Here’s a fun posting today guaranteed to put a smile on your face. It’s a parody music video from “Weird Al” Yankovic titled “Word Crimes.” It’s funny no matter who you are, but it’s hilarious if you happen to be a writer and/or English major. Enjoy!
If you fear you may be guilty of word crimes, check out the professional editing services at Outskirts Press.
Every year Outskirts Press donates a percentage of its revenue to good causes and charities, typically revolving around literacy. One of our strongest and long-lasting alliances has been with the Colorado Humanities, and specifically the Colorado Book Awards. For the last few years I have been the presenter or co-presenter for the awards banquet that used to take place annually in Aspen until it moved to Parker, Colorado (home of Outskirts Press) a couple years ago. I believe there may even still be some videos of the previous awards ceremonies on the Colorado Humanities website.
Now the 2018 Colorado Book Award Finalists have been announced. Finalists will read select passages from their works at BookBar in Denver throughout April and May. You can see a full list of the finalists here. Congratulations to them all!
In January we started giving a Publishing Kit to every new author registering for a free Publishing Center Account with Outskirts Press. In the past, we had offered two books: our publishing guide and a book I collaborated with five of our most successful authors on a number of years ago. We wanted to update our offer and also sweeten the deal, so the “two free books” offer was updated to a Free Publishing Kit. We saw an immediate uptick in new authors so I think it’s safe to say the new Kit is a success.
The new Publishing Kit is available immediately upon new author registration from our website and provides immediate access to all of the following:
If you’re new to self-publishing, or just to Outskirts Press, you can receive your Publishing Kit instantly without obligation from our website at OutskirtsPress.com
We launch one or two new options for our current and future clients about once a quarter. Some are more exciting than others. Our new upcoming option falls into the “very exciting” category! This quarter we’re launching our new Audio Book option, which has topped several surveys sent to our client-authors as the most requested service they wish we offered.
As I’ve often said in the past, I’m the “guinea pig” for many of our services, to make sure they provide the necessary value for our authors. The Audio Book option is no exception. Allow me to be the first to introduce the new Sell Your Book on Amazon Audio Book, available soon through headphones near you.
You heard it here first!
For the first time since 2014, “losing weight” was NOT the #1 New Year’s Resolution, according to Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. The new #1 is “being a better person.”
Losing weight and exercising more tied for 2nd place.
In third place was spending less and saving more money.
And that’s where Outskirts Press can help you, especially if publishing a book is ALSO one of your New Year’s Resolutions, as it often is for many, many people every year.
All month long you can save 17% on the a la carte package of your choice. See all the details here: http://outskirtspress.com/book-publishing.html
Here’s to your great successes in the coming year!
Every year some of us take a moment away from helping authors publish and market their books to enjoy the holiday season (and a good meal). From our family to yours, here’s wishing you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Okay, I’m not completely immune to Internet fads and trends. Check out our annual themed Christmas Party #mannequinchallenge (which explains the pajamas).
Happy holidays, one and all. Enjoy…
2016 has been quite a year for Outskirts Press authors! For the first time ever, one of our authors has back-to-back wins in our annual Best Book of the Year Awards. Andrew Ceroni followed-up on last year’s win for Snow Men with another win this year with MERIDIAN. He is now leveraging those successes to land a literary agent and a publishing contract.
In fact, so many of our authors win so many awards for their books, it becomes impossible to list all of them. That’s why we have a Pinterest board devoted to all our award-winning books. Take a look!
And that’s why we interview so many of our amazing authors, like just recently…
Publishing a book is such an empowering experience, and all our authors have such amazing stories to share! Keep an eye on the Self Publishing News blog for even more interviews from, and feature spotlights on, our prolific and award-winning authors in 2017, like…
Dr. Dawn Menge
Who has published 7 children’s books thus far, and each one of them has won at least 3 awards!
Dr. T. Charles Brantley
Who has published 21 books thus far, and counts among our most prolific clients!
Brooke Lewis
Who just published book #2, with many more to come. See her red carpet interview here, and just a few of her many television appearances here and here.
Nikki DuBose
Who just published book #1, but what a book it is — a tell-all memoir and a bombshell to the modeling industry! See just a few of her many television interviews here and here.
But awards and interviews are just a small example of all the amazing accomplishments our authors have enjoyed over the past year. For instance, Landria Onkka’s first of two books with Outskirts Press, The Rooftop Christmas Tree, was optioned for a cable television movie earlier this year and went into production soon thereafter.
It stars Michelle Morgan and Tim Reid and it is premiered on Up TV on November 27th. Check out the trailer here and be sure to watch this heart-warming family movie-based-upon-the-book as it airs throughout the holiday season.
There are so many more success stories from 2016 — when you publish around 1500 books a year by around 1000 talented writers, success stories occur daily– and you can read about a newly published author every day here.
Congratulations to them all! And here’s to an equally amazing 2017!
In the continuing theme of giving thanks this month, and recognizing the accomplishments of our amazing authors at Outskirts Press, I wanted to bring everyone’s attention to our Pinterest Boards at http://pinterest.com/outskirtspress, particularly the Board that lists our award-winning authors and their books. We have several boards that do this, including one devoted to our Best Book of the Year awards; but as impressive as that is, perhaps even more impressive is this one, which lists all our award-winning books that we know of (if your book should be on this board and isn’t, please tell us):
The direct link to our Award-Winning Books by Outskirts Press Authors Pinterest board is at: https://www.pinterest.com/outskirtspress/award-winning-books-by-outskirts-press-authors/
We’ve always said Outskirts Press is where award-winning writers publish award-winning books. And now you can see why…
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
In this week’s theme of recognizing 2016 accomplishments, we just found out that Colorado Biz Magazine has recognized Outskirts Press as a Top Private Company.
This is a testament to all the hard work by all our people, and a testament to all our talented authors, who publish, market, and sell exemplary books that blow the competition away!
President of Outskirts Press 