Category: New and Improved

New and Improved, self publishing

Introducing the Free Book Marketing Bookshelf for Outskirts Press Authors

In yesterday’s posting, I displayed the results of a survey we conducted on a cross-section of our published authors asking what single thing they valued most about publishing with Outskirts Press. The first and second most popular answers gave way to our new brand message and the further emphasis of our fantastic publishing experts.

survey-graphic1

For the third answer, “Book marketing advice/support to help you sell more copies” I mentioned the introduction of our exclusive Book Launch Kit, which for new authors who began publishing on August 1, 2016 or later, is mailed to every One-Click, Ultimate, and Full-Color author upon publication.

The items within the Book Launch Kit are:

  • The 7 Tactics of Successfully Published Authors
  • The Book Marketing RoadMap
  • An Official Certificate of Publication
  • The 28 Day Book Launch Calendar
  • The Book Marketing Bookshelf

Providing lots of marketing support and advice after publication has always been one of the major differentiating factors between Outskirts Press and many other publishers. Every author already receives The Marketing COACH, which provides creative online assistance, coaching, and help via email for years after publication.  Every author already received the 7 Tactics of Successfully Published Authors.

And as of yesterday, every author now also received the Book Marketing Bookshelf, a growing resource library of articles, e-books, whitepapers, resources, and guides that offers free marketing advice, promotional suggestions, and strategic steps to help our authors sell more books.

bookshelf

Published Outskirts Press authors signed-in to their Publishing Center  Dashboard need only look for this graphic and click it to open the free marketing resource library, which is currently stocked with the following helpful information:

  • Top National Contests & Awards
  • 10 Local Ways to Use Your Free Author’s Copies
  • Top 15 Steps for Marketing Your Book
  • 10 Best Practices for Your Responsive Author Webpage
  • 77 Book Marketing & Promotional Resources

More marketing information will be added to the library regularly.

The Internet has demonstrated that anyone can throw-up (pun intended) any ol’ book onto the “cloud” as a poorly conceived, designed, and edited e-book.  But that’s not doing readers, or the self-publishing industry as a whole, any favors.  Few and far between are the #1-rated publishing companies that are truly committed to helping authors publish high-quality, professional, award-winning books and then giving them this level of marketing support after publication.

In fact there’s only one.

 

 

 

#1 best self publishing company, branding, marketing, New and Improved

What do you value most about publishing with Outskirts Press?

Leading up to our August 1 re-launch as the New & Improved Outskirts Press we conducted some market research by asking a select cross-section of our published authors what single thing they valued MOST about publishing with Outskirts Press.

Here are the top five answers:

survey-graphic1

Nearly one-third of them said they most appreciated the ability to publish their story exactly the way they wanted.  So overwhelming was this response that we made it a part of our new brand-promise: “Your book matters, let’s make it your way.”   You can see this brand message across many of our social media platforms, including Facebook, our blog, Google+, and YouTube.

In close second, our authors indicated they highly valued the publishing team that was provided to them to help them throughout the publishing process.  This has always been one of our core offerings, as you can see here, so it was nice to see it so well appreciated by our clients.

Coming up third was our book marketing advice and support.  And while nearly 20% of the respondents indicated it was the single most important component of publishing with Outskirts Press, we made a commitment to offer even more!   All new authors who begin publishing with the One-Click Suites, or the Ultimate or Full-Color after August 1st receive a Book Launch Kit, which contains:

  • The 7 Tactics of Successfully Published Authors
  • The Book Marketing RoadMap
  • An Official Certificate of Publication
  • The 28 Day Book Launch Calendar
  • The Book Marketing Bookshelf

I’ll discuss each of these Book Launch Kit components in future postings, beginning with the all-new Book Marketing Bookshelf, which, beginning today, becomes available for all our published authors inside their Publishing Center. You heard it here first, and more details are coming up next time…

 

 

New and Improved, self publishing a book

If you liked the Diamond publishing package…

… Then you’re going to LOVE our new ULTIMATE publishing package!

Last week I wrote a posting comparing our “old” Pearl package with our new & improved Full-Color package. This week I’m going to provide another comparison, this time between our “old” Diamond package and our new & improved Ultimate package.  As you can see, we made the best value in self-publishing even better!

  • More free image insertions
  • More free galley round revisions
  • Updated free cover themes
  • More free publishing tips and marketing tips
  • More free inclusions

Before I get to the comparison, let me share a few “little known facts” about some other perks of the old Diamond, all of which converted over to the new & improved ULTIMATE package.

  • Lower shipping costs. We subsidize the cost of author’s copies shipping prices for the Ultimate (and the Full-Color and One-Clicks, for that matter); it’s not much, but every little bit helps, right?
  • Higher royalties. For every book you sell, you’ll make a dollar more with the Ultimate than you will with the Basic.
  • Lower author costs. For every book you buy, you’ll pay a dollar less with the Ultimate than you will with the Basic.
  • More promotion. The vast majority of books selected to be featured on our blog, social media channels, newsletter, and “New Releases” section of our bookstore are Ultimate books (or Full-Color).

If that’s not compelling enough, through the end of August, we are offering an instant $250 savings on our new Ultimate Publishing Package.   In fact, we are repeating ALL this month’s weekly promotions, which means you can save up to $600 on the Children’s One-Click Suite, which includes 15 original, unique illustrations. Or you can save $500 on the One-Click for Non-Fiction Suite.  See all the promotion codes by clicking here.  They expire on August 31st.

Or scroll down this comparison table to see how our Ultimate publishing package has improved upon the Diamond package in just about every way.

Benefits, Options,
Inclusions
The New Ultimate
The Old Diamond
Format & Trim Choices
31
31
Standard Interior Black/White Book Formatting
Yes
Yes
Previous Book Promotion Insert Yes $99
Customizable Full-Color Cover Themes
20
22
Optional Custom Cover Design
$399
$499
Cover Printing Styles Matte or Glossy Glossy
ISBN & Price-Embedded Bar Code
Yes
Yes
Worldwide wholesale distribution through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Gardners, UK, etc.
Yes
Yes
Worldwide retail availability through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powells, etc.
Yes
Yes
Spring Arbor Christian Distribution for applicable books
Yes
Yes
Free Image Insertions
20
0
Free Galley Revision Rounds
3
1
Publication Press Release w/ Distribution
Yes
Yes
Audio Excerpt
Yes
Yes
Digital Download Edition
Yes
Yes
Author Webpage
Responsive
Non-Responsive
Free Author’s Copies
10
10
Marketing COACH Emails
Genre Specific
General
Tip Sheet: 5 Do’s & Don’ts for Formatting, Grammar, and Spelling Yes No
Tip Sheet: Author Photo & Biography Guide Sheet Yes No
Tip Sheet: 7 Highly Effective Rules for the Perfect Book Title Yes No
Tip Sheet: Best Practices for your Author Webpage Yes No
Tip Sheet: Top 15 Steps for Marketing Your Book Yes No
Tip Sheet: Navigating the Social Media Jungle Yes No
Publication Certificate Yes No
Exclusive Publication Kit including Book Launch Calendar Yes No
New and Improved, self publishing a book

If you liked the Pearl publishing package…

… Then you’re going to LOVE our new FULL-COLOR publishing package!

One of the most gratifying and rewarding aspects of working at Outskirts Press is helping authors fulfill their dreams of being published. I am constantly amazed at how prolific our authors are. I’m a writer myself, so I know how challenging it is to write just one book, much less book after book after book.  But that is exactly what so many of our authors do — they write (and then return to Outskirts Press to publish) book after book after book.

Of course we enjoy helping new clients realize the joy and satisfaction that comes from successfully publishing a professional, high-quality book; but returning authors are the cornerstone of our business and we always want to give them as much help and support as possible.

That’s why I’ve created this little table below that compares our new Full-Color publishing package with our old, discontinued Pearl Full-Color package, side-by-side.  As you can see, we made a great full-color package even better!

  • More free image insertions
  • More free galley round revisions
  • More free cover themes specifically for children’s books
  • More publishing tips and marketing tips
  • Better, thicker, higher-quality paper for the Economy printing option

Before I get to the table, let me expand on our two printing options, the “Standard” and the “Economy” both of which are freely available with the Full-Color package.  The “Standard” printing is anything but standard. In fact, we tossed around the idea of calling it “premium” because that’s what it is.  But we also wanted to communicate that it was our default (ie, standard) quality of printing.

The “economy”, on the other hand, is not quite as good as our standard (although most general readers would be hard-pressed to tell the difference).  But do you know what IS good?  Publishing a 100 page full-color book for ALMOST the same retail price as a 100 page book in black/white.  Such a feat is nearly unheard of in the print-on-demand world, and that’s exactly the kind of pricing flexibility available to all our authors at Outskirts Press.

Let’s take a look at a specific example:

A 100 page, 6×9 black/white book can have a retail price of $9.95 with our Ultimate black/white publishing package. The author can receive $2.38 in royalties (yes, even WITH worldwide distribution and availability!)

That’s already amazing, and one of the main reasons so many authors publish with Outskirts Press and keep coming back for more.

But what about a full-color book?  A 100 page, 6×9 full-color book  with our economy printing option can have a retail price of $12.95 and the author can receive $2.55 in royalties (again, even with worldwide distribution and availability!).

Yes, a 100 page full-color book for $12.95! Those numbers beat many of our competitors’ black/white pricing.

If that’s not compelling enough, this week we are offering an instant $250 savings on our new Full-Color package.  Click here for all the details about this week’s promotion.

Or scroll down this comparison table to see how our Full-Color package has improved upon the Pearl package in just about every way.

Benefits, Options,
Inclusions
The New Full-Color
The Old Pearl
Format & Trim Choices
50
50
Standard Interior Full-Color Book Formatting
Yes
Yes
Standard or Economy Level Printing Yes on 70 pound paper Yes on 50 pound paper
Customizable Cover Themes
20
22
Customizable Cover Themes Specifically for Children’s Books
6
1
Optional Custom Cover Design
$399
$499
Cover Printing Styles Matte or Glossy Glossy
ISBN & Price-Embedded Bar Code
Yes
Yes
Free Image Insertions
20
10
Free Galley Revision Rounds
3
1
Marketing COACH Emails
Specifically for full-color books
General
Tip Sheet: 5 Do’s & Don’ts for Formatting, Grammar, and Spelling Yes No
Tip Sheet: Author Photo & Biography Guide Sheet Yes No
Tip Sheet: 7 Highly Effective Rules for the Perfect Book Title Yes No
Tip Sheet: Best Practices for your Author Webpage Yes No
Tip Sheet: Top 15 Steps for Marketing Your Book Yes No
Tip Sheet: Navigating the Social Media Jungle Yes No
Publication Certificate Yes No
Exclusive Publication Kit including Book Launch Calendar Yes No
marketing, New and Improved, self publishing a book

10 Best Practices For Your Responsive Author Webpage

Now that every Outskirts Press author (past, present, and future) receives a free responsive Author Webpage for every book you publish with us, it’s time to share some “best practices” for making that webpage all it can be.

responsivewebpage

A responsive author webpage is more than just a “pretty face” on mobile devices and desktop computers.  It can also be a powerful sales and marketing tool; and you will increase your chances of getting the most out of your author webpage if you follow these 10 best practices:

  1. Be Loud, Be Proud!

Many Outskirts Press authors publish their books with our Private Label Imprint option. This means, we work our magic behind the scenes, and our publishing name is not on their book anywhere.  Well, that’s all well and good, until it came time to use our “old” author webpages, which still featured our logo and our publishing name.

The NEW & IMPROVED responsive author webpages recognize our Private label authors.  If you published under an independent publishing name, YOUR publishing name will be on YOUR responsive author webpage.  Now you can proudly aim your customers to your author webpage with your publishing imprint on it!

  1. Add an Excerpt!

The “menu bar” along the top of your new responsive author webpage makes navigating to the individual sections a snap, and did you know the menu bar is dynamic? That means, if you don’t have content in a particular section, that menu selection won’t appear on the menu bar.  This occurs most frequently with the “Excerpt” and “Media” sections, since those sections are optional.

But just because they are optional doesn’t mean you should ignore them.  If you don’t have an excerpt on your author webpage, add one by accessing the “Sales Tools” of your Publishing Center.  Around 250 words work best. Just cut-n-paste them into your “Excerpt” field.

  1. Format Your Excerpt!

Here’s an important tip for cutting and pasting your excerpt:   Since your author webpage accepts HTML (to allow for colored fonts, image-insertions, etc.), you MUST identify paragraph breaks in your excerpt.  There are TWO different ways to do this:

  1. Surround the contents of each paragraph with the <p></p> paragraph tags, by putting a <p> in front of the beginning of every paragraph and the </p> at the end of every paragraph. This will ensure that paragraphs don’t run together.
  2. Or, alternatively, you can add two line break codes <br><br> which is the same as “hitting the return key twice.”

By adding these simple codes to your excerpt you can make sure your words look just as good on your webpage as they do in your book.

  1. Format Your Synopsis and Biography!

See those formatting suggestions above, about adding line breaks or paragraph breaks to your excerpt?  They work for your synopsis and biography boxes, too.  Read your summary/details, your excerpt, and your author biography on multiple devices and make sure you’re happy with how everything looks. (Don’t forget to spell check your work!) If you want to add some line breaks or paragraph breaks, follow those rules above to make your webpage look as good as possible.

Suggesting HTML code is a double-edged sword.  It can help make your webpage look great. It can also “break” your webpage if you’re not careful.  So keep that in mind, as we list some other “codes” you might be interested in:

<strong>This makes words bold!</strong>
<em>This puts words in italics!</em>
<font color=”ff0000″>This makes words red!</font> (although WordPress doesn’t let me make them red).
<strong><em><font color=”ff0000″>Yes, you can stack them!</font></em></strong>

  1. Add Some Audio!

The other “optional” menu item is for the “Media” section, specifically book video trailers or audio excerpts.  The audio excerpt is included with many of our packages, so if you have recorded your audio excerpt, it is available from your author webpage already.  Check to make sure it is working correctly by visiting your author webpage from multiple devices (your phone, your tablet, your computer).  Sometimes you might discover that your audio plays fine from a desktop, but doesn’t play at all from an iPhone, for example.  Isn’t technology wonderful? If that’s the case, just let us know and we’ll fix it for you.

If you had the Audio Excerpt option but never took advantage of it, now’s the time. You’ll find the instructions in your Author Toolkit.  Just find that option, click the “more” link and instructions for how to record your Audio Excerpt will open up for you.  Read an excerpt from your book, or make a general comment about why you wrote your book.  Buyers love hearing from authors, literally!

If your package didn’t include the Audio Excerpt option, you can always add it from the Marketing Options screen of your Publishing Center.

  1. Add Some Video!

The other multi-media component of the Media section is your book video trailer.  This is a very popular marketing option that we offer, so chances are, your book video trailer may already be in your webpage’s Media section.  If you didn’t order a book video trailer with your publishing package, you can add one now from the Marketing Options tab of your Publishing Center.  In addition to being added to your author webpage, we will add it to our YouTube channel and other video distribution services. You will also receive the file for your additional marketing efforts.

But here’s a little known fact — if you have a book video that you did NOT order through Outskirts Press, you can still add it to your Author Webpage.   Just contact Chris at chrisk@outskirtspress.com with the embedded code (or the YouTube URL), and we will be happy to add your independent book video to your author webpage for you.

  1. Work the Discount!

The hardcopy books (paperback and/or hardback) available for sale from your Author Webpage always have a 10% discount, to encourage your webpage visitors to buy your book.   Don’t worry – you still receive your full royalty!  But knowing about this discount may give you confidence to send customers to your author webpage instead of to Amazon or Barnes & Noble’s website (where your customers may or may not receive a discount at all).

Speaking of formats, make sure you’re selling your Digital Download edition at the proper price. If you have the Digital Download edition (and many of our authors do), and if you did not set a specific price yourself, our webpage will default to a price of $5.00.  But the best practice is to match the price of your Kindle or Nook ebook editions (you added those formats, right?)   You can modify your Digital Download price from same screen of your Publishing Center where you manage your author webpage.

  1. Like Your Book!

Your author webpage features a Facebook “Like” button under your book cover.  Make sure you like your own book! When you do, you’ll have a chance to write a post on your Facebook feed.  We recommend asking your Facebook friends to “like” your book, too. After all, your Facebook Friends & Family are the most likely people to click on your Author Webpage link and “like” your book, but they may only do it if you ask them to.

9.Get Social!

Speaking of Facebook, you HAVE a Facebook account right?  If you don’t, go to Facebook right now and start one.  Every author must have a Facebook account. It doesn’t hurt to have a Linked-In account, either.  Those are the two “must-haves” for every author.  If you’re more experienced with social media (and have a bit more time on your hands), you may also have  a Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and/or Pinterest account.  That’s great! And guess what?  Your new responsive Author Webpage can link to ALL those social media accounts directly from your “About the Author” section — but ONLY if you tell your webpage how.

Here’s how:

  1. Click on the “Edit My Profile” in the upper right-hand corner of your Publishing Center. Or, alternatively, you may have a “My Account” link.
  2. In either case, clicking that link will open up your Profile Page, where you can Edit Your Profile, provide Social Media Details, and set your Royalty Payment Details, among other things.
  3. You want to focus on the Social Media Details section, which looks like this:edit-profile
  4. Enter in the URL for each of your social media profiles. The easiest way to do that is to go to each of your active social media platforms and go to your “home” or “main” page of your account, and then cut-n-paste the URL from the Internet Browser and place it into the appropriate field of this form. Don’t forget to save your changes.
  5. Then, when you re-visit your Author Webpage, your About the Author section will automatically add links to each of the social media accounts you added. Click on each one to make sure you entered the proper link. If it doesn’t go to the right place, make adjustments accordingly.
  1. Market All Your Books!

If you’ve published multiple books with Outskirts Press (and many of you have), then your Author Webpage automatically features an “Also by” section in which all of your other book covers appear, each of them clickable to their own responsive webpage.  It’s a proven fact that readers of one of your books are more inclined to be readers of your others books, so be sure to publish multiple books to automatically add this cool section to all of your Outskirts Press author webpages. All you have to do is click this button…

… and, well… write the next book, of course.  Here’s to your great success!

New and Improved

Responsive Webpages For Everyone!

One of the important factors of the New & Improved Outskirts Press has been our transition to responsive website design for our new clients. RWD websites look great no matter what device is being used, ranging from desktop computers to mobile phones, and every tablet in between.  Mobile usage overtook desktop usage in 2016 so this was the perfect year to make this switch.

Along with our all new-publishing packages comes all new inclusions, including Publishing Tips Sheets on the front-end and the Book Marketing RoadMap on the back-end. And every new author receives a responsive author webpage with social media integration.

That’s great for them! But what about our thousands and thousands of already-published authors?  Well, as of today, every published Outskirts Press author now has a responsive author webpage to showcase and sell their book just as beautifully on a mobile phone as on a desktop monitor. And those in the production and pre-production pipelines will have a responsive webpage waiting for them upon publication.

mobile-upgrade

The aesthetic nature of the new responsive webpages is one thing. But, these pages are more than just a pretty face.  Here are other amazing facts about the responsive author webpages available exclusively through Outskirts Press:

  • Outskirts Press authors have the choice of publishing under our imprint of “Outskirts Press, Inc” or  under their own publishing imprint name using our “Private Label ISBN” option, which registers an exclusive ISBN under their own publishing name.  A new feature of the Responsive Author Webpage is that Private Label authors have THEIR publishing name displayed at the top, rather than “Outskirts Press, Inc.”
  • A new menu bar has been added to the Responsive Author Webpages, which allows easy navigation to each section of the page: Book Details, Author Information, Book Excerpt, and Multi-Media. If an author has chosen to leave a section blank (didn’t add any multi-media, for instance), then that menu option is omitted automatically.
  • The pertinent sales information remains and contains the title, sub-title, author name, publication date, page count, and genre.
  • Every available edition of the author’s book is now available to purchase in whatever format (and from whatever source) the buyer prefers.  Paperback and hardback editions can be purchased directly from Outskirts Press for a 10% discount (authors still get their full royalty).
  • PDF Digital Download e-files are still available for instant download if the author added that option to the publishing process.
  • A new feature offers a direct link to the iTunes edition if the author purchased the Standard iPad e-book edition.  Still present from previous versions of the author webpage are links to the book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which also brings shoppers’ attention to the possible availability of Kindle and/or Nook e-book editions of the book.
  • The book’s front cover is displayed along with a Facebook “Like” button. A new feature is the addition of the Pinterest “Pin it” button, so your visitors can easily “pin” your book cover to their Pinterest Boards.
  • The “Book Details” section remains, and is still modifiable within the author’s Publishing Center.  You can still use different font colors or hotlink to images with a rudimentary understanding of HTML. With this update, authors can no longer change their old author webpage layout or site colors.
  • The “Book Excerpt” section remains, and is still modifiable within the author’s Publishing Center. You can still use different font colors or hotlink to images with a rudimentary understanding of HTML.  A new feature is the clean omission of this section if an author has chosen not to include an excerpt.
  • The “About the Author” section includes the author’s biography (which is modifiable within the Publishing Center), plus the the author’s photo (if they provided it).
  • An exciting new feature of the Responsive Author Webpage is the “social media” connection in the “About the Author” section, whereby an author can add up to six direct links to his or her Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Linked-In, or Instagram accounts.  Just add the URL details in your Author Profile  for the “social media connection” functionality to be added to your Responsive Author Webpage automatically.
  • The slick new “Also by” section showcases the front covers of every book you’ve ever published with Outskirts Press (or your own publishing imprint), no matter what package. Click on the cover and you’re taken to that book’s Author Webpage (which is also in Responsive Web Design).  If you’ve published multiple books with Outskirts Press, as so many authors have, it’s like suddenly receiving a free multi-page, career website.
  • The “Multi-Media” section includes  Audio Excerpts recorded by the author and/or Book Video Trailers. A new feature to the Upgraded Author Webpage: The Audio files should now play perfectly on all devices, including iPhones.  This section is omitted if the author does not have an audio excerpt or a book video.
  • The Outskirts Press “footer” provides easy contact information to Outskirts Press (to resolve any potential ordering or technical issues for your readers), plus easy access to the full gamut of our Social Media Author Communities.
  • If the optional Private Label ISBN was used to publish the book, all the Outskirts Press “branding” is removed from the author’s new responsible webpage.

Now that every Outskirts Press author has a cool responsive author webpage, there are 10 best practices to keep in mind for getting the most out of your author webpage. And that is the topic of an upcoming post. Stay tuned!