Category: Advice

Advice, self-publishing

Is It Worth Self-Publishing a Book?

The self-publishing industry has grown exponentially in recent years, with more and more authors choosing to take control of their own publishing journey. There are many benefits to self-publishing, including:

More control over the publishing process.

When you self-publish, you have the final say on everything from the cover design to the marketing strategy. This can be a great way to ensure that your book is exactly the way you want it to be.

More flexibility.

Self-publishing allows you to publish your book on your own schedule and budget. This can be a great option for authors who have other commitments, such as full-time jobs or families.

More potential for profit.

Depending upon the publisher you choose, self-published authors can keep up to 100% of the net profits from their books, which can be a significant financial advantage.

However, there are also some challenges to self-publishing. It can be difficult to get your book noticed. There are millions of self-published books on the market, so it can be tough to stand out from the crowd. You probably had your ideal reader in mind when you wrote your book. It’s a good idea to remember that reader when it comes time to market it. The more defined your audience is, the more success you will have when marketing your book.


You will need to do a lot of the marketing yourself. Self-publishing a book can be easy if you choose the right self-publishing company, but marketing any book, no matter who publishes it, is a lot of work, and you will need to be prepared to put in the time and effort to make it a success.

So, is it worth self-publishing a book? The answer depends on your individual goals and circumstances. If you are willing to put in the work and are passionate about your book, then self-publishing can be a great way to get your work out into the world.

For over 20 years, Outskirts Press has helped thousands of writers publish their books through a variety of high-quality, personalized services. We offer editing, cover design, marketing, and worldwide distribution, as well as a variety of author resources. We are committed to helping authors succeed, and we offer a personalized approach that makes publishing a book a joy.

Connect with a Publishing Consultant today to learn how Outskirts Press can help YOU publish YOUR masterpiece:  

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Advice, Author Inspiration

The Lucrative Path of Self-Publishing: A Surprising Revelation

Embarking on a self-publishing journey offers more than just the chance to leave a lasting legacy, honor your family, establish your expertise, and make your mark in the literary world. It can also be highly lucrative. Recent findings from a global survey of over 2000+ authors, independently conducted and peer-reviewed by esteemed entities such as the UK Copyright & Creative Centre, Thad McIlroy of The Future of Publishing, Steve Sieck of SKS Advisors, and commissioned by the Alliance of Independent Authors, have revealed some remarkable insights.

A Remarkable Increase in Earnings

In 2022, the average income of self-publishing authors who dedicate at least half of their time to writing and publishing activities exceeded a remarkable $80,000. This represents an astounding 53% increase from the previous year. In stark contrast, surveys focusing on traditionally published authors have consistently shown declining income over the years. For instance, a survey conducted by the Authors’ Lending and Collecting Society revealed a significant 38% decrease in median income for traditionally published authors since 2018.

Outperforming Traditional Publishing

What’s even more fascinating is that self-publishing authors, according to this independent survey, boasted a median income approximately 33% higher than their traditionally published counterparts. These findings highlight the shifting tides in the publishing industry, where self-publishing has emerged as a viable and lucrative alternative to traditional publishing avenues.

The Significance of Publishing Achievement

Regardless of the chosen publishing route, completing a book is always an impressive accomplishment. It represents dedication, creativity, and the culmination of your unique perspective. However, this survey’s results now demonstrate that self-publishing authors can also reap the rewards in terms of financial success.

Conclusion

The landscape of publishing is evolving rapidly, and self-publishing has become a formidable force in the industry. Not only does it provide a means to share your story with the world on your terms, but it also offers the potential for substantial financial gains. This recent independent survey solidifies the notion that self-publishing is not only a rewarding and empowering endeavor but also a highly profitable one.

So, if you’ve been contemplating self-publishing your book, now is the time to take the leap and unlock the remarkable possibilities that await you. Join the ranks of successful self-published authors who have found both creative fulfillment and financial success through this transformative publishing path.

START SELF-PUBLISHING
Advice, Children's Books, Children’s Book Week

Celebrating Children’s Book Week—Ways to Make Your Children’s Book Stand Out

If you are one of the many writers around the world looking to finish your children’s book, this week is for you. Children’s Book Week is May 1-7 and is a time where many authors find the inspiration they need to finish their book.

Writing a book for children never grows old because there are SO many possibilities! And nowadays, children’s books are more popular than ever, with more lucky parents spending more time with their children. Children’s books are shorter and quicker to write and edit! They are easier and faster to publish. They are simpler to market and promote. And they are more popular than ever! So, if you’ve never fancied yourself a children’s book author . . .

Let’s look at six things to keep in mind when writing and publishing children’s books:

  1. Mind your length. As any preschool teacher or children’s librarian can confirm, reading with children is most enjoyable for both parties when the book contains just enough text to carry the story without exhausting a child’s attention.
  2. Pick a timely subject. Picture books are more likely to be picked up by parents, teachers, and librarians on the prowl if they tackle topics these adults want to prepare their children to face. So, take advantage! Talk about a perfect time to write about the “boogey monster” or “having cooties”!
  3. Don’t dumb it down. You heard right—baby talk doesn’t carry as compelling of a story as a book that treats its younger audiences with a rich vocabulary and age-appropriate but sophisticated sentence structures. Kids learning to read are much more accepting of new information than when they become kids who are reading to learn.
  4. Voice morals carefully and cleverly. Few will argue against picture books as excellent tools for teaching sound decision-making skills. Still, most of these success stories find clever, quiet ways to do so without alienating readers by being too “preachy.” Use subtle metaphors for more significant issues (ahem, like boogey monsters and cooties, for example).
  5. Think about those end materials! Many of today’s best picture books include a few pages at the end, which contain notes for adults on how to best use the book to teach young readers a skill or an idea.
  6. Humor them! Children have a keen sense of humor and often embrace farce and comedy with zeal and a hearty squeal. While the story itself can’t always be humorous, more often than not, the illustrations can be.

At Outskirts Press, we are here to support you during every stage of the publishing process, whether you’re using our One-Click Publishing suite to publish your next children’s book or if you need custom-drawn, full-color illustrations. In addition, we offer a comprehensive list of services that we hope you’ll take advantage of as you work to translate your vision to the page! Your kids, grandkids, and even their friends and family will thank you!

Let our experienced publishing consultants help you realize your publishing dreams.

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Advice, marketing, Outskirts Press News, Publishing Options, Publishing Tips, self publishing news

The Road to Self-Publishing

The Road to Self Publishing Infographic Outskirts Press

You have a great book idea. Maybe you even have a completed manuscript. Next, you need an easy and affordable way to publish.

You’ve made the decision to self-publish, and you’re ready to start your journey to becoming a published author. But where do you begin?

Outskirts Press offers you a road map for self-publishing success. Here are the basic steps:

  1. Connect with your personal Publishing Consultant to answer all your questions about starting the self-publishing process and to begin your journey.
  2. Submit your manuscript to Outskirts Press.
  3. Meet your Author Representative (a member of your publishing team) for one-on-one assistance.
  4. Next, Outskirts Press will create your digital files and send them to you to review.
  5. After making sure your files are perfect, your book will be approved for publication.
  6. While you wait for your book to print, you’ll start working on your marketing efforts. This is essential to success!
  7. Before you know it, you’re a published author! Now, it’s time to get to work promoting your new book.

With Outskirts Press, your publishing team will assist you throughout your publishing journey. Your team is there to help you develop and publish high-quality books by offering exceptional design, printing, publishing, distribution, and book marketing services. We take the complexity and guesswork out of publishing, and our mission is to help you publish the book of your dreams.

For more information about self-publishing with Outskirts Press, get in touch with your Publishing Consultant. There are three convenient ways to connect:

  1. Call us at 1-888-672-6657 (OP-BOOKS)
  2. Live chat with us via our website
  3. Go online to schedule an appointment
Advice, Production Options

Editing Tips for Busy Writers

When readers are browsing for a new book, they’re going to be drawn to a great book cover and a catchy title. They’ll read the blurb on the back cover, but before actually taking the plunge and hitting the BUY button, most readers will skim the first few pages of a book that interests them… And if these pages are riddled with errors, the consumer is off to the next title.

In order to be taken seriously, self-published books must be professionally edited.

Often authors are so anxious to get their books in print that they skip this crucial step. Others feel their book is fine because their mother or their next-door neighbor checked it over… But take a look at Amazon reviews, and you’ll find that the biggest turnoff to a reader is a poorly edited book filled with silly mistakes and serious flaws — problems that an editor would never let slip through the cracks. If the reader is preoccupied with incorrect punctuation, word choice, and grammar, they won’t be able to focus on what your book is trying to say.

Most importantly, no matter how thrilling your thriller or educational your how-to, if your book is unedited (or edited by your former first-grade teacher), you will very likely be perceived as an amateur.

Many authors feel confident in their own editing abilities and believe their book is fine without a fresh pair of eyes to review it. They might run a spellcheck, check for typos, and call it good. But a professional editor does so much more than check for spelling.

What can an editor do for you?

A good editor keeps the rules of the English language in mind but also preserves the writer’s unique voice. Each writer is different, and sometimes their style overrides mandates handed down by the grammar police. A good editor will recognize and nurture individual style.

Copyeditors focus on a book line by line, looking for spelling and grammatical problems, consistency, clarity, word choice, sentence structure, verb tense, dialogue, and other issues of style. They also look at the big picture and flag general problem areas in plot, character, point of view, and overall flow.

Did your main character’s name change halfway through your book? An editor will catch it. They’ll also catch embarrassing errors like anachronisms (a smartphone in 1932?) or plot problems (how can your heroine be in two places at one time?). Does the book switch back and forth from past to present tense? Is it filled with long, confusing sentences and page-long paragraphs? An editor will fix these problems.

It’s difficult to edit your own work, as just about any author will tell you. Whether you’re a bestselling author or a brand-new writer with your first book, an objective professional review/edit of your work is a crucial step. And the readers you’re hoping to attract will be more willing to hit that BUY button if they’re not distracted by poor presentation and awkward sentence structure!

***

Outskirts Press offers high-quality copyediting services for manuscripts of all lengths and types. This May, we will edit the first 15,000 words of your manuscript for free when you purchase the Ultimate Black & White or Full-Color publishing package.  Yep! That means most full-color children’s books will receive free editing of the entire manuscript all month long! Just enter promo code coverkdedi in your shopping cart during checkout.

Advice, self-publishing

The Value of Self-Publishing Multiple Formats/Editions

We all remember the fervor that overtook the publishing industry when eBooks hit the mainstream. Suddenly, it was the fastest-growing segment and everyone was anxious to make sure their books had an Amazon Kindle eBook Edition, a Barnes & Noble NOOK Edition, an eBook edition that was available on iTunes, and through Apple iBookstore, etc.

photo of person s hand holding ipad
Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com

And the excitement of the new eBook market lasted for several years, in fact, to such a degree that some authors began publishing their books ONLY as eBook editions, because they liked the speed and convenience of it.

But then a funny thing happened. With the exception of a fortunate few (you know, the eBook authors you’ve read about in the news), eBook-only editions failed to reach the lofty promises of all that hype! It turns out, people still like touching actual books. So the publication of paperbacks and hardbacks jumped back into the fray, along with their newfound format–the eBook!

And then, almost overnight, another new format caught readers’ (or should we say listeners’) attention: audiobooks.  With longer daily commutes, not to mention the convenience afforded by Audible, and the tendency of people to multi-task more than ever, audiobooks soon became the fastest-growing segment.

white headset
Photo by Sound On on Pexels.com

Add Large Print and/or multi-media-enabled editions, and traditional publishers were looking at greater complexities and thinner profit margins for each book they gambled on. Soon, in many cases, particularly for the “mid-listers,” traditional publishers were having to make tough choices about which format(s) they would publish/maintain, and which format(s) they would allow to “expire” (much to the chagrin of their authors). Without the zero-inventory convenience available through POD self-publishing, traditional publishers frequently could not justify the time/expense of supporting a growing family of formats for every book. It just stopped making economic sense.

Which is why more books are now self-published than are published by all the traditional publishers combined! With print-on-demand (POD) self-publishing, you never have to worry about your publisher expiring one of your editions, ceasing future print runs, or not helping you pursue each and every format you are interested in.

Hint: You should be interested in all of them.

After all, you never know whether the potential reader you reach via your marketing efforts is going to prefer a paperback, an eBook, a hardback, a large print edition, or an audiobook; so make sure all those choices are available. Once the initial cost of publishing each format is absorbed, the economies of scale in the POD self-publishing world allow authors to affordably maintain all the formats they want, for as long as they want.

Talk about a happy ending!

To learn more about publishing your book in multiple formats including paperback, hardback, Kindle eBook, iPhone/iPad eBook, Barnes & Noble Nook eBook, large print AND audiobook, contact Outskirts Press today. There are three convenient ways to connect:

Advice, self-publishing

How “Publishing Kits” Help Self-Publishing Writers

Nearly all self-publishing companies offer writers an “incentive” to join their newsletter or mailing list. In most cases, this is the company’s own “Publishing Guide.”  These guides vary from sleek sales brochures to informative books covering the process of self-publishing (typically with that particular self-publishing company).

 

Other self-publishers offer “white papers” or “tip sheets” or “advice columns” focusing on specific topics or obstacles an author may face when self-publishing a book. While often more informative (at least about said topic or obstacle), these white papers are usually much shorter, and therefore of less perceived value.


A few self-publishing companies combine their publishing guide with a robust collection of white papers and tip sheets to create a treasure trove of helpful resources for writers. The guide typically markets the company and its offerings, perhaps sheds light on the self-publishing and book marketing processes, and shines a spotlight on a successful authors.  The white papers, advice columns, and tip sheets, on the other hand, identify core questions or issues facing many writers and offers suggestions or solutions to pave an author’s path toward publication and success.


Outskirts Press offers just such a Publishing Kit to new clients for free at the following link: https://outskirtspress.com/book-publishing.html#ebooks


Watch the video about the Publishing Kit below:

Your complimentary Publishing Kit contains:

  • 7 Tips to Self-Publish Like a Pro
  • The most recent book by Outskirts Press President Brent Sampson: Self-Publishing Questions Asked & Answered
  • Our definitive publishing guide: Publish Your Passion
  • Book shepherd one-sheet: Meet Your Publishing Consultant
  • Author success white paper: 7 Highly Effective Rules for the Perfect Book Title
  • Author guide: Author Photo & Biography Guide
  • Author tip sheet: The Top 7 Marketing Elements to Include in Your Book
  • Author guide: Which Book Format Should I Choose?
  • Author white paper: How to Price Your Book
  • Publishing white paper: Diving into Self-Publishing
  • About Outskirts Press: Publishing brochure
  • One stop shop: Custom illustration samples in color and black & white