self publishing a book – Page 9 – President of Outskirts Press

blogging, self publishing, self publishing a book

Vote for the Best Book of the Year 2010

You may have noticed with the previous poll that the very right-hand edge of it was “cut off” by the width dimensions of this blog’s theme. WordPress allows you to set three different poll sizes, and that poll was set to the maximum, which does fit on our Outskirts Press blog, but doesn’t fit in its entirety here.

The next poll, however, fits on both. This is the poll for the Best Book of the Year Award 2010 and its $1,500 Grand Prize. I summarized the finalists in a previous posting here.

Or for more details, you can visit each of these respective blog postings for details about…

Now it’s time to vote. We’re taking votes through the end of April and the winner will be notified in the first week of May. Good luck to them!

self publishing, self publishing a book

How to Win the Best Book of the Year Award

Personally, if I were a finalist for the Best Book of the Year award, where my chances of winning were dependent upon the votes I received from other people, here’s what I would do to try to increase my chances.

5 Ways to Win the Best Book of the Year Award (or, 5 ways to get people to buy your book)

I would make sure my author webpage was pristine, and loaded with content about the benefits of my book.
I would make sure my webpage had a video that visitors could watch. Statistics are telling us that nearly 50% of the time people spend on the Internet they spend watching videos.
I would make sure I had a Facebook Profile/Page and that I was actively pursuing “likes” leading up to the vote. That way, on the day of the vote, I could broadcast a message to all my “fans” about where to go to vote for my book. After all, if nearly 50% of the time is watching videos, the other 50% is probably spent on Facebook. All authors should have a Facebook account.
I would have either an audio excerpt of a section of the book, or, if I wasn’t pleased with the sound of my own voice, an enhanced audio excerpt of a professional reading an excerpt. People are more likely to vote (or buy) if they “like what they hear.”
I would make sure I had some positive reviews (5-star reviews) on Amazon. Some people may buy the book and make their vote based upon receiving and reading the book. That is ideal. But the reality is that most people will make their decision based upon other factors other than the book itself — those other factors might as well be as encouraging and positive as possible.

You may notice that these steps for winning a popularity contest don’t differ all that much from the steps required to sell a book — people make the decision based largely upon the same set of criteria: How much they can learn about the book in advance, and how much they like/respect the author.

It’s hard enough finding success in this world. If you have the power to move many things in your advantage, shouldn’t you?

Best of luck to the finalists. The polls open Friday on our blog and we’ll be accepting votes through the end of the month.

self publishing, self publishing a book

Best Book of the Year Finalists

Here’s more about each finalist to the 2010 Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year award. Find more details on our blog, where we are highlighting each of them on the 11th, 12th, and 13th, of this month.

The Key To Job Success In Any Career, by Frank B. Leibold, Ph.D.

After a distinguished 30 year business career with three multinational corporations and nine jobs-culminating in the position of Group President, Frank B. Leibold, Ph.D., re-tooled himself by returning to school and obtaining his Ph.D. Frank then became a nationally recognized university professor of marketing while founding his own global management consulting company. He and his wife reside in South Carolina and spend time traveling to visit and spoil their nine grand-children- two in Australia.

Psych Consults, by Robert J. Mignone, M.D., F.A.P.A.

For decades, Robert J. Mignone, M.D., F.A.P.A., has helped people bounce back from all kinds of crises. A top-ranked psychiatrist in southwest Florida, Dr. Mignone has been called a gifted and inspirational speaker—in person and on TV. A two-time cancer survivor, Mignone shares his experiences in Ordinary Valor: How Cancer Saved My Life, Not Once, But Twice. He is also the author of Psychiatric Injury: Evaluation and Treatment of Psychiatric Impairment and Damages.

The Beads of Lapis Lazuli, by Doris Kenney Marcotte

Doris Kenney Marcotte has turned decades of studying Minoan civilization into two novels. She has researched at the Athens National Museum, the Heraklion Archeological Museum on Crete, and the British Museum in London, among others. She lives in River House in New Richmond, Ohio, and Hilltop House in Wyoming, Ohio.

Now, between you, me, and the bedpost, I think I already know who is going to win. The votes will be open and public and available for everyone to see the results from April 15th through April 30th… But based upon my experience with Outskirts Press since 2002, and the respective tactics already being put forth by these three diverse authors, my experience points toward a winner. I don’t want to taint the votes by stating my guess here, but we’ll see if I’m right when the final votes are counted on the final day of April.

That perspective and that experience is one of the benefits of publishing with Outskirts Press (or any self-publishing company, actually) — but it’s only valuable if one chooses to listen to it and act upon it. I’m always surprised at the number of authors who don’t listen to any advice or suggestions at all. Yes, it’s your book and yes, we’ll do exactly what you want, but…. part of what you’re paying for is that perspective, that experience, and that expertise. Just sayin’…

And that brings us to the final post of the day, coming up later, where I share the 5 steps to winning the Best Book of the Year Award (or, in other words, the 5 steps to selling a book).

branding, self publishing, self publishing a book

Self publishing book awards

The finalists for the Outskirts Press 2010 Best Book of the Year Awards were announced on our Outskirts Press blog on March 31st.

They are:

The Key To Job Success In Any Career, by Frank B. Leibold, Ph.D.
Psych Consults, by Robert J. Mignone, M.D., F.A.P.A.
The Beads of Lapis Lazuli, by Doris Kenney Marcotte

All three finalists have an equal chance to win the $1,500 Grand Prize and receive the honor of publishing the Best Book of 2010 at Outskirts Press. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow on our Outskirts Press blog at http://blog.outskirtspress.com we are highlighting each author and their respective book, including any multi-media or additional marketing efforts they have put forth, in the way of extra editions (hardbacks, Kindle, Espresso, etc.), book videos, teasers, or audio recordings, etc. A successful book means a sound marketing plan.

Then, on Thursday of this week we will summarize the finalists and encourage members/readers of our social media networks to vote on their selection in an open poll that will start on Friday, April 15th. More on that process later today…

self publishing, self publishing a book

Best Book of the Year Award – Update

I’ve mentioned from time to time in the past that I write quite a few of these blog postings all at once, and then schedule them to appear on my blog on particular days in the future. It’s like my own little time machine. Sometimes it presents a problem, like today. I’m writing this blog posting BEFORE the Colorado Independent Publishers Association EVVY Awards take place on March 19th, but I’m scheduling this posting to appear a week later, on Sunday, March 27th. So, by the time this posting actually runs, we will have already announced the results of the Awards Banquet. But, of course, as I’m writing this, I don’t know who won. All I know are the finalists.

But knowing the finalists is enough to discuss our Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Award. Everyone who chooses to publish with Outskirts Press is automatically eligible to win this award and its $1,500 prize. All the details are on this page of our website. Basically, when the dust settles from the requirements, the Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Award is among one of the EVVY-winning books.

Here are the EVVY Award finalists, which means one of these 8 titles is going to win the Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Award for 2010:

The Rise and Fall of Captain Methane
Queen Vernita Meets Sir HeathyBean the Astronomer
The Beads of Lapis Lazuli
Psych Consults
The Key to Job Success in any Career
Whispers of Joy
Art, Experience and Faith
One Wacky Wasp

I can already tell you that One Wacky Wasp won’t win the Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year award. I wrote that one, and I’m not eligible to win the Best Book of the Year Award.

This is also the first EVVY Banquet in quite a few years that I will not be attending personally. Traveling requirements prevent me from going. Kelly S will be receiving awards on behalf of our authors in my place.

And I’ll write the next posting AFTER the awards are presented so I can discuss the next steps of the Best Book of the Year awards a little more specifically. From among the EVVY winners, Outskirts Press selects three finalists… and more on that in the near future. In the meantime, congratulations to Dorcey Alan Wingo, Dawn Menge/Heath Rhoades, Doris Kenney Marcotte, Robert J. Mignone, Frank B. Leibold, Joy Andreasen, and William Squires, respectively.

self publishing, self publishing a book, Social Networking Sites

Amazon Author Central Benefits

Today I’m going to share a real-world example of one of the benefits of Amazon Author Central. I experienced this personally because of my involvement with Fandemonium, the Facebook Anthology social publishing experience that Outskirts Press and its Facebook Community members joined together in producing over the past two months.

Author Central allowed me to “improve” the appearance of Fandemonium’s listing on Amazon. Here’s how:

When Fandemonium was originally distributed via Ingram, the “meta data” information for the book’s synopsis information looked like this on Amazon:

It’s all one big block of text, and not very visually inviting. I’ll admit this was my fault, since I uploaded the meta data personally for this book instead of having one of our professional project managers do it for me, in which case, it would have looked correct initially. They publish over 100 books a month so they’re used to the tricky nuances of formatting meta data so it looks great on Amazon. Another example of “leaving it to the experts.”

But, never fear. Amazon Author Central let me easily improve the formatting myself. I simply logged into my Author Central account and edited my book’s record. The changes took a couple of days to update, and then, just like that, the new listing looked like this:

This is just one reason to have an Amazon Author Central account. I’ve discussed other reasons in the past and will continue on that topic in the near future.

In the meantime, congratulations to all our Facebook Community members who have work appearing in Fandemonium. With every copy sold, Outskirts Press is donating $7.38 to the American Red Cross on behalf of its Facebook fans, so buy your copy today by clicking here. Currently, American Red Cross efforts are assisting in the aftermath of the Japan earthquake and Pacific tsunami, so in addition to taking part in a social publishing experience, it’s for a good cause.

self publishing a book

Self Publishing a Book? Three points of view

I haven’t always been an easy person to reach at Outskirts Press. Even to send me kudos, some authors in the past were forced to write me an actual letter and mail it to my attention through the post office. It worked! I always received those, and I still get a letter from time to time. But in this day and age, it seems silly to ask our valued customers to go through such effort just to say nice things about us or to contact me about something. So, toward the end of last year I started contacting every new author who started publishing with us, just to make sure they were satisfied with our services. It’s been a blessing and I wish I had done it years ago.

For example, here’s a very recent email I received, completely unsolicited, from one of our authors:

Dear Brent,

Greetings to you and I wish you all continued success. I could not be more pleased with the great job that Natasha Quick, and the production team, are doing with my novel, AFRICAN SKIES. I am so delighted that The Outskirts Press is my publisher for this book and all my future books. The professionalism, courtesy and attention to detail exhibited by Ms. Quick has been exceptional. Great good luck to you and to all at Outskirts, and all the best,

Cheers,
Mike Tucker

Now that’s an email that puts me in a great mood. Another wonderful email I received recently wasn’t from one of our authors, but was from the owner of Reader Views, Irene Watson. Through Reader Views, Irene comes in contact with a LOT of books from a LOT of self-publishing companies. With her permission, she said I could post this unsolicited email she sent me recently:

Brent,

Geesh..I’ve been meaning to write this email for quite some time but one busy day runs into the next one. This is what I want to say:

I’m very impressed with the quality of books that come from Outskirts Press. We get a lot of self-published books and many are horribly (that’s the most gentle word I could find) produced. The quality just isn’t up to par. Yours match any large traditional publishing company to a T. Occasionally we do review a book that hasn’t been properly edited but we know that’s the choice of the author. If only, if only…there was a way to instill into the authors the importance of editing.

In fact, I am so impressed I recommended Outskirts Press to my assistant for her book. It’s in production now with your company.

Irene

The last message I want to share was the email I received from the winner of our free iPad. Last year during the holidays, our monthly promotion offered a free Apple iPad to one of our talented authors. We notifed the lucky author, Vince, the first week of January. Here was his reply (I waited until now so I could also link to his book, which was just published this week):

Happy New Year, Brent!

I want to thank you for this gift from you and Outskirts Press. It hasn’t gotten here yet, but I happily await its delivery.

I’ve written for many years and it is always gratifying when one actually finds evidence of people who appreciate the hard work a writer puts into his work. Like all art, as you well know, writing produces the most fickle and varying opinions, irrespective of the inherent talent or worth of the work. This always leaves one wondering precisely what a ‘Great work’ of fiction actually is. Since my undergraduate degrees were in Psychology and English Literature, and having started writing stories at the very young age of 8, I always tried to fathom what it was that made a piece of fiction a great work of art. After many years of education, and hundreds of books read, I concluded that one can’t really know that, unless he waits a hundred years or so and sees how history treats it; and even then, he couldn’t truly KNOW. What we’re left with is to give our best effort, which I try in every book I write, and keep in mind that I want to engage the reader and not disappoint him or her. As an author, I want to pull that reader into the story and get them involved, and as a Psychologist I want the readers to know the characters, feel they are real, empathize with them, and feel the drama is truly happening. In Science Fiction, the story and action have to be plausible, so you don’t leave the reader thinking, ‘That can’t possibly happen, it’s ridiculous,’ which makes it just a little bit harder task, but one I enjoy doing since I love sci-fi myself. I diligently endeavored to employ these principles with Star-Crossed, and I think it is perhaps the most believable heartfelt of the 9 fiction books I’ve written. All 11 of my books are published in electronic format already, and sell fairly well; half of them are out in print form. I hope with this book, published at Outskirts, I will begin an even more profitable era in my writing life, that I will publish more successful books in the future, and that Outskirts can aid in that vision.

Thank you again,

Vince Riccio

Thank you, Vince…

And speaking of the iPad, we’re just a few weeks away from launching our iPad Edition option… more on that in the near future…

branding, ceo, publicity, self publishing a book, Social Networking Sites

Cause marketing, philanthropy, and charitable donations from book royalties

In past postings I have discussed Outskirts Press’ donations to organizations like Children’s Hospital, Make a Wish Foundation, the Education & Literacy Foundation, and others. And in the last posting I discussed more specifically our specific donations to the Colorado Humanities, and the publication of their Anthology, the royalties from which go in support of Colorado Humanities and the Center for the Book.

And this brings us to another way in which Outskirts Press seeks opportunities to give back to the community. Outside of purely philanthropic pursuits, or cause marketing tactics, donating the royalties of a book can serve two purposes: good will and good marketing. In our case, we will donate the royalties of book sales that come from the sale of our first Facebook Anthology, which is a collection of short stories, poems, and excerpts from our many Facebook Fans. We have been collecting contributions and submissions to the anthology since the first of the year on our Facebook page.

Then, on January 1oth we invited all our Facebook fans and blog readers to vote on the title of the book. Then, on January 12th, we opened the voting to determine the Charity that would receive the royalties. I still don’t know who “won.” It was our hope that by giving writers the opportunity to get published for free AND give to a worthwhile cause at the same time, interest in our Facebook Anthology would be high. That philosophy turned out to be correct. Our Facebook fan base shot past 1,000 fans almost literally overnight and continues to build.

Good deeds can become good marketing, or even, in this case, good marketing can turn into good deeds. We thank all our Facebook fans for their support. And I’m sure the “winning” charity will thank them as well.

self publishing a book

The cost of self publishing a book

It always intrigues me when people are confused (or, oddly enough, sometimes even belligerent) about the fact that companies charge service fees for “things” that can be done directly at the source for less than what the company charges. For example, some people wonder why we charge $99 for something that can be done independently for less, with some knowledge and time. It makes me wonder if these people truly believe their car costs $25,000 to make.

It also reminds me of an old joke: This government manager was over-seeing a nuclear reactor when one of the warheads started to overheat. In fact, it got so critical that if something wasn’t done very soon to correct the problem, the warhead was going to explode, killing thousands of people! The manager opened the control panel but was confronted with a dizzying array of knobs, lights, and switches. So he called the contractor who had installed the warhead and asked for help. The contractor arrived and looked at the warhead for a moment and said, “I can solve this problem for you, and it’s going to cost $25,000.”

The warhead heated up some more. They were running out of time. In fact, the warhead was so hot, any wrong move would set it off. “Fine, fine,” the manager said. “Do whatever it takes. Just hurry!”

The contractor reached into the control panel and flipped one of the switches. The warhead returned to normal almost immediately. Crisis adverted. “That will be $25,000,” the contractor said. “I’ll send you a bill.”

“$25,000?!?” the manager screamed. “You didn’t do anything! All you did was flip a switch!”

The contractor calmly said, “Yes, that $25,000 is for knowing WHICH switch.”

You can build your own house, or you can pay a home builder with the know-how to do it for you. You can do your own taxes, or you can pay a service fee to an accountant with know-how to do it for you. You can publish your own book, or you can pay a service fee to a self-publishing firm with the know-how to do it for you. Some people want to be publishers. Others simply want to be published. And never the twain shall meet.

See you next year.