On July 26th I revealed our Facebook Achievement Awards, the Outskirts Press “gamification” functionality we are currently rolling out to incentivize our authors to publish their books and have fun at the same time. There are 5 categories within our self-publishing achievement programs, and over the next couple weeks/months I’m focusing on each award in each category.
The third award I will discuss in the first Production Milestones Category is the achievement earned for starting your book publishing process with a down payment. Like the first two milestone awards I have already discussed in this category, this is a very easy milestone to reach; and, in fact, the majority of our first time authors will earn this award since the majority of our authors choose to begin their publishing process with the $35 down payment. In addition to being applied to the publishing service fee, this down payment assigns the author’s personal Publishing Consultant and entitles the author to a manuscript evaluation (which often includes a free 1000-word spec edit). These features are among the benefits of publishing with Outskirts Press and, unlike many other publishers in our industry, it does not require much in the way of a financial investment to receive.
As such, the Down Payment Award is an easy achievement to earn. In fact, it might seem like EVERY author would receive this award, but not necessarily. More and more authors are skipping this step and choosing to order their full Publishing Service directly (since that speeds up their publishing process a little bit by skipping this Down Payment step — ). In either case, they still receive the manuscript evaluation and personal assistance of their Publishing Consultant. Authors who elect to pass on the Down Payment won’t win this achievement, but instead can win one of the Publishing Service awards, and I’ll discuss the Publishing Service awards within the Production Milestone Category next.
President of Outskirts Press 