I have been discussing the differences brought about to our business model with the introduction of Version 4 of our website at Outskirts Press. The main difference is that we are starting to offer a la carte services to writers regardless of where/how they publish their book(s). Of course, authors publishing with Outskirts Press get deep discounts.
I previously summarized the Writing Services. We also introduced a la carte book marketing services with the launch of Version 4 on Memorial Day weekend, and like with the Writing Services, we launched with a limited number of available options as a compromise to maxed resources and an aggressive launch date.
Out of the gate, the Marketing Solutions “aisle” of our new site featured 7 items:
- 5 hours of Personal Marketing Assistance with one of our professional marketing experts
- 5 Celebrity addresses and pitches with our Celebrity endorsements option
- 500 customized bookmarks
- 500 customized postcards
- 500 customized business cards
- 5 large posters (roughly 2 feet by 3 feet)
- 25 small posters
We quickly added the Amazon Kindle Edition within a month after launch, since it is one of our most popular marketing services month in and month out. To encourage authors to publish with us, we offer deep discounts to our authors on all our new a la carte services. For instance, authors who have published their book with Outskirts Press can get an Amazon Kindle edition for 25% less than someone publishing elsewhere. Even still, at $135 it’s the lowest price I was able to find for what we deliver (although I didn’t spend hours and hours looking around). And the best part of the deal, and one few of our competitors can match, is that the author keeps ALL their profits. Amazon pays them directly, so they know Outskirts Press is not taking any of the Kindle revenue. We’re not even involved in the financial loop at all. This alone is enough reason for many authors at competing publishers to eschew their publisher’s Kindle edition (if they offer it all) in preference for ours.
But with 8 marketing solutions available on an a la carte basis, we have a long way to go to introduce ALL the marketing services and products available to our authors. And a growing number of authors from elsewhere are starting to join us on that journey. We welcome them, and are excited to be helping them.
President of Outskirts Press 