Category: best self publishing

best self publishing, best self publishing sites

Best Self Publishing Sites

In my last post, when I set out to compare the “best self publishing sites” based upon four self publishing review sources, I applied a numeric value to each company based upon their relative ranking in each source. That resulted in the following average totals for the top 5 best self publishing sites, out of a possible 34 points:

Outskirts Press 30 Points
Company 3 24 Points
Company 5 19 Points
Company 2 13 Points
Company 14 13 Points

Upon looking at that data, I realized that some sources were weighted more heavily than others, since each source didn’t share the same value system. One had a 13 point value system while another had a 3 point value system. So for the purposes of this next chart, I will apply the same 10-point value system to all four self publishing review sources to give each source equal weight and therefore arrive at a more accurate total:

The way one does that is as follows:

TopTen Reviews already has a 10 point system, so the points there remain the same.

Top Consumer Reviews has an 8 point system, which means each point is worth 1.25 points to reach a 10-point system.

Top Self Publishing Firms has a 13 point value system, so to bring that into a 10-point system, each point actually is worth .77 points.

The Fine Print of Self-Publishing has a 3 point system, so each point becomes worth 3.33.

And that leaves us with this chart below, which, interestingly enough, is not significantly different from the previous chart I posted yesterday. Value is value. The best self publishing sites are the best self publishing sites:

TopTen Top Consumer Fine Print Top Firms Total
Outskirts
Press		 8 8.75 6.66 10 33.41
Company 5 7 10 6.93 23.93
Company 3 10 5 -1 8.47 22.47
Company 14 6 7.5 3.33 16.83
Company 6 6.66 6.16 12.82
Company 2 3.33 9.24 12.57
Company 12 10 1.54 11.54
Company 10 9 -1 3.08 11.08
Company 4 3.33 7.7 11.03
Company 15 5 2.5 3.33 10.83
Company 18 10 10
Company 9 2 3.33 3.85 9.18
Company 8 3.75 -1 4.62 7.37
Company 16 3 3.33 6.33
Company 19 6.25 6.25
Company 11 4 -1 2.31 5.31
Company 7 -1 5.39 4.39
Company 20 1.25 1.25
Company 17 1 1
Company 13 -1 0.77 -0.23

Out of a possible perfect score of 40 points, the 5 best self publishing sites according to the combined data from four different review sources are:

Outskirts Press 33.41 Points
Company 5 23.93 Points
Company 3 22.47 Points
Company 14 16.83 Points
Company 6 12.82 Points

As stated in the last posting, I don’t name our competitors. That wouldn’t be very sporting to Company #13.  But it’s easy enough to tell who is who by reading Top Self-Publishing Firms. The order in that book determined the order I used — well, at least for the first 13.

Okay, okay, I hear some of you saying, “Yeah, yeah. You’re the president of Outskirts Press and you’re saying you’re #1. What a shocker!”  You’re right, as the CEO, I am biased toward this information.  Why shouldn’t I be?  After all,  I wouldn’t be blogging about this analysis if I was the CEO of Company 13.  But the fact that I’m involved with the #1 company doesn’t make the average scores any less valid; it just makes it easier to understand why I’m taking the time to write about it.  I’m proud of our company, our people, and our authors.

And that leaves me with this: As you are conducing your own search for the best self publishing sites, there are three things you should keep in mind as you do your research.  I’ll discuss those three things next time…

best self publishing, compare self publishing companies, self publishing, self publishing a book

Best Self Publishing

When researching the “best self publishing” options, the best course of action is often to identify a number of different sources, compile a scoring system, and then determine the average score of the self publishing companies to come up with the best company for you.  Why is looking at one source not enough? Because that one source may be unreliable for one reason or another. But when you combine multiple sources to arrive at averages, you have a much better chance of getting an accurate sense of the “best self publishing” company.

Let’s perform this analysis on 20 different self publishing companies using four different “self publishing review” sources: Top Self Publishing Firms by Stacie Vander Pol, The Fine Print of Self Publishing by Mark Levine, TopTenReviews.com, and TopConsumerReviews.com.

Top Self Publishing Firms – There are 13 companies in the “Large and Medium” category in Stacie Vander Pol’s book, ranked from best to worse. So I applied a numeric value for each of them ranging from 13 (good) to 1 (not so good).

Fine Print of Self Publishing – There are 4 different categories in Mark Levine’s book:  “Outstanding” companies get 3 points. “Pretty Good” companies get 2 points. “Just OK” companies get 1 point. And since “Publishers to Avoid” sounds worse than not being in the book at all, those companies lose a point.

TopTen Reviews – Ranks ten different companies so I will apply a numeric value for each one. The company they rank #1 will receive 10 points, the company they rank #2 will receive 9 points, and so on.

Top Consumer Reviews – Ranks 8 companies, I will apply a 8-1 numeric value.

Each of the 20 companies therefore receives a certain number of points from one or more of the sources. Add them up, divide by 4, and you have their AVERAGE score among all four review sources, listed in the right-most column.

And that leaves us with this analysis below (blanks indicate no presence in that particular source):

TopTen Top Consumer Fine Print Top Firms Total
Outskirts Press 8 7 2 13 30
Company 3 10 4 -1 11 24
Company 5 7 3 9 19
Company 2 1 12 13
Company 14 6 6 1 13
Company 10 9 -1 4 12
Company 4 1 10 11
Company 6 2 8 10
Company 8 3 -1 6 8
Company 9 2 1 5 8
Company 15 5 2 1 8
Company 18 8 8
Company 7 -1 7 6
Company 11 4 -1 3 6
Company 12 3 2 5
Company 19 5 5
Company 16 3 1 4
Company 17 1 1
Company 20 1 1
Company 13 -1 1 0

I don’t list our competitors by name in my blog, but it’s easy enough to see the companies I’m reviewing by referring to the sources I’ve mentioned above. And if you’re curious why the company names are not listed in order, it is because they are numbered in the order that they appear in Top Self Publishing Firms.

And that’s not even the point of this posting. The point is the concept of combining sources of information to arrive upon the “best self publishing” option.

Now if one were looking to find flaws in the data above, the easiest thing to say would be Top Self Publishing Firms is weighted too heavily and the Fine Print of Self Publishing is weighted not heavily enough because the former has a maximum of 13 points while the latter has a maximum of only 4 points.

Fair enough. So let’s apply a 10-point system to all four sources and see what that tells us next time…