Tag: Book Review Submission

Marketing Options

Self-Publishing Authors Blast Their Books Into Reader’s Hands with Popular Book Blast Package

You’ve written and published a book. Believe it or not, that’s only a portion of what’s required to be a successful self-published author. We affectionately call this the 80/20 principle of successful authorship. Approximately 20% of an author’s time working with/on their book is spent writing. The other 80% is spent on marketing activities. How do you know which marketing strategies to pursue? Well, we’ve made it much easier for you. We’ve hand-selected and bundled our most popular (and effective) marketing options under one umbrella. Meet our Book Blast Package.

The Book Blast package contains everything that a new (or seasoned) self-published author needs to get on their way to an effective marketing campaign: press coverage, video marketing, book reviews, and one-on-one coaching with a professional book marketing assistant.

Here’s more on everything that’s included:

1. Custom Press Release

The Custom Press Release combines information solicited from the author with the expertise of our writers. The result — a professional release that is focused on showcasing your book.

Your Custom Press Release will be:

  • electronically distributed to a database of approximately 100,000 media contacts, newsrooms, industry analysts, and freelance writers who receive daily email listings of press releases which match their filter criteria
  • posted to syndicated news feeds on other web sites through our XML/RSS news feed
  • optimized for search engine placement

2. PR Publicist Campaign

With the PR Publicist Campaign, a publicist will further distribute your Custom Press Release. We will e-mail it directly to book reviewers and editors in print, radio, television, trades, E-zines, syndicates, and wires — locally, regionally, and nationwide. This additional distribution circuit consists of over 21,000 national media contacts.

Then, we send you every resulting media lead. Usually those leads will come in the form of a book review or interview request. You will also receive a sample cover letter to use when following up on each lead.

3. 60 Second Book Video Trailer and Digital Viral Distribution

Movie trailers (commonly called “previews”) are shown at the beginning of movies. They let you take a sneak peek into an upcoming film. What if you could promote your book the same way? Well, you can. Our Book Video Trailers allow you to engage your audience’s eyes AND ears. Each trailer includes:

  • Music — you provide your own or we choose a piece from our collection.
  • Text — we briefly describe your book
  • Images — you provide your own or we choose from our database of over 1 million images
  • Distribution — YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

BONUS: Your video will also be embedded into your Outskirts Press author webpage for you.

Press play to see a sample of a recent book video trailer:

4. Book Review Submission

Reading We have identified 10 book reviewers who have all demonstrated a tendency to review alternatively-published and self-published books. When you purchase our Book Review Submission Service, we will submit your book to these reviewers (or 10 others of your choosing) for you. Included in the submission to these reviewers is everything they typically require to consider writing a review, such as:

  • a professional cover letter
  • a professional press release
  • your sales sheet
  • a complimentary copy of your book for the reviewer to consider and keep

Positive reviews on popular websites and blogs or within popular journals can improve sales and lead to positive word-of-mouth, which is a precursor to the viral publicity and “buzz” that all authors dream of.

5. Personal Marketing AssistantBook Marketing Assistant

What’s a busy author to do to stay on top of follow-up that may result from a viral video, an amazing review, and/or a potential flurry of interview requests from a publicist campaign? Sit back and relax while their Personal Marketing Assistant follows through on these things for them.

Upon purchase, you will receive a 5 hour block of one-on-one assistance. That block includes an initial 30 minute phone consultation. Here are just some of the many things your Personal Marketing Assistant can help you with:

  • PR Publicist Campaign lead follow-up
  • Suggesting advertising venues for your book and placing ads for you
  • Calling bookstores in your area to pitch your book and/or arrange book signings
  • Other book marketing tasks as needed

Are you ready to blast your book into the hands of readers?

Advice, Marketing Options

Why Book Reviews Are Important for Self-Publishing Authors

When developing your book promotion strategy, it is important to prioritize your activities. The first items on your list should always be the things that will have the greatest impact on your bottom line and require the least effort – especially if you are publishing your book to make money. Writing is about earning a passive income. Thus, the less time you “spend” earning money, the better your return on investment.

Believe it or not – one of the best ways to sell your book is to give it away! That may seem rather strange at first, but allow me to explain…

Most authors look at their book like a baby. It’s beautiful to them, and they are sure that people will want to buy it and read it many times over. That may be very true, but people can’t buy a book if they don’t know it exists. What if they learned about the book from a trusted associate/friend? What if they found a gleaming review for the book online? Wouldn’t they be more likely to purchase your book then? Definitely.

To see what I mean – here’s a review that our CEO, Brent Sampson, received for his book, Sell Your Book on Amazon:


This is only a portion of the review, but can you see how this can help an uneasy book buyer purchase your book? Any book can have a “flowery” description, but an honest review from an unbiased reader speaks volumes.

So, how can I find someone to review my book? That’s a great question – there are many reviewers online. An internet search can help. You can search for terms such as “book blogger”, “book review”, etc. You can also use the Book Blogs Search Engine for topical searches.

Outskirts Press authors who don’t want to do all of the “heavy lifting” themselves can also purchase either of our book review submission services:

Are you a self-publishing author ready to receive marketing support like this?

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