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:
Outskirts Press holds a lot of things dear: our authors, your books . . . and your privacy. This starts the moment you first reach out to us and doesn’t ever stop!
We never share your contact information.
Some self-publishing companies allow “partner companies” to email their authors. Outskirts Press never shares, rents, or sells our email lists. So when you sign up to talk with us—you’re only signing up to talk with us.
We don’t discuss your idea or book outside of Outskirts Press.
Your brilliant business strategy, your grandmother’s top secret meat loaf recipe, your emotional life story, the novel, the children’s book, the perfectly researched history—your book is yours, whether it includes something revolutionary and never before revealed or is “just” a great yarn. You can trust us to hold that with the respect and privacy it deserves. (And remember: you, as the author, always retain 100% of your rights and copyrights to 100% of your manuscript and other materials.)
We don’t even discuss your general publishing interests outside of the office.
Outskirts Press doesn’t share with other companies that you’ve been talking to us about editing, that you seem interested in full-color printing, or that you ask a lot of questions about covers. Your plans, process, and queries are yours—shared with us, we hope, so that we can help you with them.
Speaking of covers, we consider your book’s design top secret until you’re ready to reveal it.
We hold that private because, as you understand by now, that’s just the right thing to do. It’s also smart business—your perfectly timed cover reveal will be part of your marketing strategy!
OK, wonderful, you may be thinking—but how do you really, really know we lock our lips and throw away the key? Maybe the most important proof we can offer is this: Outskirts Press has been in the book self-publishing industry for over 20 years. We simply couldn’t have done that without happy author clients whose trust in us was met with our respect for them
You have questions about book self-publishing—as you should!—and Outskirts Press has answers.
Of course, we do! So let us gaze into our crystal ball and see a few you may be thinking about right now. Once we get going, we bet you’ll quickly think of some more questions, and we’ll be here to answer those too.
What is self-publishing?
Self-publishing is just like any other book publishing—but with the author holding complete control of every step of the process. It has been around as long as people have been sharing their writing, but today’s technology, plus the difficult road to signing with a publishing house, has made self-publishing an accessible, high-quality, and important option for many writers.
New and established authors alike choose self-publishing. Some succeed so much that publishing houses later sign them for subsequent books. And some never want to stop self-publishing. After all, publishing with a house typically pays 5–10% of the net profit from book sales, while self-publishing pays 50–100%. But, of course, that reward is on top of the previously mentioned benefit of an author maintaining complete creative and business control of their book.
What can I do to ensure a professionally published book?
You can truly self-publish your book by yourself—independent self-publishing—or hire a book self-publishing company to help you.
The steps to creating a quality published book are the same either way, but when you work independently, you must know, understand, and be able to act on each detail yourself. You might have the information, the skills, and the self-management to pull this off—and, this is key, to pull it off well—or you might miss something important, incorrectly address a requirement, or come up short on the professionalism needed to successfully complete a task—all of which could negatively affect your sales. For example, even if you are a professional book cover designer, are you a professional editor? If you are a professional editor, can you really see past the words you’ve come to know so well as you wrote the book to spot the errors? Are you confident about how many ISBNs you need?
Many authors choose to work with a book self-publishing company. This gives them a team of specialized experts and puts the burden of time and task management on someone with the space and the skill to handle it. The author is then allowed to focus on what they love and do best, all while maintaining complete control over the decisions made.
If you consider teaming up with a book self-publishing company, remember that nothing in business is free. Book publishing is indeed a business, no matter how much we all feel fulfilled by writing and reading or how much our hearts swell at the smell of that freshly cracked-open new book. Take note of the differences between “free” self-publishers, who may charge little initially and make enticing promises, and full-service self-publishers. “Freemium” self-publishing companies often end up costing the author much more than expected, especially considering they often return little guidance and low quality. Respectable full-service companies offer high-quality, professional publishing services in exchange for a fair price—just as any trusted professional in your life does.
How do I start the process?
If you want to work with a full-service self-publishing company, do your research to choose one and reach out to them! If you choose Outskirts Press, you’ll have a partner with more than 20 years of leadership and innovation experience in the self-publishing industry. And as soon as you call, we can get started taking care of the heavy lifting of publishing, all while you maintain complete control over your content, goals, and steps toward those goals. However you like to reach out, we’re here for you. If you’d like to learn a little more about self-publishing first, Outskirts Press’s founder, Brent Sampson, has written an informative, accessible reference book, Self-Publishing Questions Asked & Answered. It is available in multiple formats on Amazon or in the Outskirts Press FREE Publishing Kit. The kit contains many great starter ideas, like key book marketing elements, guidance on crafting the perfect book title, and tips on pricing your book just right.
Connect with a Publishing Consultant today to learn how Outskirts Press can help YOU publish YOUR masterpiece:
Times have changed, haven’t they? And self-publishing has changed the world . . . and the publishing industry right along with it. There are so many reasons why authors, including those who may have previously been traditionally published, are eschewing the old ways and trying something new. February is the perfect month to try it out yourself. Once you learn more about self-publishing, you may even find that you love this option too!
Here are five reasons why publishing in the lead-up and the immediate aftermath of Valentine’s Day might just be precisely what your year needs to kick into gear.
1. Timing
It’s a new year, yes, but it’s also not quite brand-new anymore. This is to say, the hectic holidays are past, and the doldrums of spring are opening up before you. What better time of year to knock out that project you’ve always wanted to? Finishing your book and preparing it for publication takes a lot less time than it used to with the advent of self-publishing. The period between mid-February and Memorial Day is an excellent time to finally complete your manuscript and submit your book for publication . . . just in time for a late-spring or early-summer debut!
2. Velocity
Traditional publishing is a slow process. There are the dreaded query letters, the time spent waiting to hear back from agents or editors, and the time spent agonizingly revising your manuscript to meet someone else’s editorial suggestions. If your book does get picked up by a firm, it can take over a year to see your book in print . . . and that’s a best-case scenario! As we’ve indicated, self-publishing is often completed within a few months. Not only does this mean you don’t have to wait to see your book in print, but it also opens even more doors for writing adaptive, timely, and responsive works that touch upon issues still being actively discussed in the public sphere. You can now publish books that are current and in response to readers’ desires!
3. Rights
When a book is traditionally published, its author may have very little control over the manuscript’s fate. Editors and agents decide if a book is print worthy, while a publishing firm decides upon the book’s cover art, layout, and price point . . . all without consulting you, the author. Once you hand over your manuscript to a traditional publishing company to publish, you are essentially giving up all rights and control over the final product. Meanwhile, should you choose to self-publish your book, you remain in charge and decide when your manuscript is ready to be published. The final outcome and product result from your singular vision, not publication by committee!
4. Quality
The quality of print-on-demand (POD) books has come a long way since the inception of self-publishing more than two decades ago. In addition to higher-quality printing methods and a wider variety of formatting options, many self-publishing companies now offer a variety of professional services such as copyediting and cover design. These ensure that your book receives top-notch, red-carpet treatment. There are no barriers to a high-quality product anymore, and your book will positively shine in both digital and print formats.
5. Individuality
Traditional publishing is all about making money, and traditional publishing professionals choose to publish “sure thing” bestsellers over unique, specialized works to cover their corporate bottom line and satisfy shareholders. To do so, they need books that appeal to the mass market, but not all authors are targeting the mass market. Self-publishing allows you to write for a niche market . . . and better yet, it will enable you to print, distribute, and market for a niche market, as well! In the world of self-publishing, blockbuster success doesn’t have to come at the price of your book’s individuality, unique voice, and architecture. Everything special and unique which wrapped you up in writing can still be there in its final form . . . and what’s not to love about that?
Yes, February is the month of love, and we hope you take a moment to consider what options might best suit the book you created as a labor of love!
Connect with a Publishing Consultant today to learn how Outskirts Press can help YOU publish YOUR masterpiece:
If you will indulge us for just a moment, we’d like to compare the self-publishing process to conflict resolution and the scientific method.
Wait, what? Each of these things has been distilled down to five simple steps, as we have done with the publishing process. Just as with conflict resolution, self-publishing is a negotiation of complex relationships. And just like the scientific method, self-publishing through Outskirts Press is a careful, thoughtful, and exploratory enterprise which produces reliable—and sometimes revelatory—results!
The comparison, perhaps, ends there. But when we talk about five steps to self-publishing success, we’re not being overly simplistic or reductive. Within those five steps, you are:
Registering for a (free) Author’s Account
Contacting a Publishing Consultant and receiving a Custom Publishing Profile
Submitting your manuscript
Reviewing your digital files and approving them for print
Sending your book out into the world to meet its eager readers
Your entire Outskirts Press publishing experience, including everything done both by you and our team of experts who will labor behind the scenes to ensure your masterful vision for your book is fully realized, is contained within these five steps. It is no simple thing to produce a masterpiece. However, we are committed to ensuring that you retain full creative control and full rights and royalties without having to spend invaluable hours in labor or your hard-earned dollars in dimes on services that might not pan out. At Outskirts Press, we put your investment to work and commit ourselves daily to walking you through these five easy steps! So, connect with a Publishing Consultant today to learn how Outskirts Press can help YOU publish YOUR masterpiece:
How do bestselling self-published authors sell so many books?
Sure, they often use high-quality publishers like Outskirts Press, so their books look great inside and out, but most bestselling authors also have multiple formats of their books available for sale. When you have a paperback version, a hardback, an Amazon Kindle eBook, NOOK eBook, and Apple Books eBook, you provide discerning readers with 5 different formats from which to choose. This translates to more availability worldwide, better search results, more browsers, and more buyers.
And for a very limited time, all 5 formats are FREE when you publish your book with Outskirts Press!
Welcome to 2022, and in celebration, Outskirts Press is offering an instant 22% savings on our most popular packages—the Ultimate Black & White or Full-Color.
The wrapping paper has been torn off—and this is the perfect self-publishing gift for yourself. Among the many benefits both publishing packages offer, you’ll receive:
A free customizable cover, the number one thing that gets readers to buy
A publishing team to answer all your questions and make sure everything that needs doing is done—on time
Worldwide distribution and availability at over 25,000 retailers
This deal even includes a stocking stuffer: we will also publish and distribute an Amazon Kindle eBook Edition of your book for free.
Keep your resolution to publish this year. Just use promo code newyearsv when ordering your package right now! This offer expires on January 7th! Don’t let your New Year’s resolutions, or this offer, pass you by!
Nowadays, there is so much activity in the nontraditional publishing space that authors sometimes become confused by all the seemingly random terms thrown around by various companies.
And who can blame them? For one, many of the terms are so new or broad that it seems like many companies fall into more than one category. And the nontraditional publishers are not doing themselves any favors by sometimes muddying these waters in their marketing efforts to broaden their potential client base.
Despite some of the liberties that many of these companies take, some generally agreed-upon, broad-stroke definitions may help writers successfully navigate this tricky terrain of the wild wild publishing west.
“Traditional Publisher” is the most commonly used term to define “publication,” whereby the author submits a manuscript (typically through an agent). If the manuscript is accepted (a big if), the publisher foots the entire cost of the publication and, in many cases, rewards the author with some advance. This is far and away the most desired type of publication in most writing circles. But did you see that big “if” up there? That “if” is why traditional publication now trails nontraditional publication for most books being published.
Here’s where things get messy because the terms “self-publishing,” “vanity publishing,” “independent publishing,” “eBook publishing,” “hybrid publishing,” “author-assisted publishing,” and others have all been used to define an equally established, yet rapidly growing segment of the nontraditional publishing space. Unfortunately, some terms hold more malice/stigma than others. Hence, we experience the nontraditional publishers’ creative methods of removing said malice/stigma by arriving upon another term, thus, adding to the confusion!
Almost all these nontraditional publishing companies can correctly fall within the broadest term among the bunch: self-publishing. If a traditional publisher does not accept you, you are therefore publishing your book yourself, in one manner or another, and you’re either doing so with your own time and/or money, or both. In this broadest of definitions, you are therefore self-publishing your book.
But among that broad definition exist more specific definitions as companies attempt to carve out marketing—or service-oriented—niches in this growing segment of the publishing business. “Vanity publishing” is a term that is falling by the wayside as “self-publishing” becomes more accepted, while the traditionalists who introduced “vanity publishing” in the first place are losing interest in participating in a losing battle.
“Independent publishing” is now most often associated with the process whereby an author wears all, or nearly all, the hats involved in publishing the book without the assistance of a company, online platform, or publishing service. He/she vets cover designers, vets interior designers, requests quotes from offset printers, works with wholesalers, distributors, and retailers, markets, and handles all the financials (positive, like book sales and negative, like printer bills and taxes). That’s a lot of work for most people, especially writers who tend to gravitate toward right-brained abilities. But for the proper author with the right tenacity and author platform, this is still a viable way to go.
Contributing to the slow demise of “independent publishing” is the rise of publishing services and online platforms which promise to do most of the work (mentioned above) for the author while still leaving all the rights, royalties, and creative control in the hands of the author. Some “self-publishing companies” offer these services for a fee, much like when one pays for the services of a doctor, lawyer, accountant, hairstylist, etc. Others are online, computerized self-publishing platforms that offer these services for free. The right choice typically comes down to the author’s budget and faith in their work or the quality they desire for their masterpiece. It’s rarely difficult to identify a book published by a service-oriented company compared to one published by a conglomerate’s algorithm.
“Hybrid publishing” is a term cropping up more and more these days and is the closest cousin, in terms of pure business model, to the now nearly defunct “vanity publishing.” In most cases, this business model requires the author to relinquish their rights (and often the rights of their future books) while also promising to purchase a set number of books (typically in the thousands) in exchange for “free publishing” on the hybrid publisher’s dime. Like independent publishing, this can sometimes work for authors already possessing a successful author platform and a lot of tenacity since the initial investment is usually roughly the same as with independent publishing. However, since hybrid publishers often sell their own authors’ book quantities in the thousands, they are more likely to use offset printing to lower per-unit costs. While that helps keep the retail price down, it becomes concerning, for the author is not always confident they have the marketing prowess to sell thousands of books.
Therefore, when it’s time to share your story with the world, call and talk to an Outskirts Press Publishing Consultant who can help you on your journey to publication. They are here and dedicated to assisting you on your walk in this journey!
Yes, “judge a book by its cover” is an idiom referring to first impressions and snap judgments about everything, but when we’re talking about literal books and their covers, the idiom holds true.
This is because the human brain processes images faster than it does words. Plus, if your cover looks shoddy, readers and reviewers alike will be right to wonder where else you skimped on quality . . .
Outskirts Press is making it even more affordable to wow! with your cover. Purchase the Ultimate Black & White or Full-Color publishing package today . . . and we’ll give you a professionally designed custom cover (a $399 value) AND professionally refine your cover text (a $199 value), PLUS include a stunning-looking Amazon Kindle edition of your book (a $299 value) absolutely FREE!
Simply enter promotion code covervalue when you buy the publishing package, and this $897 in total savings will be added.
Whether you spend your Thanksgiving with your family or your friends, in person or via video call, with a big meal at your table, or by volunteering at a community table, we wish you well! We are so thankful to be a part of our authors’ lives. We feel that appreciation every day—with every check-in call, every successful consultation, every book the moment it appears for the first time in stores—but today is an excellent opportunity to express that gratitude to you all. No matter where you are in your self-publishing journey, thank you for bringing Outskirts Press along with you!
