self publishing – Page 10 – 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

Borders Coupons – Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Borders Books filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on February 16th, and plans to close approximately 200 of its stores.

How does this affect those who are holding Borders coupons and gift cards? The company says it will continue to honor those at stores that remain open, but recommends shoppers use their coupons and gift cards as fast as possible.

Clearance sales at Borders superstores (which are among the 200 locations to close) already began this past weekend. Here is a list of the stores planned to close, according to Borders Group. The stores on this list are expected to close by April:

http://www.bordersreorganization.com/Reorganization_Closure_List.pdf

Borders.com will remain operational as Borders attempts to refocus on ebooks and non-book related items. Outskirts Press books with a 50-55+ Price Plan (trade discount) and the retail returns option will continue to be distributed and sold through Borders.com. Our distribution to Ingram, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the rest, are not affected by the Borders bankruptcy.

self publishing

Self Publishing for Speakers and Coaches

Today I’m in Atlanta to attend the National Speakers Association “UNconference” through Sunday, and also to announce the introduction of our new One-Click Publishing for Coaches & Speakers package.

When Outskirts Press first started in 2002, we focused only on providing high quality publishing services. That focus served us well for a while. Of course, there was less awareness of self-publishing firms back then, and less competition. Through the years, the number of authors becoming aware of self-publishing as an option has exploded, and so has the number of self-publishing competitors trying to help those writers.

As our number of published authors grew into the thousands, many of them began asking for and requiring some level of marketing assistance. Since I’m a writer, I knew the marketing tactics I was pursuing personally; I knew which ones were successful and which ones weren’t. So we started adding marketing services and products to help support our authors after publication. We now offer the largest number of post-publication services in the industry, and often at prices that are literally thousands of dollars less than some of our other competitors. In fact, our marketing support has become one of our largest competitive advantages in this competitive landscape.

Last year, with the launch of our Version 4 website, we began offering many of these marketing services to authors even if they hadn’t published their book with Outskirts Press. Of course, we always give authors who DO publish with Outskirts a discount, as an additional incentive to encourage them to do ALL their business with us (as if our ever-growing rave reviews aren’t enough).

And now, with the launch of our first “One-Click” package we are taking the natural step to combine our top-tier publishing service (the Diamond) with a selection of marketing services specifically tailored toward a particular category of author. In this case, with our first One-Click package, that target audience is speakers & career coaches — in other words, busy professionals with platform-driven non-fiction who plan to support their professional careers with book publication. We have already published many, many professionals who fall in this category, so this new package draws upon that experience and provides a very fast, high-quality service for this market.

Needless to say, we’re very excited about it. I’ll discuss this package (and other packages coming up in the “One-Click” line) more next time…

self publishing

Small Press Department Changes at Barnes & Noble

Toward the end of January, Barnes & Noble reorganized its departments and staff. In the process, it laid off approximately 50 employees, including the Director of Small Press & Vendor Relations, Marcella Smith. Many small presses and independent publishers viewed Smith as a champion of independent book publishing. Those holding that view are now left wondering just how seriously Barnes & Noble will view small press publications in the future, in light of this reorganization. Personally, I question how seriously Barnes & Noble ever viewed small press publications, but that’s a topic for another day.

I met Marcella several times during Colorado Independent Publishers Association conferences. At Outskirts Press, we also communicated with her and others in the Small Press Department from time to time on behalf of our authors. In spite of these efforts, our authors more often found success being stocked in local Barnes & Noble stores through specific personal contact with local store managers rather than direct contact with the national small press department in New York.

Marcella always had interesting stories to share about her experiences, including a now-well known author (who shall remain nameless), who boldly placed copies of his self-published book on the shelves of random Barnes & Noble stores himself since they refused to stock it. The result? When people started bringing the mysterious inventory up to the register in droves, they were forced to enter it into their system and start ordering it. Talk about reverse engineering a process! Naturally, Ms. Smith advised AGAINST this tactic, as it caused them great havoc.

While it’s always sad to see someone lose a job they’ve held for so long, I have a suspicion Marcella Smith is going to be just fine. With the self-publishing industry growing so fast, and Marcella possessing the experience she does, it wouldn’t surprise me to see her land squarely on her feet in the warm embracing arms of a self-publishing firm…