President of Outskirts Press

Self-Publishing Verdict: UNBELIEVABLE!

Please allow me to momentarily interrupt my discussion of our Facebook self publishing achievement awards to share an author’s story. This is more than just a testimonial; it is an example of the rewarding, professional relationships we foster with our authors and how that engagement begins long before the production process, and long after the publication of the book.

Ellen Cumbess is just such a professional, and you may recall I wrote about her in a blog not too long ago when I shared the Tale of Two Custom Covers. Ellen came to us with a pretty clear idea of the cover she wanted (she already created it with a graphic software program). With our recommendation she selected the custom cover design option and then used our Social Media Market Research option to solicit industry opinion for assistance in selecting her final custom cover design from among the two professional options our designer created for her based on her own design. She was pleasantly surprised with how our designers took her initial concept and helped it blossom into a truly professional book cover. She proceeded through production to publication and then followed up with me personally with the following email, one that simultaneously communicates joy and the fact that publishing is not always a completely smooth journey– and that’s okay as long as the road is paved with mutual respect and professionalism.

Brent,

Ok….The jury is back and the verdict is in! UNBELIEVABLE!

Jodee was very helpful in the beginning – explaining the process and my choices. Then, I got the cover choices and my anxiety began to diminish. Then, Jennifer took control of my production. I asked her twenty questions (a week)….she patiently responded to them (despite my having asked many of them previously). We went over and over with edits. I feel pretty confident in saying that I jerked them around a bit – and they didn’t shake loose. Instead, they delivered.

Please commend my “team” for a beautifully executed project. The books arrived Friday and they are better than I had hoped. As I mentioned to Jennifer; I have started the sequel and I will be back!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

– Ellen Cumbess

As I said, our relationships with our authors don’t end at publication. Just this week, Ellen’s book was recognized as the Autobiography Custom Cover of the Week selection on our Facebook Page, where she received even more exposure in support of her excellent cover and ongoing marketing efforts. Keep it up, Ellen!

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Self Publishing Achievement Awards – Publishing Service Awards

On July 26th I revealed our Facebook Achievement Awards, the Outskirts Press “gamification” functionality we are currently rolling out to incentivize our authors to publish their books and have fun at the same time. There are 5 categories within our self-publishing achievement programs, and over the next couple weeks/months I’m focusing on each award in each category.

I’ve discussed three of the achievements in this category already. The remaining awards are specific to publishing services, and are relatively self-explanatory. Authors publishing under the Diamond package receive the Diamond achievement and authors publishing under the full-color Pearl package receive the Pearl achievement.

Once we have fully rolled-out these achievements and determine they are adding value and a “fun factor” for our authors, we will add an additional award to this category for authors publishing with one of our One-Click packages. Currently we have two separate One-Click packages, one designed specifically for coaches & speakers, and another designed specifically for children’s book authors.

Since an author cannot receive two package awards with the same book, this category requires publishing at least two books to “sweep” the category (and more once we added the One-Click award). But, by simply following the path the majority of our authors follow anyway, an author can earn 4/5 of the Production Milestones with one single book. Here’s how:

1. Register for a free Publishing Center and once inside your publishing center, complete the form to receive your complimentary brochure in the mail. That earns your Publishing Guide Award.
2. Order your down payment to be assigned your Publishing Consultant, receive your manuscript evaluation, and receive your Custom Publishing Profile. That earns your Down Payment Award.
3. Order your Diamond or Pearl publishing service. That earns your Publishing Service Award.
4. Complete the pre-production steps and approve Production to begin on your book. That earns your Approved Production Award (every Outskirts Press author will achievement this milestone, since approving production is a requirement for publication).

Next up, examining the next Category, the Production Achievement Awards…

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Production Milestones for Self Publishing Achievement Awards – Down Payment Award

The third award I will discuss in the first Production Milestones Category is the achievement earned for starting your book publishing process with a down payment. Like the first two milestone awards I have already discussed in this category, this is a very easy milestone to reach; and, in fact, the majority of our first time authors will earn this award since the majority of our authors choose to begin their publishing process with the $35 down payment. In addition to being applied to the publishing service fee, this down payment assigns the author’s personal Publishing Consultant and entitles the author to a manuscript evaluation (which often includes a free 1000-word spec edit). These features are among the benefits of publishing with Outskirts Press and, unlike many other publishers in our industry, it does not require much in the way of a financial investment to receive.

As such, the Down Payment Award is an easy achievement to earn. In fact, it might seem like EVERY author would receive this award, but not necessarily. More and more authors are skipping this step and choosing to order their full Publishing Service directly (since that speeds up their publishing process a little bit by skipping this Down Payment step — ). In either case, they still receive the manuscript evaluation and personal assistance of their Publishing Consultant. Authors who elect to pass on the Down Payment won’t win this achievement, but instead can win one of the Publishing Service awards, and I’ll discuss the Publishing Service awards within the Production Milestone Category next.

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Self Publishing Production Milestone Achievement Awards – Self Publishing Simplified

Another award in the first Production Milestones Category is the award our authors win when they register for a free Publishing Account and get their three free e-books, including our guide, Self-Publishing Simplified, and choose to receive our brochure through the mail. This is the easiest achievement to earn since all it requires is providing your email address so we can deliver your ebooks to you, and your mailing address so we can mail your brochure to you. In this manner, you also provide your user name to access your free Publishing Center, which we make available to all authors without obligation.

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Facebook Self Publishing Awards

In my previous post I described our new Facebook Achievements for our Outskirts Press authors. I described the five categories, achievements, and milestones. As I was doing this, the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words” popped into my mind, so now I’m just going to present our planned achievement graphics:

The excitement level is high for the launch of these new achievement awards. It should be any day now…

self publishing, Social Networking Sites

Facebook Achievements for Self Publishing Authors

In my June 21st post I blogged about the new Facebook Achievements we are launching at Outskirts Press for self-publishing authors. We’ve been conducting beta tests on the functionality for about a month now, and this follows what has been about 6 months of development time (off and on). The functionality is already “live” for new authors coming into Outskirts Press and soon we will be adding the functionality to all our current authors, too.

Our Facebook Achievements are based upon the concept of “gamification” which is the concept of motivating “action” in a user-base by providing awards and public recognition for accomplishing certain tasks — in essence, making a “game” out of something that is typically seen as more “mundane.” For most of our authors, publishing their book is one of the most exciting things they’ll ever do in their lives, so it’s not really necessary to “Reward” publication with an “Achievement Award.” But, with every book that is published, there are numerous steps (or milestones) that must be accomplished and some of them, to be honest, are more mundane than others. So our goal with our Facebook Achievements is to publicly acknowledge an author when he or she accomplishes important tasks in the pre-production, production, publishing, or marketing processes.

For Outskirts Press, we have divided our self publishing achievements into four categories, and the Award Graphics they can earn are “color-coded” to each category.

The first category is “Production Milestones,” which currently has 5 Achievement Awards, with a 6th one in the works. By publishing a book, every author will earn at least one award in this category and can relatively easily earn 2 out of the 6 awards. But it would require publishing at least 3 books to “Sweep” the Production Milestones category and earn all the awards.

The second category is “Production Achievements.” It is possible to publish a book without achieving a single award in this category, although from what we know of our authors, the majority of them will earn at least one (and the award they win in this category will often vary significantly depending upon the author and/or book). There are currently 4 achievements in this category with a 6th one in the works. It’s possible, although unlikely, that an author could sweep this category (meaning, win every award within the category) with a single book.

The third category is “Publishing Awards.” Every author who connects their Outskirts Press account with their Facebook account will receive their Published Book award once their book is published. These are the most complicated awards to program, so we currently have just one in this category, although more are planned.

The fourth category is “Marketing Achievements” which recognizes and acknowledges marketing tactics taken by the author after publication. We currently have 5 awards in this category, with more on the way. Many of our authors would sweep this category with relative ease because our authors already understand (or are educated on) the necessity of marketing a published book.

The final category is “Marketing Milestones,” granted when the author reaches a milestone in the marketing process by focusing on a particular area of marketing, such as publicity, Amazon, awards, book tours, or promotional materials, etc. The “Marketing Milestones” category and “Marketing Achievements” category are designed in such a way where it is extremely unlikely for an author to sweep both. In fact, just earning each Marketing Milestone award is quite an accomplishment, much less sweeping the entire category.

It might help to see the awards, divided by each category, so I’ll reveal that next time…

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Brent Sampson hears from another self-publishing author

Last week I shared a recent correspondence I had with one of our authors about his self publishing experience with Outskirts Press.

Here’s another one, beginning with the initial email we received from her, followed by my email to her seeking her permission to share it, and then followed by her response:

“Hello, My name is Thurston Gray. I recently published my book The Pendant Project: My Journey to Awareness Through Art with Outskirts Press. I wanted to let you know just how much I enjoyed my publishing experience…

Before I contacted Outskirts Press, I did my research. I spent hours online looking through the various companies that publish for independent authors. One of the things I most appreciated about Outskirts Press was the huge amount of information–clearly written–available on their website. The three free ebooks, explaining all of the publishing/printing options available, gave me detailed information (and pricing) for the options I was looking for. So when I did make contact directly I had a clear idea of the package and the additional a la carte items I wanted…that helped tremendously on planning my budget.

My first contact with Outskirts Press was with Jodee, my assigned Publishing Consultant. Amazing woman. I had thought I was all prepared but I still needed to learn a lot about self publishing. Jodee patiently answered every. single. one. of my questions in a professional, prompt manner. She has amazing skill at ‘settling’ a newbie author. In short time, Jodee transferred me (and my book, no longer just a manuscript, hehe) to Jennifer, my Author Representative.

Jennifer worked with me on the details of a printed book. Meaning that she walked me through the actual layout of the book. Finalizing the cover, notifying me when I submitted my images in the wrong dpi, then working with me when I decided to change the layout of the book-last minute. Again, just like with Jodee, Jennifer was thoughtful, patient and very willing to answer and explain, if needed, my questions. Jennifer helped me to find the best layout to make my book profitable, sellable. She worked with the production team and, together, they came up with beautiful layout which truly made my book, with it’s 100 images, make sense and flow for the reader. Genius!

Dana did all of the paperwork to facilitate my Unique ISBN and the Library of Congress listing. And then she sent me an email confirming the registration. Big day, holding my ISBN number in my hands.

I am incredibly proud of my book. It looks great. When my author copies were delivered, I opened the box and promptly burst into tears. In my hands was a beautiful version of my dream. Thank you. My book is my personal journey of healing from trauma. My audience, my reader, is very specific. Within the covers of my book are words of encouragement, understanding and support. Words that I did not receive. My motivation for publishing was to let other survivors know they were not alone.

My book has been listed on Amazon for three weeks now. I have received many emails thanking me for telling my experience. That I offered support and understanding; they were touched. They felt connected.

I hope that all of the good people at Outskirts Press get this…because you show up, and simply do your job, you touch people’s lives. You make a difference. For me, certainly. I wouldn’t have a book without you. But also for every. single. person. who reads it. Your work connected us, the reader to me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thurston Gray”

We receive a lot of emails like this from our authors, but this one struck a chord with me because it offered such an insightful summary of the process from her perspective. I thought it might help other authors who were nervous or anxious about taking the self publishing step, so I wrote Thurston the following email:

“Your email about your experience publishing with Outskirts Press was forwarded to me. It’s wonderful. I think other authors would find it particularly helpful because it describes the process from an author’s point of view. Would you mind if we published your email on my blog at brentsampson.com and perhaps on our Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com? It might help other newbie authors feel more at ease with what to expect…”

In true gracious form, she wrote back:

“Brent, I am glad you were forwarded email about my experience with Outskirts Press. I wanted everyone there to know how much I enjoyed it and how much each member of my Publishing Team participated in making my dream, my book, come true. Thank you.

Yes, you have my permission to use my email in any way you feel it would benefit other authors. I really appreciate the opportunity of lending my voice to the experience of self publishing with Outskirts Press!”

And, on a side note, her book really is wonderful… Congratulations, Thurston!

Brent Sampson, self publishing

Brent Sampson analyzes the Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Finalists and Public Poll Results

It’s been a number of weeks since Susan Mercer won the 2011 Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year award with her workbook, Pathway to Math Proficiency: Mastering Equivalent Fractions, Decimals and Percents…with Ease. She was up against two other Outskirts Press finalists: Bolko Zimmer, author of Angelic Warfare: The Stones of Fire; and Glenn Skinner, author of The Keya Quests: The Battle for Shivenridge.

Since part of winning the Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year award requires the author’s tenacious book marketing efforts, it was interesting to watch the behind-the-scenes efforts these three authors employed in order to win, including email campaigns, Facebook “calls to action,” tweets galore, and professional urging within their career- and hobbyist-circles. While both Susan and Glenn had published previous books with Outskirts Press before, this was Bolko’s first. As a result, both Susan and Glenn had already established their “author platform” for their first books while Bolko had a lot of work to do to catch up — book marketing is not an overnight ordeal; it takes time to build your promotional platform so you can successfully call upon it when necessary. Yes, it’s true that self-publishing can appeal to the “instant gratification” seekers, because submitting a manuscript and hitting “publish” is so fast and easy nowadays. But successful self-publishing takes time, perseverance, and professionalism.

Knowing that makes it easier to see why the public polls between the three finalists turned out the way they did, and demonstrates the importance of establishing an author platform and social media presence as soon as possible in your writing career. Both Susan and Glenn’s previous books with Outskirts Press were also EVVY nominees and award-winners with various contests and those successes became building blocks toward a strong, foundational online presence, as well as a strong presence in their fields (education/math and fantasy fiction, respectively). Our third finalist, Bolko, has already taken very important steps to establish his author platform. He started immediately upon notification that he was one of the finalists. Yes, perhaps a little too late in this particular case, but his book demonstrates all the characteristics of a talented writer – I’m confident he will be back in the running in the near future; and then, with his marketing prowess flexing its muscles, he will be prepared to shine. Congrats to them all!

Brent Sampson

Author’s message to Brent Sampson

I’m easy to reach. In fact, I reach out to all our new authors who haven’t selected their publishing service within 4 days of starting with us, since that typically indicates they’re either still writing or still researching their publishing options — and in either case I can help. The result of communicating directly with our authors is that I often receive wonderful feedback from them, such as this email from Mike Sullivan:

“As my book enters the final stages, here is my view of the process. First, your staff was exemplary in responding to any questions I sent and I would highly recommend Outskirts to anyone.

Two suggestions: One, on the page with the trim selections, add a note that if your text is typed on 8 and 1/2 by 11, then the corresponding trim size is _____. Or instruct the writer to go into the documents, click size and convert to the desired trim size. I was really confused by this but Stephen was very good at guiding me thru the steps.

Secondly, note that the Author ID#is also the Title ID#. Here’s why: I elected to buy the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook packages. Kindle wanted to know my Title ID#. It took several emails to Outskirts to find out the Title ID# is the Author ID#. The emphasis on email correspondence, not actually person-person, could be a little intimidating unless, like myself, I had thoroughly looked in all the options and knew exactly what I wanted. But that was a small point of concern. On a scale of 1-10, you are an 11!!!!.

Thanks again, Mike Sullivan”

Mike’s right, there is sometimes a point of confusion for new authors when the “size” of their manuscript changes in physical size from the original word processor trim size of 8.5 x 11 to the more common book size of 8×5 or 6×9, and this change in size results in a greater number of pages for the final book (which affects the book’s pricing). His suggestion is a good one and we do have a table that provides some of the most common page count ranges and their corresponding trim sizes to make that conversion easier (although, ultimately, we perform this conversion for our authors’ convenience).

His second point gives some indication of just how logistic the publishing steps can be (and why it is a good idea to go into it with a self publishing partner like Outskirts Press in your corner). The number Amazon was most likely seeking for his Kindle edition was probably either the book’s ISBN or AISN (the latter being Amazon’s own internal identification number); since our Author ID and Title ID numbers are our proprietary internal numbers, external channels won’t require them (and with our services, we deal with all those technical details with Kindle and Nook anyway, although we help authors understand these processes if they so desire). The Author ID is simply a 5 or 6 digit numeric number representing the order in which authors start their publishing process with us (it reached 6 digits when we passed 100,000 registered authors). The Title ID is that number with a corresponding letter (representing a specific book from that specific author). So, for instance, the Author ID for our Facebook Anthologies is 43646. The Title ID for Fandemonium Volume 1 is 43646A and the Title ID for Fandemonium Volume 2 is 43646B.

Thank you for the great email and feedback, Mike.