond package w/hc
Hi, Paul:
If you wanted to do hardback only, it’s $199. If you want to do hardback and paperback it’s $299. If you have any more questions, feel free to call (888) 672-6657 and speak to one of our Publishing Consultants. You can also start your self-publishing journey by clicking HERE.
With promotion 2, how come you’re offering $300’s worth of additional options free for Diamond package but not for Pearl?
Hi Melissa,
You’re right, the Diamond includes more additional free options than the Pearl package. There is an economic reason for this (our production costs for full-color books are higher) as well as logical reasons for it (the free ebook PDF edition included with the Diamond doesn’t make as much “sense” for full-color books because the PDF file is often too massively big to download).
Nevertheless, the Pearl DOES include some free options, like free included Spring Arbor Christian distribution for applicable religiously-themed books, for example. You can see all the perks and benefits of the Pearl package here: http://outskirtspress.com/p/pearl
Sincerely,
Outskirts Press
Let me use Outskirts Press to publish my book with an agreement to pay you the $1000 dollars after the book is published. I would love to pay you up front; I just don’t have it right now.
I just wanted to add that the reason I don’t have the money to pay up front right now is what I am writing about. I realize that Outskirts Press does publishing in a different way, and I am excited to know this option exists. From what I have read, Outskirts Press offers an extremely professional method for getting published. I’m not complaining; you asked for my suggestions. I will keep trying to find a way to make this work for me.
Hi, Marcia:
I have forwarded your inquiry to one of our experienced Publishing Consultants. They will be in touch with you via email to personally address your questions.
Best Wishes!