Self Publishing with Outskirts Press – Selecting the Diamond Book Publishing Package

So what are other reasons I would select the Diamond package? Yes, it’s more expensive than the Ruby by $300, so the question becomes: Do I get that much additional value out of it? Well, let’s see:

1. The Diamond author earns $1 more than a Ruby author for every book sold
2. The Diamond author pays $1 less than a Ruby author for every book purchased
3. The Diamond author receives free ebook credit card processing/delivery on his/her Author Webpage (which costs $99 for a Ruby)
4. The Diamond author receives a free standard press release once the book is published (that is $99 for the Ruby).
5. The Diamond author can record a 3-5 minute audio recording which streams from his/her author webpage (that is $99 for the Ruby).
6. The Diamond author receives free additional Christian distribution via Spring Arbor for religiously themed book (that is $99 for the Ruby).
7. The Diamond author can choose a free cover image from among our massive image library to customize his cover (that is $99 for the Ruby).
8. Only the Diamond (and the full-color Pearl) are eligible for EVVY Awards, which is the pre-requisite for winning the Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Award and it’s $1500 Grand Prize.
9. Between you, me, and the fence post, the majority of the books we feature on Facebook, promote in our newsletters, and list in the “Browse” section of our bookstore are all Diamonds because, well, frankly, they usually just “look” better, and we want to feature our best-looking books on all those channels.

So are all those benefits worth the cost difference between the Diamond and the Ruby, without even taking into account the higher royalty and lower author-copy price? That depends upon the author…

So when I select the Diamond book publishing service from the Publishing screen of Outskirts Press, I see this screen:

All the details about the Diamond publishing service are on display on this screen, including the publishing agreement which details the 100% author royalty payout. When I’m satisfied with my selection, I add the service to my shopping cart by clicking the ADD TO CART button.

The Diamond publishing service is added to my shopping cart and my first step toward checking out is reviewing my order and clicking the “Confirm Order” button at the bottom:

If I had ordered the Down Payment option initially, my total cost for the Diamond would now be reduced by the amount I had already paid. For the demonstration purposes of this publication, we have added a credit to this account, which you can see reflected in this shopping cart. Authors who have a credit on their account will see the credit depleted first. Why do authors have credits? It happens for a variety of reasons, but the most common is that they’ve paid us too much money for some reason). When that happens, our accounting department conveniently puts it back into the author’s account as a credit, and it’s reflected on their Account History screen for their records.

Upon clicking “Confirm Order” I am taken to Step 2 in the shopping cart:

This screen does two things:

1) It allows you to confirm the total amount you will be paying. In this case, you see that my total amount due is $0, and that is because my author credit is being used to pay this balance.

2) Some purchases require you to review and agree to an agreement. In this case, since I am purchasing a publishing service, I must agree to the terms by checking the Yellow “Terms” box, indicating that I have read and approved the terms of the Outskirts Press Printing & Distribution Agreement. Of course, the links you see allow you to read the agreement online or print the agreement on your printer for your records. So after I read the agreement, I click the Yellow Box and then click the Confirm Order button at the bottom of the screen.

At this point, one of two things will happen. If you had a balance due showing during Step 2, you will be taken to Step 3 of the Shopping Cart, which is the “Complete Order” step. Here you will be presented with a number of different payment options:

Entering your billing and credit card information securely into our Thawte-certified secure shopping cart for instant, secure, and convenient processing.
Paying via PayPal (either all at once or by using their “Bill Me Later” option so you can pay in installments and continue with publishing even if you don’t have the cash at the moment).
Paying via check, or money order, or (somewhat hidden, since they’re a pain for both the author and us) paying via Money Gram or Western Union.

Alternatively, if you had a $0 balance during Step 2 as I did, you will be taken directly to the “Thank You Screen.” This is also the screen you will see after successfully completing Step 3 of your Shopping Cart check-out procedure: