Category: Year in Review

Year in Review

2020 Self-Publishing Retrospective: A Very Unusual Year in Review

2020 is sure to go down in history as one of the most difficult years ever as the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic continues spreading around the globe, threatening the physical and mental health of Earth’s inhabitants while simultaneously causing economic hardship for billions. And although the world continues to struggle, we are witnessing the good inherent in all people as neighbors help neighbors, friends help friends and loved ones help and cherish those they love. For many writers, the early days of quarantining allowed them to find their creative energy to write and perhaps even (finally) finish that book they’ve been working on.

It’s apparent in the numbers. 2020 book sales boomed! While final numbers for 2020 aren’t available at the time of this writing, NPD Bookscan reported an overall 6.4% increase for the first three quarters over the comparable quarters in 2019, led by a whopping 36% jump in young adult nonfiction, a 29% increase in juvenile nonfiction and a 19% bump in young adult fiction.

Homeschooling certainly contributed to this increase, and savvy writers were quick to capitalize, as the self-publishing industry is on track to publish more books in 2020 than ever before. For Outskirts Press, the only A+ rated and #1-rated self-publishing company according to the Better Business Bureau and Top Consumer Reviews, respectively, 2020 saw its authors thrive and prosper even in the shadow of the novel coronavirus.

At the 26th Annual Colorado Independent Publishers Association EVVY Awards Banquet, which, for the first time ever, took place “virtually” and streamed live from YouTube, Outskirts Press authors took home a total of 14 impressive 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-place awards. The recorded virtual ceremony will be available on the CIPA YouTube Channel indefinitely.

Winning a CIPA EVVY Award is a prerequisite to winning the Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Award and claiming its $1500 Grand Prize. In 2020, the following three First Place EVVY Award winners were in contention for the Best Book of the Year:

Lance Anderson won a First Place Award in Fiction for his novel Life in the Morgue. Lance Anderson spent most of his life as an ironworker until he decided it was time for a change. He took a job at the medical examiner’s office, where he worked for six years and assisted in more than two thousand cases until he was forced to retire due to vision problems. Life in the Morgue is his debut novel, but he has also written two movie scripts that are in the process of being produced.

George Rhoades won a First Place Award for Poetry with Musings from Cowboy Country. George Rhoades is the author of Along the Chisholm Trail and Other Poems and After the Chisholm. He is the winner of numerous poetry awards, including the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, Will Rogers Gold and Bronze Medallions, Readers View First Place Award, Indie Excellence Book Award Finalist and Western Music Assoc. Poetry Book Finalist, and other accolades. Born on a farm in Cotton County, Oklahoma, Rhoades has been a rancher, a reporter/editor for UPI and Oklahoma newspapers and a college journalism professor. He retired from UT-Arlington and moved to Duncan, Oklahoma, where he owned a hay farm.

And Gina Simone won a First Place Award in the Spiritual/Religion category with Whispers of Love, which went on to win the coveted Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Award for 2020 (by securing a whopping 80% of the votes!). Gina Simone is a Spirit Medium certified through the Forever Family Foundation. At the age of 11, she began to notice and feel Spirit and energy around her. Not knowing what these gifts were, she always felt different and isolated. A traumatic pool accident with her toddler son catapulted her into finding the meaning behind life, Spirit, lessons, and karma. She left a comfortable corporate finance career to answer her calling to connect you with your loved ones and with your own innate intuition and higher consciousness. She has been a featured medium on Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP.com, has been voted Long Island Best Medium several years in a row, and is also a featured medium on the WBLI 106.1 morning show.

Congratulations, Gina! And congratulations to all our EVVY-Award winners and, in fact, to all our award-winning authors, who celebrated their accomplishments in 2020 by receiving book awards.

How would it feel to publish in 2021 with the A+ Rated and #1-Rated self-publishing company according to the Better Business Bureau and Top Consumer Reviews, respectively? Find out more about publishing, marketing, promoting and submitting your book for publication, reviews, and awards by visiting us at OutskirtsPress.com. We would love to help you publish the book of your dreams in 2021.

 

Author Spotlight, Awards, Best Book of the Year, Year in Review

2019 Self-Publishing Retrospective. A Year in Review and a Look Ahead

2019 was another banner year for self-publishing and for Outskirts Press authors specifically. Thanks to the talents and determination of the writers who published with us in 2019, many were rewarded with multiple awards and recognitions, which as we all know can be next to priceless when it comes to marketing a book in this competitive industry, where once again, the quantity of self-published books overshadowed the 5 large publishing houses.

If our authors’ accomplishments in 2019 are any indication, 2020 will be an amazing year indeed.  With so many authors publishing so many stellar books, and receiving so many awards, selling so many copies of books, we can’t possibly identify them all. So if we aren’t able to name you personally, please know that we are equally impressed with all you’ve accomplished this year.

Outskirts Press Author Awards

The Colorado Independent Publishers Association holds the annual EVVY Awards every year and once again Outskirts Press was honored to receive the most finalist nominations and the most awards among participating publishers. Winning an EVVY Award is a prerequsitte to winning the Outskirts Press Book of the Year Award and claiming its $1500 Grand Prize.

Three First Place EVVY Award winners were in contention for the Book of the Year:

E.J. Gandolfo won a 1st Place EVVY Award in the Mystery/Crime/Detective fiction category and was one of three finalists for the Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year for her mystery To Paint a Murder. E. J. Gandolfo is a former advertising agency copywriter and sales executive. She is an artist, antique dealer and world traveler and resides in the Boston area.

Amy Jordan, author of Dance Because You Can, won a 1st Place EVVY Award on her way to becoming the second of three finalists in the Book of the Year contest. Her professional company, The Victory Dance Project, has honored legends of dance and stage including Chita Rivera. Jordan’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, NY Post, and FORTUNE magazine among others. Amy is an in- demand motivational speaker and coach speaking for groups from ten to ten thousand, including corporations, organizations, youth programs, leadership development, health organizations, and schools.

The Third Finalist, Andrew Ceroni, is no stranger to 1st Place EVVY Wins, or Book of the Year awards, for that matter, having won both for his previous two books, Snow Men and Meridian., He completed his hat trick by claiming the 2019 Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year with The Red Shore. Andrew Ceroni served a distinguished career as a Senior Supervisory Special Agent in the conduct of global counterespionage and antiterrorism operations. He received his BS degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy; MA from Case Western Reserve University; and studied several foreign languages at the University of Maryland. He lives in Colorado with his family.

andyevvy2019
Outskirts Press President Brent Sampson joins Three Time Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Winner Andrew Ceroni at the 2019 CIPA EVVY Awards Banquet where Andy picked up his 1st Place EVVY Award for The Red Shore in person.

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Perennial EVVY favorite and prolific novelist Gabriel F.W. Koch learned that he was once again a finalist in the Colorado Independent Publishers Association EVVY Awards when he scored a Merit Award for his latest novel And Comes Day’s End.  He walked away with a 2nd Place EVVY Award a few years ago for his science fiction novel Paradox Effect (not to mention an Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year nomination). Last year he picked up an EVVY Merit Award for Emma and the Dragon Tooth Sword. 

Speaking of repeat EVVY Winners, Jeanne Blanchet discovered that she won 3rd Place in the Science Fiction category at the EVVY Awards, for her book Forger of Empire. She won last year for her book, Cursed.

What’s Coming in 2020?

With global distribution through Ingram and worldwide availability through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere, it’s easy to think your Outskirts Press publication is everywhere (because it is!). But sometimes the most loyal readers and most engaged customers will be right on your street, at your church, on your softball team, or listening to a local radio program.  One of our most exciting marketing services in years launches in 2020 and focuses specific, surgical targeting on the full gamut of local media like newscasts, morning shows, radio programs, newspapers and magazines. But that’s not all. We’ll also locate influential bloggers who write about the same subject matter as you and pitch your book for an article, feature, review, or interview. Playing a big role in the Media Marketing Blitz is a new series of webinars and videos. Consider it a master class on publishing and marketing. Keep an eye out for the launch of the Media Marketing Blitz coming soon.

We will be attending the annual CIPA EVVY Awards, of course, and holding our own Best Book of the Year Awards.  Once again, many of our books will be on display and represented at the world’s leading book fairs and events including London, BEA, Bologna, Frankurt, and Beijing.

Come and join us! And to our growing family of writers, thank you for an amazing 2019!

How would it feel to publish in 2020 with the A+ Rated and 1-Rated self-publishing company according to the Better Business Bureau and Top Consumer Reviews, respectively? Find out more about publishing, marketing, promoting and submitting your book for publication, reviews, and awards.

Year in Review

A Look Back on 2018 and a Glance Ahead

Outskirts Press made huge strides forward in 2018, adding well-thought-out publishing products to help authors get their books to print and up for sale online, and marketing options to launch those books to new heights. But the strenuous efforts of our production and marketing teams in 2018 is just the half of it; thanks to the talents and determination of our authors, our joint efforts paid off in the form of priceless awards and recognitions.

Take a short walk down Memory Lane with us as we revisit all we have achieved. If the things we’ve accomplished together over the past year is any indication of what’s to come, 2019 will truly be amazing!

Outskirts Press Author Awards

Authors, you made us so very proud this year! Here is a sampling of the many highlights over the course of the year, including a terrific showing in awards competitions.

Katherine S. Egan, author of Genetics Isn’t Everything, won a 1st Place EVVY Award in August, which she was able to accept in person at the banquet in Denver, Colorado. She subsequently became one of three finalists in the 2018 Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Awards.

Jackie Fischer, author of The Lost Branch, won first place (and a new laptop computer) in the Outskirts Press “Show Us Your Love” annual video contest, which celebrates both Valentine’s Day and self-publishing. As she demonstrates in her video, she’s quite adept at rhyme, as well!

The annual Benjamin Franklin Awards are notoriously competitive, so it was no small feat when Dr. Jeanne Blanchet won a Silver Medal Award for Historical Fiction with her novel Man at the Cross Road. Proving herself to be anything but a one-trick pony, she quickly followed that up with an EVVY Award for her follow-up book, Cursed.

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In July, prolific novelist Gabriel F.W. Koch learned that he was once again a finalist in the Colorado Independent Publishers Association EVVY Awards. He walked away with a 2nd Place EVVY Award a couple years ago for his science fiction novel Paradox Effect (not to mention an Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year nomination). This year he picked up an EVVY Merit Award for Emma and the Dragon Tooth Sword. He has published four books thus far with Outskirts Press, including his latest, And Come Day’s End.

Speaking of science fiction, C.R. Norris discovered that she won 1st Place in the Science Fiction category at the EVVY Awards, for her book Wasp on the Wind. The book is the second in her Wasp Chronicles Series. She subsequently was nominated to be one of three finalists in the highly coveted Best Book of the Year Awards.

All those award nominations led us to the 2018 Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year award. This year, the honor, the award and the $1,500 Grand Prize went to T.D. Arkenberg for his biographical take on the events leading up to, and following in the shadows of, September 11. Two Towers is his fourth book but his first memoir.

In October we recognized our 50 bestselling authors for 2018. These high-achieving authors not only produced marvelous literary works but also exhibited the drive required to promote those works to readers!

Kevin Muldowney Aage Nost
Will Kautz Rasha Pecoraro
Michael McNamara Tui Rose
Lisa A. Romano Mohamed Elgendy
Mary Casey Asif Anwar
Vil Mirzayanov Brian Petit
L. Veach Bill McClain
Mike Gillette Tom Bisio
Mirtha Castro Mary Allison
Matthew DiGeronimo Rebecca Janes
Amy Pierotti Halo Lewis
Jane McConnell Jane Ostrow
Jill Jackson Bernard Nebel
Don Petterson Alex Cuoco
Ed Robinson Adrienne Anderson
Scott Imhoff Diana Arcieri
Patrick O’Connor Tiffany Anderson
Joseph Adegboyega-Edun Kathryn M. Mora
Bernard Nebel Jeffrey Howe
Magdaline DeSousa Steve Kelley
Michael Goodroe Hal Perkins
Jokima Hiller Rodney DuBose
Lisa Cicero Amy Meadows
Heidi Herman Paul Kotz
Luis Roman Seth Spreiter

New Publishing and Marketing Products

Our One-Click Publishing for Children’s Books was a hit from the moment we introduced this all-inclusive publishing package. At the very end of 2017, we launched One-Click for Children’s Books (author-provided illustrations) for juvenile book authors who don’t need illustrations, either because they have their own or their book does not call for them. It, too, was an instant hit and has helped another group of authors get published hassle-free.

Outskirts Press is proud to have introduced the Amazon Kindle eBook Box Set, which allows authors of multiple books to bundle their collection to capture additional sales from avid readers. This packaging increases the odds that a reader will buy not just one book but an entire series.

The new Author Book Banner Graphic provides authors with an attractive custom advertising banner to use any way they choose. The graphic is formatted according to the specific requirements and strengths of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or the Google search engine platform.

For authors interested in taking full advantage of the power of the Amazon selling platform, a professional Amazon Author Profile is now an option. This profile page gives readers valuable information about the author and connects them with other books by the author, social media, author blog and more.

Finally, Outskirts Press retooled its Guaranteed Radio Interview option. While authors who purchase this high-profile promotion still receive valuable radio interview guidance and a generous timeslot before a huge radio audience, the new platform and format better targets the audiences an author wants to reach!

Want your book published in 2019? Or do you have a book you would like to be the next big prize-winner? Find out more about publishing, marketing, promoting and submitting your book for awards and reviews.

 

Year in Review

Publish Your Book in 2018

What a year 2017 was for self-publishing authors! For a quick retrospective, click here.

And 2018 promises to be equally exciting. A revolution that began in 2008 (when more books were published independently than traditionally) shows no signs of slowing down. In 2009, approximately 75% of all published books were self-published and by 2015, combined sales of self-published books actually exceeded combined sales of all books published by the five major “traditional” publishing houses. With e-books, audio books, and “anywhere” availability in the “cloud”, the sky is literally the limit.

What must occur next is the final removal of any “stigma” associated with self-publishing. And that can only occur if self-published books rise to the quality level of the traditional publishers of yesterday, with professional editing, custom designed covers, genre-specific interior book design, and compelling sales & marketing copy on the back cover and online sales pages. And that can only occur if self-publishing companies take responsibility for leading the charge in the proper direction. Technology companies who use computers to publish one thousand “free” books a day are not doing anybody any favors (except their stock holders). Human beings still read books; human beings need to be involved in creating them. When your publisher is more concerned about giving your hard-earned writing away for free in order to sell more streaming TV memberships, you have to ask yourself just how much they value you as an author. If writers don’t respect books, who will?

The publishing industry changed with the new millennium when digital print-on-demand technology lowered the barrier to publication for all writers and offered advantages heretofore unseen (like zero inventory, higher royalties, retaining rights, etc.). Now, nearly 20 years later, it needs a slight course correction to ensure it remains an art form, and not a loss-leader to sell more credit cards.
What has been happening, and will continue to happen into 2018 and beyond, is a hierarchy similar to what originally existed in the publishing industry when you had writers who were published and writers who were not. Once self-publishing exploded in the early aughts, that distinction became murkier. As the waters clear, a new hierarchy is forming, one that differentiates books based upon their quality and production values instead of whether or not they are published.

Right now it is still too early to recognize the long term ramifications on a writer’s career (or morale) by publishing a low quality book instantly rather than a high-quality book worthy of the countless days & nights it took to create the manuscript. Issac Asimov, along with countless other sci-fi writers, have made it clear that what separates human from machine is art, imagination, having a soul. If you write from your soul, you owe it to yourself to publish something worthy of that source material. 2018 is the year to publish properly.

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Year in Review

2017 Self-Publishing Retrospective – A Year in Review

What a year 2017 has been for Outskirts Press authors. With so many new options, impressive writers, amazing books, and industry accolades, it becomes impossible to highlight everything. So rest assured this is just a small cross-section of what made 2017 an amazing year for Outskirts Press and all our amazing authors. What you may notice as you revisit these highlights (and so many more are posted on this blog daily), is that Outskirts Press remains committed to providing excellence in both personal service and book production. Simply put, the professional quality of your book and your success matters to us. Here are just a few examples…

Brooke Lewis is not only a celebrity and marketing dynamo, but she is becoming a force to reckon with in the self-help, self-improvement, and guidance fields as well. Her two books, Coaching From a Professed Hot Mess and Ms. Vampy’s Teen Tawk may have been published in 2016, but 2017 is when her “author platform” really broke out, built upon the foundation of two well-received and highly-regarded works of non-fiction.

We’re always trying to make it easier for writers to publish amazing books. One way we do this is by identifying popular genres that are complicated to publish and then offering an elegant solution. A perfect example of this is cookbooks. Self-published cookbooks are very popular, but difficult to publish properly. For this reason, many delicious recipes still remain locked away in kitchen drawers everywhere. But with the 2017 introduction of our popular One-Click Suite for Cookbooks, we brought together all the necessary components for gorgeous and delicious cookbooks in one simple, inclusive bundle.

Outskirts Press author Jackie Fischer, author of The Lost Branch, became the most recent first-place winner of our annual “Show Us Your Love” video contest and won a brand new touch screen laptop computer as a result. Way to go, Jackie! Check out her video below:

Every year Outskirts Press makes charitable donations to, and partners with, organizations, associations, and foundations that look toward art & literacy’s future. One such organization is Colorado Humanities, which holds the annual Colorado Book Awards. The awards were launched in 1991 and many of Colorado’s most prominent authors have been recognized with awards, including David Milofsky, John Fielder, Tom Noel, Stephanie Kane and Linda Hogan, among others. Judging generally occurs in April, and for the past two years, the awards ceremony has been held in Parker, Colorado (home base to Outskirts Press) and awards have been presented by Outskirts Press president Brent Sampson. Congratulations to all of this years Colorado Book Award winners!

Perennial Top 10 monthly bestseller Chidozie Osuwa built upon an incredible performance in 2016 with more Top 10 Bestselling Titles appearances in 2017 for his bestseller What She Feels and this year published the eagerly awaited sequel What She Still Feels. Even more inspiring is that these are genre-busting works of poetry (although art might be more appropriate); If there were any doubts that poetry could succeed in the self-publishing world, Chidozie shattered them soundly.

Another popular genre in self-publishing that isn’t always the easiest to pull off with excellence is the illustrated Juvenile Fiction. The difficulty lies in the oft-times complicated combination of words and illustrations. The writer of the story is usually the one initiating the self-publishing process and in many cases may not even have the illustrations yet. This was the reason we launched the One-Click Children’s Book Publishing Suite last year, which includes 15 full-color illustrations and the almost mandatory custom formatting necessary to marry the words with the art. But frequently the author is also the illustrator or pursues publication with illustrations already in hand. So 2017 marked the year we added another One-Click for Children’s Books Suite, at a lower cost since it doesn’t include the illustrations. It was a hit! And speaking of children’s books, that brings us to our 2017 Best Book of the Year winner…

Once again Outskirts Press authors were the most-awarded among all participating publishers at the annual EVVY Awards, bringing home 15 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards, including multiple first-place wins in different categories for Gramma Darling, by Lisa Schroeder, with illustrations by Doron Ben-Ami. Lissa is a teacher, speaker, and licensed minister living in Alaska while Doron resides in Connecticut, thus proving that successful self-publishing is not restricted by borders or limitations. Winning an Evvy Award is a pre-requisite to be considered for the annual Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Award and its $1500 grand prize. Gramma Darling won four! Therefore, it may not have been a big surprise that it went on to win the annual Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Award for 2017, marking the first time a children’s book has taken home top honors. To see all the details of her win and her book video, visit the blog posting by clicking here.

Congratulations Lissa and Doron!

Interested in being in the running for the 2018 Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Award? Ultimate, Full- Color, and One-Click authors are all instantly eligible.

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Author Spotlight, Book Video Trailers, EVVY Book Awards, Year in Review

Self Publishing Year in Review: Oct-Dec 2009

The fourth quarter started with the hotly-anticipated announcement of 3 additional trim sizes for self-publishing full-color paperback books : 5.5″ x 8.5″, 7″ x 10″, and 8″ x 10″. These sizes joined the already available full-color paperback sizes of 8.5″ x 8.5″ and 8.25″ x 11″.

Right on the heels of Outskirts Press landing nearly smack-dab in the middle of the Inc. 500 list at #268, venture capital firm Foundation Capital and Inc. Magazine honored Outskirts Press again in the 4th quarter with “best of the best” honors from among all 500 companies.

The 4th quarter marked the introduction of two exciting new marketing options for self-publishing writers, namely the custom t-shirt featuring the author’s cover; and the first iTunes option, namely the Enhanced Audio Excerpt, which includes a professional recording of the author’s excerpt and the creation of an iTunes graphic, plus “podcast level” distribution.

The Enhanced Audio Excerpt was the reward for the author of the most popular Halloween Book Video, as determined by readers of this blog in the 4th quarter.  José Cepeda García’s book video trailer for his book, 21 Bizarre Short Stories, was voted the most popular, taking home 50% of the votes.  Press play to watch the winning video:

José Cepeda García’s winning streak continued when 21 Bizarre Short Stories became an official Outskirts Press nominee for an EVVY Award, and was a finalist in the USA Book News Awards, joining 13 other Outskirts Press authors, including category winners Elise Cooke (for The Grocery Garden), J. Laurence Stillwell (for The Soldiers of the Cross), and Leon Newton (for Titus). Congratulations to them all!

Ex-New York Yankee Fritz Peterson hit a home run in the 4th quarter when his book Mickey Mantle is Going to Heaven, debuted on the Outskirts Press Top 10 Bestsellers List for September and stayed in the top 10 for October. Mickey Mantle is Going to Heaven is also an official Outskirts Press EVVY Award nominee.

Meanwhile (and speaking of New York), the following 12 Outskirts Press books were featured in a full-page ad in the December 13th issue of the New York Times Book Review:

Following Joe
Hanging on a Twisted Line
Hooked
How do Religious Figures Induce the Establishment of Sects?
The ‘I Love My Bible’ Commentary
Immaculate Deception
The Immigrants
Life Under the Corporate Microscope
Schrodinger’s Universe
Through the Triangle
Unstoppable Confidence
Wrongsized

Awards season got in full-swing in the 4th quarter with talented and hopeful self-publishing writers keeping the Author Support department busy with hundreds of submissions to major book awards like the Benjamin Franklin Awards and ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards.

And, of course, the 4th quarter marks the time of year when the official Outskirts Press EVVY nomination invitations are sent to select authors.  Less than 5% of the books published by Outskirts Press are nominated for this prestigious annual award, currently in its 16th year. 

Below are the official Outskirts Press EVVY nominees for the 2010 EVVY Awards.   Please join us in congratulating them all!

 

 

The Young Guardians and the Genesis Spell
The Channel
The Ghost Tree 
Let Your Innate Sing
Barnyard Babies To The Rescue
Dear Sebastian
Queen Vernita Visits the Blue Ice Mountains
Pieces ‘N Bits 
The Messy Buddha
How I Lost Twenty Pounds N Kept It Off
The Reluctant Survivor
Heroes of Googley Woogley
Dose of Revenge
Eddie’s Wake
The Sara Chronicles
In the Land of Cotton
The Mystery of the Moaning Banshee
Mickey Mantle is Going to Heaven
Compulsion
Dream Chaser
The Expedition
The Gate of Beautiful
Privileged Information 101
Christmas Treena
Murdock Mystery #1
As Long As He Needs Me
Life Against All Odds
The Paradise Puzzle
Mysterious Magical Circus Family Kids
A Bridge of Doom
Khan in Rasputin’s Shadow
Empire of Peace
Virginia’s Travel Basket
To Rhyme Is Not A Crime
The Smile of a Man Lost
Unlocking the Poet’s Realm
Charlie – A Boy With Reading Difficulties and His Dream
Both Ends Burning
21 Bizarre Short Stories
The Student Prophet: Initiation Rites
Burnarounds: Unlocking The Double Digit Profit Code
The Wedding Palace
The Transition
Bobby and Troubador’s Great Adventure
Robbobell
Through The Triangle
Ribbons and Roses
Aurora of the Northern Lights
Rainbow Bed
Mr. Emotions & Friends
From an Otherwise Comfortable Room
Life and Times of a Ragamuffin
Looking Glass
Holly Hill
The Adventures of Magellan
Emerge
It’s in the Eyes
The Breakout Year
The Bethlehem Scroll
 Cash in on the Obama $3 Trillion Spending Plan!
Ribbon Falls
Tirissa and the Necklace of Nulidor
Exploring the Sixth Sense
Author Spotlight, Year in Review

Self Publishing Year in Review: July-Sept 2009

Self Publishing “TV” came into its own in the 3rd quarter when the Self Publishing You Tube Channel launched, featuring book videos, book teasers, promotional videos, and book marketing videos. 

The 3rd quarter also marked the announcement of one of self-publishing’s most hotly-discussed marketing options, custom U.S. Postage stamps, which allows self-published authors at Outskirts Press to personalize first-class postage stamps with a full-color image of their book cover. These custom stamps are perfect to use in combination with other marketing options introduced this quarter, namely the custom publication announcements and seasonal greeting cards. Rounding out the marketing options introduced in the 3rd quarter is the Celebrity Endorsement Option, which helps facilitate celebrity blurbs, testimonials, and endorsements for self-published books (for cover design and marketing purposes).

   

In August, Outskirts Press became the only self-publishing company to become a Inc. 500 company when Inc. Magazine released its annual Fastest-Growing Companies list in the 3rd quarter.   Outskirts Press debuted on the list with a 3-year growth rate of 850%, making it the fastest-growing self-publishing company and #268 on the list overall. 

Joining Inc. Magazine in recognizing Outskirts Press was the US Commerce Association (USCA), which honored the self-publishing company with Best of Parker honors in the Publisher Representatives category.

 Closing the 3rd quarter was the exciting launch of Version 3.0 of the self-publishing website at OutskirtsPress.com, which combines familiar Amazon.com-like shopping experiences with full-service self-publishing services and eye-catching video product support:

And if you haven’t experienced the custom difference with Outskirts Press, now is the time to start…

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Author Spotlight, Year in Review

Self Publishing Year in Review: April-June 2009

The second quarter of 2009 began with the introduction of a suite of marketing services available on an a la carte basis for just $99 each.  These self-publishing book marketing options introduced in April included the Spring Arbor Christian Distribution network, Amazon’s Keyword Search Submissions, and Barnes & Noble’s See Inside Submission.  These three new options complemented an already-robust selection of marketing services available for Outskirts Press authors for under $100, including Amazon’s Kindle Edition, the book teaser, and Amazon’s Search Inside the Book.


 

The second quarter was a particularly productive one for many self-publishing authors, including:

Colorado best-selling author Irv Sternberg was recognized as an Awards Finalist by the Colorado Humanities Colorado Book Awards  for his Outskirts Press novel, Neptune’s Chariot.

 

While Benjamin “Coach” Wade of television’s “SURVIVOR” collaborated with author Tom Gauthier to publish A Voyage Beyond Reason with Outskirts Press.

Due in part to Coach’s “love him or hate him” persona on the hit television show, the book video trailer produced by Outskirts Press and the book itself became a hit.  The book was submitted to numerous book contests and awards, including the Writer’s Digest international self-published book awards, (being announced next spring).  Will Survivor’s “Coach” have another winner on his hands? Only time will tell…

On the heels of the announcement of multiple $99 marketing services, the active Author Marketing Department at Outskirts Press announced a line-up of inclusive marketing packages that each combined some of the most effective and popular options for a 25% author savings.

The five marketing packages are the Book Blast package, the Amazon Extreme package, the Promotional Materials Package, the Global Book Tour package, and the Book Award Submissions package.

    

Perhaps the most noteworthy news of all came in the 2nd quarter when Outskirts Press CEO Brent Sampson  distributed a press release recognizing the sales accomplishments of Outskirts Press author Gang Chen, who earned $111,000 in book royalties in just 6 months.  Mr. Chen gave permission for his success to be publicized and suddenly, the self-publishing industry had a professional face to prove itself a profitable venture even for authors who don’t get picked up by traditional publishers (or, as in Mr. Chen’s case, choose against it in favor of the greater degree of control and revenue opportunities through self-publishing).

Beating the odds financially is one thing… beating the odds in terms of age is quite another. Outskirts Press authors do both, as demonstrated by the youngest self-publishing author to write and illustrate multiple children’s books:

Dalton James was 7 years old when he published The Sneakiest Pirates and then when he was 8, he and his father began making public appearances at schools to encourage literacy.  Also by Dalton James: The Heroes of Googley Woogley and Mudhogs.

The second quarter came to a close the last week of June as Outskirts Press launched Self-Publishing Self-Help week, June 22 – 25, when four helpful topics were covered in great detail. These topics included:

Are you ready to be among the self-publishing highlights of 2010? Get published today!

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