self publishing a book – Page 4 – President of Outskirts Press

How the EVVY Awards are Judged

Toward the end of each calendar year, Outskirts Press specifically nominates a certain percentage of our published titles for that year to submit to the Colorado Independent Publishers Association. Not only is winning an EVVY Award an honor it its own right, but one EVVY Winner then goes on to be named the Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year. We have thirteen finalists from among all the books we officially nominated for EVVY consideration. And I just heard from CIPA that Outskirts Press actually published two additional EVVY Finalists, where the authors submitted their books directly, since they resided in Colorado and were members of CIPA personally. Congratulations to them, as well.

Tomorrow evening, Jake Jabs of American Furniture Warehouse fame will be hosting the 18th Annual EVVY Awards where 1st, 2nd, 3rd Place, and Merit Awards will be handed out to all the EVVY finalists from all the participating self-publishers. So, just how are the EVVY Awards judged?

1. Each EVVY judge answers 30 questions for each book they judge. 25 are general questions that are non-category specific and 5 are category-specific questions. The non-category specific questions involve both technical and creative elements about the books, like for instance, does the book have a barcode, does it have an ISBN, does it have a copyright page, etc. 10 questions are true or false and 20 are scored on a scale of 1 (bad) through 100 (perfect)

2. The first round of judging is scored and all books with first phase scores under 50 are eliminated from consideration. The remaining entries are then judged by a different judge answering the same questions and the scores are taken again. All entries that attain a score of 70 or above from the average of both judge’s scores are deemed finalists. These are the 13 (+2) books that represent our EVVY finalists this year.

3. The finalists are then judged a third time. The order of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Merit awards are determined by a combination of high score, judge’s determination, and overall comparison of other books within the category. This “Category comparison” means that the average scores can be the same across all categories.

4. 1st Place winners score 81 points or above. Books scoring between 74 – 80 are awarded second place.

Stay tuned for the Outskirts Press EVVY winners….

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How Outskirts Press EVVY Nominees are determined

A week from today we will know the results of the 18th Annual EVVY Awards, which are taking place May 17th in Denver, Colorado (well, Lone Tree, actually, which is a sub-division just south of downtown Denver) at the Lone Tree Arts Center. The EVVY Awards are an annual event put together and hosted by the Colorado Independent Publishers Association. I will be on hand to receive the awards Outskirts Press authors win on their behalf. Of course, those authors are welcome to attend themselves, although historically I have accepted the vast majority of our EVVY Awards myself since most of the finalists are rarely within travelling distance of Denver. Of the thirteen EVVY finalists that were published by Outskirts Press last year (the most among all participating publishers), just one of them lives in Colorado.

The EVVY Awards are a big deal for us at Outskirts Press for two reasons. For one, it’s nice to have such a longstanding event so close to home. And two, winning an EVVY Award is a prerequisite to winning our own contest, the Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Award. After winning a First Place EVVY Award in the Fiction category last year, Doris Kenney Marcotte went on to win the 2010 Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Award for her novel The Beads of Lapis Lazuli: A Greek Mystery. Her road to this accomplishment and its $1,500 Grand Prize began when she accepted our official EVVY Award nomination in the fall of 2010.

Well, actually, it started long before that, which brings us to the subject of today’s post: How our official Outskirts Press EVVY Nominees are determined.

At Outskirts Press, we publish approximately 1,500 new books a year. Sometimes it’s more (and with the recent addition of the Kindle, Nook, and iPad editions, it is promising to be way more heading into the future – although those editions are not eligible for our EVVY nomination), but 1,500 is a good average. Our goal in any given year is to send less than 100 titles to the EVVY Awards as official Outskirts Press nominees. Therefore, the quickest, least subjective way we limit EVVY contenders right off the bat is via the publishing package the authors choose. Only Diamond and full-color Pearl books are eligible for consideration.

So, let’s perform a little math. Approximately 60% of the books we publish are Diamonds and approximately 10% are Pearls. S0 70% of the 1,500 books we publish each year, on average, are automatically eligible for EVVY Award consideration. That’s 1050. Let’s round it down to an even 1,000. Out of 1,000 books published each year, we are looking to officially nominate less than 100 to send to the CIPA EVVY Awards. That’s 10%. It gets interesting when you examine how 1000 eligible books become 100…

Throughout the year, the production department is “on the look-out” for contenders. Our consultants remember particularly promising books at the beginning of the process; our book designers remember particularly beautiful books during formatting; our cover designers remember the custom covers they, personally, are most proud of; our copyeditors remember particularly important or entertaining works; and our author representatives remember particularly impressive books throughout the entire process. When it comes time to determine the Outskirts Press official EVVY nominees toward the end of each year, we solicit that feedback from the consultants, formatters, designers, editors, and representatives.

Sometimes these decisions are subjective (as all book contests ultimately are), but there are some logistic steps a savvy author can take to significantly increase the odds of receiving an official EVVY Award nomination at the end of the year, and when one looks at the process (and the statistical likelihood in general), these steps start to make more sense:

1. Get a custom cover design – We offer a wide variety of cover choices for our authors, from free pre-designed themes, to custom covers, to the flexibility allowing an author to submit her own cover. And while there are exceptions to every rule, almost without fail, our official EVVY Nominees are comprised almost exclusively of books featuring custom cover designs by Outskirts Press designers. I discussed a little bit about that reality a few posts ago. Also, remember, our cover designers are asked their opinions of ALL the books they work on. Which is more likely? That they’ll remember/recommend a free, pre-designed style, or that they’ll remember/recommend a custom cover they poured their heart into?

2. Get an enhanced or custom interior – Even our standard, free interiors are excellent, and sufficient to garner an EVVY Nomination. In fact, I cannot remember an instance where a standard interior, on its own, was the reason for dismissal, but the fact remains that an enhanced or custom interior is never going to “hurt” the author’s chances, and it could even help.

3. Have your book professionally copyedited – This shouldn’t just be a requirement for EVVY Award consideration, this should be a requirement for publication. Of course, in this day and age of POD printing, ebooks, and self-publishing, it’s not a requirement for publication, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be. So, book contests and awards are the industry’s way of REWARDING authors who take this very important step. We only nominate books that have been professionally edited. Otherwise, what’s the point? Our nominees are personally and manually selected because we want to sweep the EVVY Awards, and we know the CIPA EVVY judges are not going to recognize a book littered with mistakes. While it can be argued that the “strength” of specific covers and interior designs are subjective, most typographical errors are not.

Final considerations to bring the total number of nominations down to a reasonable number are much more subjective, I’ll admit, and they involve things like reasonable retail price for the genre, marketability, and the author’s own professionalism. After all, we know that one of the EVVY Nominees is going to be our Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year award-winner, and we want that author to be ahead of the game when it comes time to sell the book, market the book, and work with other people.

4. Accept our nomination – This is an easy step to complete but some authors still miss this one even after they successfully accomplish the other ones. There is a belief among a few writers that book contests shouldn’t cost money to enter. Let me set that misconception to rest: Most book contests cost money to enter (and if they don’t, you have to ask yourself what the catch is). Our official EVVY Nomination requires the submission fee to the EVVY Awards, along with the cost of printing the necessary copies for the EVVY judges and shipping them, and completing all the entry forms, etc. Simply put, entering book contests is kind of a pain in the butt (and so is administering/judging them, which is why book contests cost money). It’s true just being nominated is an honor (less than 10% of our books are), but in order to be an Outskirts Press official EVVY Award nominee, you have to accept our invitation and agree to let us submit your book to the CIPA EVVY Awards on your behalf, just as our most recent official nominees did late last year. And from that list, we’re down to our thirteen finalists.

So how do EVVY Finalists become EVVY Winners? I’ll discuss that next time…

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Contenders for the 2011 Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Awards

Last year we crowned the author of our first Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Award. Doris Kenney Marcotte published The Beads of Lapis Lazuli with Outskirts Press in 2010. That fall she was personally nominated for the Colorado Independent Publishers EVVY Awards along with approximately 5% of our published authors, all representing the very best from Outskirts Press. When the EVVY Awards were presented the following spring (March 2011), Doris won first place in the Fiction category. She went on to become a finalist for the 2010 Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year awards along with finalsts Frank B. Leibold, Ph.D., and Robert J. Mignone, M.D., F.A.P.A.

Once the three finalists for our Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year award are determined (based upon them winning a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place EVVY Award), they must each collect enough votes to be crowed our Best Book of the Year award winner in a public poll held on the Outskirts Press blog. You can see the poll that determined Doris’s win by clicking here. It was a close race between her and Frank.

Well, we’re closing in on the exciting conclusion to determine the 2011 Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year award. Last December we nominated approximately 2% of our published books for submission to the Colorado Independent Publishers Association EVVY Awards. Winning an EVVY Award is required to become a finalist for the Best Book of the Year award. The EVVY Finalists have now been announced and those award winners will be recognized at the Awards Ceremony next Thursday, May 17th.

Among all the EVVY Finalists are these thirteen Outskirts Press books. One of these will be our 2011 Best Book of the Year winner. Who will it be? Stay tuned to this blog or our Outskirts Press blog for the next several weeks to find out… Let’s wish them luck!

Are you the next award-winning author from Outskirts Press. Start publishing today…

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A self-publishing author’s experience with Outskirts Press

Last week I shared an email I received from one of our authors in relation to the custom covers we designed for her. I’d like to share another email I received, this more a more general reaction to the entire self publishing experience as a whole. All of us at Outskirts Press work hard to make sure all our authors have wonderful experiences (and we get it right 99% of the time), so it’s always gratifying to receive emails like this from one of our recently-published authors (I recevied this roughly around Easter).

“Dear Anna, Brent, and Jodee:

I really wasn’t expecting my free copies of A Guide to the Psalms of David when it arrived earlier today, since there was no entry under shipping and I assumed “processed” under orders simply meant my entry on the website was accepted and my book was now in the queue to be printed. Unprepared, I can only relate that when I opened up the package and saw my book, I was stunned; elated, on the one hand, because of the gorgeous cover–in which credit goes, as you know, to my wife Audrey–terrified, on the other hand, with the realization I now have to rev up to a significantly higher standard if I expect to go out into the world and inspire people with, in the words of John Adams, poetry “superior to all odes, hymns, and songs, in any language.”

But regardless of what the future brings, I cannot thank each and every one of you enough for helping me bring this creation–because it is more than just a book–into the world. And I dare say, the cover alone, is healing: the colors and the representation of David contemplating his harp. (You might recall from the Bible when King Saul had attacks of melancholy, David’s harp playing soothed him.)

All the best, and whatever holiday you are celebrating at this time of year, may it be with much Joy!!!

Sincerely,

Steve Rosner

P.S. Please thank the elf who corrected the interior cover by removing a superfluous ‘the’ in the title. Although it was discovered at the last minute and corrected on the cover itself, I opted the leave the interior as is, not wanting to delay the book any longer.”

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A Tale of Two Custom Covers: A Self Publishing Author’s Reaction

After seeing her two custom covers, Ellen wrote me this email (after all, I’m just an email away for our authors), which she gave me permission to share:

“Brent,

Since I was quick to yell for help a few weeks ago, I thought it only fair that I also yell to shout Congratulations and WOW! I received my two options for the cover of my book: Tales of a Lion from Jennifer Rush on Thursday and I LOVE THEM BOTH!!!! When I think about the possible cover I threw together and what I am being presented with now, I have to wonder – What was I thinking???? Your team is fabulous!!!!

Incidentally, a sequel is planned for this book. I would like very much to use both of these – particularly since I can’t decide between them now. Don’t know how that would work out…or if it is even permitted. The sequel will be entitled: The Lonesome Wail of the Lion’s Roar.

In between times, I will complete what I am writing now: Wish List….which I would like to have Outskirts publish as well. I am targeting a handover to Outskirts sometime January 2013. That will leave me writing the sequel during 2013 and publishing that no later than January 2014.

I hope I can use the second option of the cover! Mostly, I just wanted whoever did these to know how very much I appreciate their work.

Excellent Job!

Ellen”

And yes, we arranged for her to secure BOTH custom covers, one for her first book and the other for her sequel. Another happy ending for another Outskirts Press author…

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A Tale of Two Custom Covers: Author Submitted vs. Professionally Designed

In yesterday’s post I talked about our custom cover option and how we often have to walk a delicate line when working with authors who have submitted their own cover designs and who we want to diplomatically point toward a “better” direction. One of our authors, who has given me permission to recount her experience, recently went through this exact scenario. She had designed her own cover and submitted it for her book. It looked like this:

This is a relatively average example of the author-submitted covers we receive at Outskirts Press. They are almost always white (since designing on color or backgrounds introduces a whole host of technical problems that most authors simply choose to eschew) and it lacks a spine and a back cover. But that’s why they come to us, right? To make their book even BETTER than it already is… In some cases we’re able to convince the author to consider a professionally-designed custom cover, given the overall importance of covers. In other cases, we’re not so successful and they end up publishing what they (or their designer friends) have designed in a word processor. Fortunately, in Ellen’s case, we were successful in communicating to her the importance of a great cover; and as a result, our book designer created the following two custom covers for her to choose from:

What was Ellen’s reaction? Stay tuned…

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A Tale of Two Custom Covers: Part One

One of our most popular options at Outskirts Press is our Custom Cover option, where one of our talented designers will create TWO completely separate custom covers for the author’s book, based upon the author’s own input and preferences. The author then selects the one he/she likes best and provides further input to fine-tune it. In general, covers are one of the “trickier” aspects of what we do because it’s a passionate subject. All authors have very strong feelings about their covers. Many begin the process already with a cover clearly in their mind. In fact, many have already designed what they believe is a very good cover. In those cases, some authors are resistant to consider any other alternatives, even if their own cover may lack basic components of a true cover design (like a spine or a back, for instance). It sometimes puts our people in awkward positions where they have to walk a fine line between supporting the author’s desires and at the same time bring to the author’s attention the reality that their covers, actually, aren’t very… well… good.

More often than not, we acquiesce and watch the author use what they supplied. After all, it’s their book. But it can be frustrating, because our designers have often created really wonderful covers that all too often go to waste at the author’s whims. On one hand, we always want our books to look as awesome as possible; on the other hand, we want to answer to the author’s wishes and give them exactly what they want. Granted, sometimes these are financial decisions, since a professional custom cover design starts at $299 (compare that to $900 and higher at other self publishing firms); but other times the decision doesn’t seem to be based upon anything other than a skewed reality of what comprises good cover design.

So with one of our authors’ kind permission, I’d like to present just such a case study over the next two days… stay tuned…

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Welcome to your galley review process at Outskirts Press

The 3-step galley review process at Outskirts Press begins with the following screen:

There are three important pieces of information to take away from this screen:

1) You have 14 days to complete your review (if you need longer, notify your rep). This is to keep your project moving along so we can get your book published. Some authors breeze through this process; others, inexplicably, take months. But we’ve found that giving a 14-day requirement is a good way to curtail procrastination.

2) You are reviewing your print-ready files. It’s your responsibility to thoroughly check them for any and all corrections you wish to make. Anything you don’t bring to our attention during this process will be in your final book.

3) And any corrections you bring to our attention after submitting your edit forms will incur additional fees for us to fix.

Authors acknowledge all this “fine print” by clicking the “Start Reviewing My Proofs” button….

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Self publishing a book with Outskirts Press – Cover galley review

The first step of the online galley review process is reviewing your cover, which begins with this screen of the proofing process:

Clicking on the thumbnail image of the cover will open up a larger .jpg version for close review. This is your chance to review everything very, very closely. It’s important to note that two elements of the cover won’t be finalized at this point — the barcode and the price. That’s because, you, the author, haven’t officially finalized your pricing yet, and the final price plays a part in the price-embedded barcodes we include on the covers as part of our services. So the barcode box will be blank and the price on the back will be place-held with Xs.

But otherwise, what you’re seeing is what you’re going to get. So, read the title word for word. Read the sub-title word for word. Read the back cover word for word. Read the spine word for word. Don’t assume that just because the title is spelled correctly on the front that it will be spelled correctly on the spine. Yes, 999 times out of 1,000 it will be. You don’t want to be that .01%

Any errors that have cropped up, either through human error on the book designer’s fault, or human error on yours when you supplied the information to us originally, should be fixed at this time. We give you 10 free edits to make those corrections. Make them count.

So, if you see anything that needs fixing, you would click the first box on the screen: I have some changes I would like made to the cover.

Alternatively, if everything is absolutely perfect (and that happens for covers more often than not), you would click the second box on the screen: This proof is perfect. Go to print!

Let’s assume for the sake of this walk-thru, that I have some corrections to make to my Fandemonium Volume 2 cover. I click the first box and receive a pop-up message reminding me once again that I am responsible for catching all the errors I want corrected. We often notify our authors of their responsibility because we have to overcome the assumption authors have that “self-publishing” is similar to “publishing” in this regard. A “publisher” will correct things; a “self-publisher” will expect the author to correct things. You might actually be surprised to learn the degree to which authors get mad at us for making corrections without their approval. We prefer to leave it entirely up to the author. That’s where the “100% of the control” comes from in our marketing materials.

So I proceed to the nitty-gritty of my cover edits by clicking the “Proceed to Cover Edits” button that appears along with the pop-up box….