Custom Book Publishing with OutskirtsPress.com

Book of the Year Finalists

2007-03-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

Nearly 1,400 books were entered in 59 different
categories from 419 different publishers. Now the finalists
for ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards
have been announced!

Congratulations to The
Incredible Adventures of Enrique Diaz and The
Literary Six, both published by Outskirts Press.

This
is the remarkable tale of Enrique Diaz, a young fifteenth-century
Portuguese Catholic who sets off to realize his dream--to
find an elusive utopian paradise in the heart of Africa--accompanied
by his two sidekicks, a Portuguese Jew and a Moor. Traveling
by ship, cart, and caravan, the three explorers encounter
perils galore--pirates and storms at sea, slave traders
and murderous thieves on land. They explore the exotic
casbahs of Morocco...the mysterious ruins of ancient Egypt...the
hidden civilization of Abyssinia, keepers of the Ark of
the Covenant...the awe-inspiring holy city of Mecca...and
return again to Renaissance Europe. En route the young
travelers taste the richness of each other's religions--and
win the hearts of their true loves.

For
the faculty, students, and alumni of Bendleton University,
The Literary Six was the scourge of its collective existence
for four long years. Notorious across the campus for its
snobby witticisms and scathing critiques of the university,
its faculty, its students, and its founders, this elite
group of college literati fashioned itself in the likeness
of Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Round Table - an irreverent
group of playwrights, theatre critics, and novelists who
regularly lunched at the historic Algonquin Hotel in the
1920s. Indeed, graduation day for the members of The Literary
Six brought a sigh of relief for many on the receiving end
of the group's caustic pen.

Outskirts Press Officially Nominates 38 Published Books for 13th Annual EVVY Awards

2007-03-13T16:30:00.001-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

38 officially nominated books by print-on-demand publisher Outskirts Press demonstrate publishing quality for 2007 EVVY Awards, held by the Colorado Independent Publishers Association.

Outskirts Press Officially Nominates 38 Published Books for 13th Annual EVVY Awards

March 15, 2007. Denver, Colorado – Of the approximately 800 books published by Colorado publisher Outskirts Press in 2006, less than 5% are nominated to participate in the prestigious EVVY Awards, an annual independent book award contest sponsored by the Colorado Independent Publishers Association. An Outskirts Press official Nomination is high recognition of a book’s excellence in its own right and is the first step toward winning a coveted EVVY Award.

Last year, Outskirts Press took home 8 awards, more than any other publisher, including first place awards in the inspirational/self-help category for Enough Already! and in the autobiography/memoirs category for Adios, Havana.

“Like the college student who earns a diploma for finishing at the top of his class, Adios, Havana [was] catapulted from the slush pile to the pinnacle of memoirs by winning a prestigious EVVY award,” states Andrew J. Rodriguez, award-winning author of Adios, Havana. “This tribute is my best credential to access audiences otherwise impossible to reach by a self-published author.”

In its 13th year, the 2007 EVVY Awards are being held by the Colorado Independent Publishers Association to recognize excellence in self-published and independently published books. Entries are judged by a panel of independent judges who are experts and professionals in their respective category fields.

Categories include autobiography/memoirs, biography/history, business/finance, fiction, how-to, inspirational/self-help, juvenile, non-fiction experiences, poetry, political/social, spirituality/religion, and travel. Outskirts Press nominated at least two books for each of the categories mentioned above and in 2007 hopes to demonstrate once again that on-demand publishing can be synonymous with quality publishing.

“Outskirts Press was our most winning publisher at the 2006 CIPA EVVY Awards,” says Lydia Griffin, Chair, 2006 EVVY Awards and CIPA President, 2006-2007. “Each unique title was praised by the judges for being well-written, interesting to read, and with a competitive, quality design. We can’t wait to see what Outskirts submits next!”

The 2007 Outskirts Press official nominees were announced in a recent email newsletter at http://outskirtspress.com/newsletters/012007.htm and the winners will be recognized and awarded during the CIPA College and EVVY Awards Gala on Friday night, March 23rd, at the Red Lion Hotel in Denver, Colorado.

About Outskirts Press

Located in Parker, Colorado on the outskirts of Denver and online at www.outskirtspress.com, Outskirts Press, Inc. publishes high-quality paperback and hardback books for individual writers as well as businesses on an as-needed, on-demand basis. Through its turn-key, customized book publishing services, Outskirts Press offers unprecedented power to the author, including creative control and pricing authority.

BrentSampson.com Website Launched

2007-03-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

My personal website at www.BrentSampson.com has now officially gone up. Well, it's not a personal website, per se, but more of a professional one, personally.

Outskirts Press and Writer’s Digest Partner for 76th Writing Competition Collection

2007-03-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

High-quality on-demand publisher Outskirts Press will sponsor and publish the 76th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Contest Collection for F&W Publications, Inc.

Writer’s Digest Partners with Outskirts Press for Writing Competition Publication

March 5, 2007. Denver, Colorado and Cincinnati, Ohio – F & W Publications, Inc. and Outskirts Press, Inc. jointly announced their continuing partnership focusing on Writer’s Digest’s most established writing competition. The 76th Annual Writing Competition Collection will be published by Outskirts Press and made available for retail and wholesale distribution in November of 2007. Outskirts Press previously published the 75th and 74th Annual editions.

“Outskirts Press is excited to continue our publishing partnership with Writer’s Digest,” states CEO Brent Sampson. “Not only is Writer’s Digest the premier writing magazine, but these publications showcase the quality that Outskirts Press is famous for. This partnership demonstrates on-demand publishing’s business-to-business applicability and simultaneously enables us to demonstrate the advantages to our target audience – writers.”By publishing through Outskirts Press, F & W Publications can re-open additional revenue streams and promotional opportunities. The archived annual compilations require no warehouse space and no inventory management. Plus, writers published in the collection will never be out of print again.

About Writer’s Digest

Writer’s Digest, the world’s leading magazine for writers, is published by F+W Publications, Inc., one of the world’s largest publishers of books and magazines for enthusiasts. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, F+W employs approximately 1,000 associates worldwide and operates offices in Devon (England), Boston, Denver, New York City, Savannah, Herndon (Virginia) and Iola (Wisconsin). The Company’s publications target hobbyists and enthusiasts in categories such as writing, fine art, equestrian, genealogy, crafts, antiques, various collectibles, coins and the outdoors.

About Outskirts Press

Located in Parker, Colorado on the outskirts of Denver and online at http://www.outskirtspress.com/, Outskirts Press, Inc. publishes high-quality paperback and hardback books for individual writers as well as businesses on an as-needed, on-demand basis. Through its turn-key, customized book publishing services, Outskirts Press offers unprecedented power to the author, including creative control and pricing authority.

PRINT ON DEMAND PUBLISHERS ANSWER GORE’S PLEA FOR CONSERVATION

2007-03-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

In the wake of the Academy Awards, print-on-demand publishers follow Al Gore’s lead to protect and conserve Earth’s natural resources by featuring no-waste, no-inventory printing with post-consumer, recycled paper options.

Small Press Month runs from March 1 through 31 and is an annual celebration of the innovative spirit of small, independent, and alternative publishers. Their spirit soars in the face of controversy and stigma exaggerated by conglomerate, traditional publishers in New York who do not like what small presses, independent publishers, and print-on-demand companies represent for the more traditional publishing business model. One thing print-on-demand publishers do represent is conservationism.

Unlike traditional publishers who print 50,000 copies of a book only to destroy 40%-60% of them on average, print-on-demand publishing companies use technological advances in digital printing and electronic distribution to produce one book at a time. Books are printed only after they are purchased, only after there is a need.
“The magnitude of waste within the traditional publishing business is astronomical,” says on-demand publisher Brent Sampson, president and CEO of Outskirts Press, Inc. “It is no longer an inconvenient truth but rather an out-and-out fact. Earth cannot continue to weather this storm. All industries must find ways to conserve and recycle. For the publishing industry, the best way to do that is to not print books that have not already been bought.”

While there are no hard and accurate numbers to determine the number of trees involved in an average Random House failure, it can be roughly estimated that 500 sheets of 8.5x11 paper requires about 5% of an average tree. With the common hardback page count in the 500-700 page range, 5% of a tree doesn’t last long within a 50,000 print-run. Books that are not quickly sold at full retail prices are remaindered and discounted up to 75% off before being returned to the corporate publishers, who subsequently destroy them. Returns on some traditionally published books reach 70%.

On the other hand, print-on-demand publishers like Outskirts Press employ conservation tactics wherever possible. Books are printed when they are demanded by the consumer. Additionally, the most common book sizes feature recycled paper.

“Our most popular sizes are 5x8, 5.5x8.5, and 6x9,” Brent Sampson states. “The paper used to print books in these common sizes are post-consumer, featuring 30% recycled materials. Not only do we avoid print-runs that may be unnecessarily high, we are cognizant of opportunities to conserve even within the normal course of business.”

It has been estimated that approximately 7 trees are conserved for every ton of 30% postconsumer paper used.

ABOUT OUTSKIRTS PRESS

Located in Parker, Colorado on the outskirts of Denver and online at www.outskirtspress.com, Outskirts Press, Inc. publishes high-quality paperback and hardback books for individual writers as well as businesses on an as-needed, on-demand basis. Through its turn-key, customized book publishing services, Outskirts Press offers unprecedented power to the author, including creative control and pricing authority.

6 Tips for Establishing Your Expertise

2007-02-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

Like the Internet itself, online marketing resources such as blogs, chat rooms, and user groups are vast and puzzling. On one hand they offer that elusive “promise land” of free and effective marketing. On the other, they embody a “time sink” of astronomical proportions. They have addictive qualities, but their effectiveness is measured only by your own self-control.

That said, let’s briefly describe each opportunity and explore their potential.

“Blog” is short for “web log” – an online diary of sorts that is relatively user-friendly, at least by Internet standards. Through free services such as Blogger.com, an author (or “blogger” as they have come to be known) can compose content and then, with the click of a button, become “published” online within a matter of seconds for the world to see.

Whether or not the world actually does see it, however, is a matter of distribution (just like a published book!). The topic of distributing blogs is outside the scope of this article, but may be one I tackle in an upcoming newsletter. Suffice it to say, it’s a little more technical, requiring techno-babble references to jargon-esque acronyms and geek-speak like .xml, atom, and RSS.

In the meantime, let’s discuss the other two Internet venues. Online chat rooms and user groups also provide a forum for the online promoter. While they share similarities with blogs they lack some of the distribution possibilities. Yahoo offers both chat rooms and use groups/bulletin boards organized by subject, and you can find similarly themed groups on Google.

I briefly discuss blogs, chat rooms, and user groups in my book Publishing Gems: Insider Information for the Self-Publishing Writer when I discuss ways in which to establish yourself as an expert.

Become an expert in your field and book sales will follow. It’s true that promoting a book requires a great amount of resolve, but it is also true that working smarter, rather than harder, can help reap those rewards. By projecting yourself as an expert in the genre in which you write, you can open new doors for networking, doors that often remain shut without that expertise status.

1 Write a book

You’ve done this already, right? If you haven’t, consider it. You may find yourself closer to a finished manuscript than you realize. Writing a publishable book from your knowledge or experience is often a matter of simply putting your expertise on paper.

2 Publish your book

A published book becomes a calling card to line-up speaking engagements, freelance writing gigs, and other opportunities. Don’t become a victim of “Catch-22 Paralysis” where you can’t promote because no one knows about you, but no one knows about you since you can’t promote. Instead, become a “Catch-all front runner” where you’re an expert because you have published a book, and your published book proves your expertise.

3 Promote your expertise

Two good places to begin are AOL and ABOUT.COM. Both have category-specific forums in which you can participate. By mentioning that you are the “author of such-and-such” within the scope of your communication, you begin to label yourself as an expert.

Web-logs, or “blogs” are also a cost effective, efficient way to promote your expertise. Blogs utilize .xml and RSS feeds to provide dynamic, up-to-the minute publication across a variety of searchable platforms. The integration between blogs and contextual search engines becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy toward recognition. If you write about something, people searching for the topic will invariably find you, and that makes you an expert!

4 Overcome the fiction hurdle

Being recognized as an expert in a technical or non-fiction category is admittedly easier than the largely subjective category of a fiction expert. Even so, if you have written a work of fiction, becoming a recognized expert is not only possible, but necessary. Just look at Clancy, Rowling, and Robbins.

5 Explore the possibilities

Whether you’ve penned a techno-thriller, children’s fantasy, or romance, there is a forum in which to voice your expertise. The Internet is full of chat rooms, writing groups, genre-sites, and more. They’re all thirsty for content from published writers. You just have to know where to look. Conducting a Google search is a good place to start.

6 Join, participate, schmooze

Seek out conferences, associations, and other experts to help you. Outskirts Press is a member of PMA, SPAN, CIPA, SPAWN, and the BBB, just to name a few. This leads to professional relationships with experts, mentors, and opportunities.

Writers Digest and Outskirts Press Together Again

2007-01-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

WRITER’S DIGEST
MAGAZINE PARTNERS WITH

OUTSKIRTS PRESS FOR THE 2007

WRITING COMPETITION COLLECTION

Win $3,000 and a free trip to New York

January
14, 2007. Denver, Colorado and Cincinnati, Ohio
– F&W Publications, Inc. and Outskirts Press, Inc.
proudly announce the continuation of its yearly partnership
focusing on Writer’s Digest’s most established writing
competition. Specifically, the 76th Annual Writing Competition
Collection will be published by Outskirts Press and made available
for retail and wholesale distribution in November of 2007.

This marks the 3rd year in a row Writer's Digest
has selected Outskirts Press to be its exclusive publisher of
the Writer's Digest Annual Writing Contest Collection.

“Writer’s Digest magazine sponsors
one of the oldest, most prestigious annual writing competitions
in the country,” says Writer’s Digest publisher
Colleen Cannon. “Winning this competition can help launch
a writer’s career.”

Ms. Cannon believes the magazine’s partnership
with Outskirts Press will help Writer’s Digest and its
competition winners gain even more recognition. “Broader
distribution opportunities and aggressive marketing of the compilation
will increase visibility of the Writer’s Digest brand
in the publishing community.”

“Outskirts Press is excited to once again
be publishing the annual Writer's Digest collection,”
states Outskirts Press President & CEO Brent Sampson. “Not
only is Writer’s Digest the premier writing magazine,
but these yearly collections demonstrate the advantages of Outskirts
Press book publishing services to our target audience –
writers.”

The
Grand Prize winner receives $3,000 in cash, a trip to New York
to meet with editors/agents, and a free Diamond publishing package
from Outskirts Press.

Don't worry! There is no reason to wait until
the winners are announced to begin the publishing process with
Outskirts Press. The Grand-Prize winner will receive
a refund of the full publishing package price paid
and the book will be upgraded to a Diamond.

Start
the publishing process with Outskirts Press here

See
the official contest rules and entry form here

About
Writer’s Digest

Writer’s Digest, the world’s leading
magazine for writers, is published by F+W Publications, Inc.,
one of the world’s largest publishers of books and magazines
for enthusiasts. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, F+W employs
approximately 1,000 associates worldwide and operates offices
in Devon (England), Boston, Denver, New York City, Savannah,
Herndon (Virginia) and Iola (Wisconsin). The Company’s
publications target hobbyists and enthusiasts in categories
such as writing, fine art, equestrian, genealogy, crafts, antiques,
various collectibles, coins and the outdoors.

About Outskirts Press

Located in Parker, Colorado, and online at http://outskirtspress.com,
Outskirts Press publishes high quality paperback and hardback
books for individual writers as well as businesses. Through
its turn-key, custom book publishing services, Outskirts Press
offers unprecedented power to the author, including creative
control, pricing authority, and quantity influence.

Contact

Jeanine Sampson

Outskirts Press, Inc.

10940 S. Parker Rd. – 515

Parker, CO 80134

Tara Johnson

F & W Publications, Inc.

4700 East Galbraith Road

Cincinnati, OH 45236

New Year's Resolutions for Writers

2007-01-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

Did you know that year after year, the number 1 and number 2 most popular new year's resolutions are:

Lose weight
Publish a book

You might be on your own with #1, but there is a way to accomplish #2, and more successfully, quickly, and affordably than you can imagine.

On-demand publishing helps legions of writers accomplish the second most common New Year's Resolution: publishing a book! It is important to remember that "Getting Published" the right way depends upon more than just finishing your manuscript and sending it off to a publishing company.

There are a number of important factors to consider.

Publication Timeframe

Between traditional publishers and digital book mills, the timeframe for your book's publication may range between 24 months and 24 hours. Both extremes should be avoided. Traditional publishing houses often take up to 24 months to reject a book. Author stories are common about publishers who initially accepted their book for mainstream publication, only to reject it 18-24 months later because the "Marketing Department" didn't consider it feasible. If you have experienced a similar situation, you are a good candidate for on-demand publishing.

On the other hand, digital dot-com book mills on the Internet claim to publish books instantly. One even features a graphic of a "machine" publishing your book for you. How comforting! Machines can do anything in 24 hours, except love something. After the time you invested in your book, you should seek a publishing process that is a bit more... human.

The proper timeframe for book publication is somewhere in between those two extremes. Six weeks is not unreasonable. Nor is 6 months.

Up-Front Costs

Between traditional publishers and off-set vanity presses, the up-front costs for book publication range between $0 and tens-of-thousands of dollars. Just like the timeframe range, both extremes should be avoided. Publishing in the tens-of-thousands range is primarily paying for an off-set print run for books that will then need to be stored (incurring another fee for inventory management).

On the other hand, free publishing requires something even more valuable than a one-time finite fee, like your publishing rights (or something even worse). One dot-com book mill's CEO describes his company's business model in the following trite terms: "One man's trash is another man's treasure." The "trash" he refers to are the books they publish. Not surprisingly, this is the same company that has a "machine" publishing books for them. Yes, machines often generate trash. Proceed with caution.

The proper cost is somewhere in between.

Recurring Back-End Costs

Most authors are unaware of back-end costs at all (and publishers take advantage of that). Be different. Inform yourself by reading and understanding this next section.
Back-end costs include your author's copy price, your retail price/profit margin differential, and your royalties. Most authors focus solely on the one-time-only front-end cost, even though the back-end costs are recurring month after month for the life of the book.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of 4 leading on-demand publisher's back-end costs for a 5.5" x 8.5" hardback book (224 pages) with a dust jacket:

This is based upon an actual book published by an on-demand publisher, titled Pretty Blue, for which the author selected the trim size, the hardback edition upgrade, and set the retail price ($24.95), the distributor discount (20%), and the royalty (29%).

If you have already published your book with an on-demand publisher, closely examine what your back-end costs are costing you, and make the appropriate changes. Sometimes, changing publishers is more profitable in the long-run, even if it means absorbing another up-front publishing fee. Of course, only you can make that decision, but by knowing the differences between finite up-front costs, and on-going back-end costs, you are better equipped to make those decisions profitably. Don't just accomplish that New Year's Resolution in 2007. Accomplish it well.

Press Release: Increase author royalties by 300%

2006-01-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Best-selling Author Increases Royalties by 300%

Denver, Colorado, January 10, 2005 - Alan Ritz, the best-selling author in six different categories on Amazon.com switched his book to Outskirts Press last October and increased his royalties from 15% to 55% as a result. For a best-selling title on Amazon, that switch translates into big bucks for the author. His 4th quarter royalties alone will be over $9,000 higher because of his decision to move publishers.* And that is mostly just for sales in November and December.

“I am interested in a long-term partnership,” stated Mr. Ritz regarding the decision to move his book to Outskirts Press, “and I considered [the] services to be of higher quality and value.”

Mr. Ritz made his decision to leave his previous publisher, AuthorHouse, after just two months due to strategic differences and the low royalty. “Their royalties are not a secret. An author has to select between 5%, 10%, or 15% royalties for Amazon, which is still extremely low.” Even though he selected the highest royalty allowed, he was making just $3.74 on a retail price of $24.95.

“We are pleased to offer a better value to talented authors like Alan Ritz and other writers who recognize the value of a better profit margin after publication,” said Outskirts Press President Brent Sampson. “Thanks to EDI distribution and business alliances with our wholesale partners, we can secure online distribution with Barnes & Noble and Amazon for a fraction of their usual margin. That excess money can go into our authors’ pockets.”

In Mr. Ritz’s case, that margin differential translates to a profit of nearly $14 for every book sold through Outskirts Press’s extensive distribution network of wholesalers and online retailers. A royalty of 55% on the retail price is unheard of in the publishing industry, but Outskirts Press continues to pave the way toward book publishing of the future.
To see if Outskirts Press EDI Distribution and Fulfillment Services can help put more money into your pocket with less work, try our Exclusive Pricing Matrix here.

2005 A Year in Review for Outskirts Press

2005-12-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

Outskirts Press has experienced phenomenal growth in the past year. In fact, since we launched in 2002, we have seen a 49,900% increase. The reasons for our growth are simple. We are the only publishing service provider that lets the author set their own retail price and royalty.

Here is an exciting example: An author recently brought his book to us from one of our competitors where he was earning around $3.50 with each book sold through Amazon.com. Now, with Outskirts Press, he is earning $13.76 for each book sold through Amazon. Same book, same retail price, nearly 400% more profit! So far he's been selling about 200 books a month on Amazon. Do that math in your head and see the advantages of Outskirts Press!

Visit this link to see calculate your own pricing when publishing with Outskirts Press: http://outskirtspress.com/pricing

2006 promises to be just as exciting as we launch our monthly Tele-seminar tour for our published authors and registered writers. More information about all the marketing initiatives we offer can be reviewed here: http://outskirtspress.com/marketing.php

2005 also saw the publication of not one but two of my new books. Publishing Gems: Inside Information for the Self-Publishing Writer was published in March. Then, Self-Publishing Simplified was published in October after a busy summer of modifications to the title, the cover, and the interior. In its first full month of publication it reached an Amazon ranking of 1,055, which doesn't sound like much but is actually very high.

In 2006 I hope to have my next book published, called 365 Days to Promote Your Book.

And, when I have time, I hope to continue keeping up with this blog-thing. Everything I read indicates it is time well-spent, but I'm not so sure. It sure is time-consuming, though!

Speaking of time consuming, when I was gung-ho and excited about "blogging" back in the dark ages (first quarter 2005), I often uploaded images to my blog. Some were of my son Aidan and others were of marketing concepts or possible covers for books. I haven't uploaded any images in a while because, frankly, it takes too long. So, in order to bring 2005's blog to a close, I figure it is appropriate to upload another image (although it doubles the time I have to spend on this). But, this picture is definitely worth it, don't you agree? I can see where he gets his good looks. (From his mom!)

Go, Aidan! Go, Aidan!

Here is to a wonderful 2006 for writers and readers everywhere!

Free Publishing Package Giveaway

2005-11-18T16:21:00.000-07:00

First of all, I wish I had the time to write on this blog to the degree that other "bloggers" seem to have. Whew-- where do they find the time?

Okay, on to other things. Outskirts Press is giving away a Sapphire Publishing Package in December. In fact, we're giving away the chance to win up to $500 of freebies and goodies. All you have to do is buy my book, "Self-Publishing Simplified" on Amazon for $5.95. What a bargain.

Here is the link to all the details.

Happy Halloween. October in review

2005-10-31T16:31:00.000-07:00

It was a busy month in the self-publishing and POD publishing world, at least as far as Outskirts Press was concerned. CIPA meetings got back into full swing and it looks like I might end up being a board member this year, if the nomination to the current board members goes okay. The annual SPAN conference was held in Colorado and Outskirts Press was in attendance as platinum patron exhibitors. This was the first time I got to speak in person on the possibilities inherent in adding on-demand editions of off-set book runs. Most publishers (even small and self-publishers) don't realize they have another option to Amazon Advantage, which charges 55% and a yearly fee for what we can accomplish for just 20%. I can't give away too much of the details since it will be the subject of an exciting live teleseminar that I will be conducting toward the middle of November. More details will be shared on our Outskirts Press newsletter.

If you're not yet receiving the newsletter, you can subscribe for free from our website at http://outskirtspress.com

I should also upload a picture of Aidan in his Halloween costume because he's just too stinkin' adorable, but I'd have to download it from the camera, then upload it to my blog directory, then write the img src code, blah blah, blah. So, suffice it to say, he's going to get bags of candy tonight.

Aidan's Birthday

2005-09-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

This post is a little late, since my son actually turned 1 on 9/15/05, but better late than never.

Speaking of which, I'm sneaking this in on the last day of September. When I first started this blog, I had high aspirations to post 1-2 messages a day. Now, I'm happy posting 1 message a month, so the "monthly index" at least LOOKS like I'm doing it consistently.

I'm not sold on this whole "blog thing." -- Busy people don't have time to do stuff like that, and those in the "blogosphere" are too busy writing their own blogs to read other people's -- but now that Google is introducing a search engine just for blogs (and I keep hearing that blogs are all the buzz), I'll keep up with it as I find time.

We've released the paperback version of Self-Publishing Simplified. It's $5.95 at Amazon and Barnes & Noble (who says on-demand books have to be expensive?), and it features a $20 instant mail-in rebate in the back pages. Is $5.95 worth $20? It is if you want to simplify the self-publishing process.

Check out http://outskirtspress.com/publishing for more.

Self-Publishing Simplified

2005-08-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

Our new publishing guide is finally finished. It takes what we started with "Adventures in Publishing" and offers a new interior lay-out, updates some of the information, and creates the definitive resource for publishing a book with Outskirts Press.

This book is available for free as an ebook download from the Outskirts Press website and will be available online from Amazon and Barnes & Noble and other retailers for a retail price of $5.95. This not only exhibits our distribution opportunities, but contradicts the stigma that POD books have to be expensive.

We've even included an instant $20 voucher in the paperback version bought from Amazon. I'll add an update when it's available.

Cheers.

New Writer's Digest ad

2005-07-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

I'm composing an article for the body content of our upcoming article. I have to fit it into 1/3 column but it's too long, so before I delete half of it for spacing, I figured I would post it here. The truth is out there:

GOT BULK?

An interesting trend is occurring in the on-demand publishing arena. Many print-on-demand companies are shooting themselves in the foot by championing pricing concepts carried over from the off-set printing industry.

Take for instance, bulk discounts.

When an off-set printer quotes a print-run of books, a bulk discount is typically offered to entice the author into purchasing additional copies. This is advantageous to the printer since the cost-per-unit decreases drastically, always outpacing the proffered discount.

On the surface, this even seems advantageous to the author. Why buy 5000 books at $1 each when you can by 10,000 books at .75 each? But, on the flip side, why pay $7,500 for a garage full of unsold books when you could only pay $5,000?

Where do Print-On-Demand companies fit in with all this bulk? That’s a good question, since the very nature of print-on-demand is mutually exclusive from quantity discounting.

By definition, a POD publisher prints a book when there is demand for it. Why would a POD offer bulk discounts to force authors into buying more copies than they need or want? Could it be that bulk discounting higher volumes allows some PODs to artificially inflate the unit price on lower quantities. Ironically, these low quantities are the very facet of the business that attracted the author in the first place. Talk about bait and switch.

Fortunately, savvy authors now have a choice. One company is simplifying self-publishing and simultaneously breaking the archaic pricing schemes offered by many PODs.

Outskirts Press bases their author copy prices on production cost, not arbitrary and often over-inflated retail pricing. The per-unit cost is the same for five copies as it is for 50 or 100. Why should authors be penalized for ordering only 5 copies of their POD book? Isn’t low quantities the point of on-demand?

If self-publishing has always interested you, but the advantages never seemed to outweigh the disadvantages, it is time to look at Outskirts Press. Their website is www.OutskirtsPress.com and they offer a free e-book to all new authors.

Self-Publishing Simplified

2005-06-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

We've implemented a new catch-phrase which describes exactly what we do and put it on the front page of our website. We simplify the self-publishing process by helping authors overcome the hurdles that prevent them from publishing a book.

It's different for every author. Some are waiting to secure a contract from an old-fashioned publisher. They could be waiting a long time. Others don't want to purchase 10 ISBNs from Bowkers just to self-publish one book. We provide single ISBNs.

Others don't know how to obtain and EAN barcode (or even what it is or why it's important). We do all that for them.

The Gem of Custom Publishing is who we are. Self-Publishing Simplified is what we do. Outskirts Press. What do you think?

Website Focus Group

2005-05-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

We conducted a focus group on the website to pin-point subtle ways of increasing its effectiveness. One thing we learned is that the "bookmarking" functionality we had at the top of the site was being confused for our logo. Not only that, but people thought it was being chopped in half (or they weren't at the top of the page) since the graphic was a half-circle. Easy solution -- we dumped that graphic and lost the "add to favorites" function, which probably wasn't being used anyway.

We offer a free 92-page e-book to every visitor to our site, but we learned that the it was a little confusing getting to the place to enter their email address, so we fixed that.

We're also adding audio to our site. Publishing Gems is the first book that showcases our new Audio Excerpts option, and OutskirtsPress.com also features audio beginning June 1.

No Apologies

2005-05-29T15:39:00.000-07:00

Sad to say, but I've joined the ranks of "bloggers" who enter 1, 2, 3 posting a day for a while and then slowly sink to apathy, barely able to conjure a posting a week, or even a month.

But, hey, that's what happens when life gets in the way! Or, when business gets in the way, to be more accurate.

Publishing Gems is off to the races, getting listings in The Denver Business Journal and stocking in the 3 local Tattered Cover Bookstores. There is an audio excerpt on the page linked above, which features me reading from the foreword.

Yes, Outskirts Press offer audio excerpts to is Ruby and Diamond authors who publish their books with us. Just another example of how Outskirts Press is leading the way on cutting edge technology for the publishing industry.

Self-Publishing Conspiracy

2005-04-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

Business trips, inclement weather, and book promotion have all conspired against updating this blog for a long period of time. The Amazon.com lists I was experimenting with appear to be working... sort of. I'll keep an eye on them and work on enhancing their effectiveness before sharing the strategy with Outskirts Press authors.

For example, right now Publishing Gems (http://outskirtspress.com/publishinggems) is hoovering between 100,000 and 250,000 on the Amazon list without any off-line promotion to speak of yet. I anticipate the Denver Business journal article will be hitting either today or next Wednesday and that may have some positive results. I'll be taking advantage of Outskirts Press' Press/Media CD Kit to generate some additional interest, hopefully to secure some on-air interviews. Speaking of which, one of our recent authors appeared on a television talk show in California and his first 9-day sales numbers are wonderful. Promotion really does make all the difference.

Can't find OutskirtsPress.net on Google yet, although we submitted it around a month ago. We continue to work on other search engine optimization techniques as they come forth. Ultimately, the most tried-and-true technique appears to be site longevity, and this is where many of our competitors unfortunately have us beat. Fortunately, we're compensating in other ways, and it's proving very successful.

Denver Business Journal

2005-03-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

There's not enough time in a day. But these blogs are important -- if not now, perhaps someday. It's providing content for some of our e-gems and I've linked to one of my blogs from within the OP Author's Center as the starting point for the new networking page. This is where author's can add their own blogs or webpages. It's just launching and has some more work to do.

A gentleman from the Denver Business Journal contacted us on Friday about Publishing Gems. We'll be conducting a phone interview today to discuss it. I'm curious how to found out about Publishing Gems, as I haven't sent out the press release yet. I have one version of the release, but I'm waiting to ask him how he heard about it before possibly rewriting it. Two different slants -- maybe I'll distribute both.

I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but the Adventures in Publishing cover for the paperback edition is being changed. The board approved re-doing it, possibly getting a number of different designers to provide concepts. We're having our next board meeting in Florida. We'll discuss it there.

It's be Aidan's first plane ride. He has a cold right now. Hopefully he gets better for his first visit to the ocean.

OutskirtsPress.net is up and operational and submitted to the search engines. It duplicates some of the amazon.com promotion we're doing so we'll see if we get an effective "cross trump" going.

Writing Associations

2005-03-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

We attended the CIPA College over the weekend. A lot of good information from a lot of talented and experienced people. It's also nice to meet some of our new and potential authors face to face.

Our COO continues to have strong reservations about the front cover of Adventures in Publishing -- and even the name isn't sitting pretty with her. We're examining our options, but it may delay the publication of that.

The e-book of Adventures will still be released as planned. The final version is done, including a hyperlinked Table of Contents for the convenience of the reader. The ebook alludes to some elements of our website that are not implemented yet, so we're pushing to get those future implementations done (or at least done enough) so we can release the e-book. It's free, and it's available at http://outskirtspress.com/publishing.

It'll be sent out this week, even if I have to pass on sleep completely. The major renovation to the site that is mentioned in the Guide is the Wholesalers section. In an unprecedented move, we're allowing all our registered users in the OP Community to act as wholesalers or distributors of all our books. They can buy any book published by Outskirts Press at the full trade discount price and sell it for retail to keep the profit. Due to our exclusive pricing model, the author still makes 100% of their set Book Profit, and this further helps with the distribution of our books, and the profit to our authors. We may have this operational this week, too.

I'm also suppose to mention our OutskirtsPress.net portal site for SEO purposes. So there you have it.

A Day Before CIPA

2005-03-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

The CIPA College starts tomorrow with the Newbie College, which I will not be attending but our COO will. All the pieces are in place, our displays, our brochures, our banners, our cards. I should be picking up 100 copies of Publishing Gems today. And by should be, I mean they should be there.

I had an epiphany about Listmania on Amazon.com. We'll see if my understanding about computer algorithms pays off as I watch some exposure for Publishing Gems soar. Too bad the cover art isn't up. That's the problem with revising it after publication -- it messes up the Ingram Feed, and then they (Amazon) seem to take forever to reupload the images, even when we submit them directly via FTP. Affects BN, too, although they're usually faster.

Adventures in Publishing is receiving it's final layout after I completed the edits yesterday. We'll do the indexing today and tomorrow. I might not have this free version available before the college, which was my deadline, but I have the webpage up and I'm collecting email addresses of people who are interested so we can send them the free ebook when it's done. My new goal is by the end of March. The ebook will be followed by the publication of the paperback, first weeks in April. No fooling.

A busy week

2005-03-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

This update is long overdue. This past week has been pretty hectic and my 6-month old is not sleeping all that well, lately, so lots of sleepless nights and crazy days. The CIPA college is this week so we've been in a rush to get everything done for that, including a display for our best books, a brochure holder, card holders, copious quantities of Publishing Gems and a 6 foot banner. We'll also be submitting Publishing Gems for the EVVY awards, so I need to get that submission form filled out today.

America's Curious Ways is the last EVVY entry we're submitting. All the others were submitted at the last CIPA meeting a month ago. That brings a total of 7 that Outskirts Press is submitting this year.

I'm also busy enhancing my "profile" on Amazon.com to add some articles and listmanias to further promote Publishing Gems and some of our other titles. Yesterday I submitted 11 "So you'd like to..." articles about various self-publishing topics ranging from plotting fiction to choosing a publisher. This feature on Amazon offers another way to promote books on their site and I'm going to give it a thorough test to see if it translates to more sales of Publishing Gems, which is already being sold online on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Although the cover has not been uploaded for either yet. They're resolving that today back at the office so that both online listings are complete, hopefully before the CIPA awards (after all, a complete online listing is one of the elements I stress for important book promotion in my book. Might be a good idea to put my money where my mouth is).

Final edits are ongoing for Adventures in Publishing. I plan on completing them today. Then we just have to do the index and that interior is complete. THe front cover is done. We have to finalize the back and spine and it'll be ready to go to print. We're going to change the file pretty considerably for the e-book version, but hopefully I can pull that off this week and it up and freely available from http://outskirtspress.com/publishing before the college, which begins this Thursday. Jeanine is going to the Thursday afternoon Newbie classes, and then we'll both be there all day Fri and Sat. It's at the Red Lion Inn in Denver, Colorado. Come see us.

Ti-i-i-ime...Isn't On My Side

2005-03-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

Time is getting short. I'm working like a dog to get Adventures in Publishing done and published in time for the CIPA College on March 17-20. I doubt I'm going to pull it off at this rate. The interior design is nearly done, but I want to increase the margins just slightly, which will throw off the page-breaks. These are page breaks that I've already designed to by adding or deleting content to make the sections as aesthetic as possible. There's a lot of content and information in this book and I really came away with just how valuable of a service we provide as I was writing it. We're going to offer it free as an e-book to anyone who joins our Outskirts Press community, plus the hardback will be available from Amazon.com for an unheard of price of $5.95. Who says on-demand books have to be expensive? This book will even feature a "Case Study" in the back the details exactly what options and pricing model was used. Anybody publishing with Outskirts Press can duplicate the same distribution and pricing structure if the follow the same specs of Adventures in Publishing. It's all outlined in the book.

The back cover is still a work in progress. I want to include samples of all of the cover choices, (25 images), plus some information about how easy it is to publish a book. There may not be room for both. The cover images are small enough already (25 images on a 6 x 9 back --). Plus room for the barcode, price, and Outskirts Press logo.

As if that we're enough, we're wrapping up for the big publication launch promotion, to be coordinated the last week of March. -- Which unfortunately is a week before our Florida trip. But I think the promotional infrastructure is in place to the point where it can run without me.

That plus the OutskirtsPress.net SEO efforts continue.

CEO Monotony

2005-03-01T14:02:00.000-07:00

These entries are sounding redundant. But, then again, life is kind of redundant. We're still working on promoting Publishing Gems, getting it finalized, and finishing up Adventures in Publishing. We're still working on SEO and I'm considering additional thinks OutskirtsPress.net can do for us other than simply being a SEO portal site. I have a concept, but since the BOD decision not to mention strategic thoughts here that haven't happened yet, I have to keep it to myself.

The good news is that the pages for Publishing Gems and Adventures in Publishing are going to be done here in the next week or so, including the final covers for both. The final front cover for Adventures is done. We still need to do the back. We also have to made moderate adjustments to the site, since the content of the book refers to things that WILL be done. Might as well make the book accurate when it's published, don't ya think?

Publishing Gems Final Cover

2005-02-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

Finally! Publishing Gems: Insider Information for the Self-Publishing Writer is done and on press. It should be published within the week. We'll definitely meet the CIPA deadline. Now on to finalizing Adventures in Publishing, including decided how we're going to distribute it, to whom, and whether there will be a cost. We're having a short BOD lunch meeting today to iron that out.

Here's the cover of Publishing Gems. I'm very happy with it. Now, the work of promotion begins in earnest.

Promotion has sort of already started. These blogs will start to propagate hopefully. And I'll use the SEO techniques on OutskirtsPress.net to propel it more. This will be the first book I can really use to leverage the Amazon "listmania" and "...So you wanna..." opportunities, plus some springboarding/portal pages that use Amazon and BN. Time consuming stuff. I'll write about it as I do it for the e-Gem series I'm writing. It's our tips and hints on promotion and publication. If you're not getting it yet, you can see what it's about by sending a blank email to egems@outskirtspress.com

Submitting your book to news stations

2005-02-22T22:48:00.000-07:00

A busy and productive day today. The president of CIPA and I discussed some possible joint-publication opportunities. I also visited 9 News with some CIPA members where their Communications Coordinator Randy took us on a tour and provided some insight into getting television exposure for books. This included listed some of their most likely shows, producer names, demographics, and tips on submitting manuscript and press kits. All very informative and information I will see gets passed to applicable people who publishing with Outskirts Press.

I'll include more information about this in a new book I'm starting to write -- excerpts will be included in the new e-Gem course that we're finalizing. To receive the free e-Gem course of articles, hints, and tips, just send a blank email to egems@outskirtspress.com

Publisher's Weekly

2005-02-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

Doh!

One of the reasons I was aiming for an April publication date for Publishing Gems was to give my review copy enough time to get into the hands of Publisher's Weekly editors.

We'll I just received the galley copy back in the mail. Apparently I used the wrong address. I'll have to confirm that the information we're providing in the Author's Center is accurate and then resend it, although now there isn't enough time before it's published. Nevertheless, there's an old saying that I like to quote from time to time: "If at first you don't succeed, yell profanities until someone gives you your way!"

We've decided what we're going to do with the distribution of Adventures in Publishing. By "we've" I mean the Board of Directors. This isn't exactly what I wanted to do personally. It's kind of odd having to take strategic direction from a group of people rather than just doing what I want to do... but there you have it, life in the big city.

Another directive is that I can't actually say what we're going to do yet... because it's the future. I'm now allowed to only report what has happened or is happening on this blog. Not what will happen in the future. ("But that's all the fun stuff!" I whined, to no avail).

Board of Directors

2005-02-20T18:18:00.000-07:00

What kind of company has board of directors meetings on Sunday? We do, that's who. Sometimes I tell people that I would 24/7 on this company. It's true. Ack.

Got through all the usual BOD stuff, including BOD members' intention to review these blogs to determine their use vis-a-vis the website. We already know they'll eventually serve a SEO purpose, but they might be a nice addition to the author center, along with instructions for Authors to create their own blogs. Or, we might use the RSS feed, so the OutskirtsPress.net SEO site has more dynamic content. The SEO was determined to be a pretty high priority, and falls close to the top of my list after the books and fixing the cookies.

Speaking of the books, hereI'll try to get the back of Publishing Gems uploaded soon. I also have a better look of the Adventures in Publishing book -- the one we'll use for advertising. The back will be done this week. In fact, everything with both of them will be done this week because we have to get Publishing Gems into the distribution network with Ingram before the CIPA college on the 17th. I also need to look into the premiums -- shirts, mugs, etc -- with the OP logo. Lot's to do, which means updating the blog may come lower on the list.

Adventures in Publishing update

2005-02-17T21:50:00.000-07:00

Adventures in Publishing: An Interactive Guide to Publishing Your Book is finished, and the main editing is complete. We're going to format the interior in the next couple of days and make last minute adjustments, in necessary. I think I've decided not to mention our color Pearl package at all -- it's just so different from the other four packages we offer, kind of messes up the whole symmetry of the book. But I haven't decided for sure.

Publishing Gems is going to be completely done in the next week. I think I'm going to have to write the foreword after all, which kind of sucks, but I wasn't able to secure anyone else to do in with enough time to spare to ensure availability of the published book by the middle of March, which is when I'm unveiling it during the CIPA college. That's the last day for Evvy award submissions, and I think I may submit it this year after all. I was thinking of waiting until next year, but by next year I'll probably have a number of new reference guides to submit, so might as well submit this one when I'm not competing with myself. I may submit Adventures in Publishing, too, but we'll see how I'm feeling about that.

I got my professional portrait back from the photographers for the back of the books. It'll be on the back of the Publishing Gems, but not Adventures (since that book back is FULL with all the cover choice thumbnails.).

I also have it clear in my mind how the ebook version of Adventures is going to work -- now implementing it, that's a different matter. It has to translate to web and CD, since it will be a foundation of the software CD we'll start to make in the coming months.

Adventures in Publishing

2005-02-16T06:12:00.000-07:00

I mentioned the cover in my last post. Here's a low-res image of Adventures in Publishing: An Interactive Guide to Publishing Your Book. I have to use low-res so it doesn't take forever to load.

Adventures will have a retail price of $10.95 through normal distribution, although our BOD is still trying to determine what methods we will use to get this book into the hands of writers. There will probably be more about this book and distribution of it and the software (which I'll get to once it's published) at OutskirtsPress.net.

Strategic Alliances

2005-02-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

How long has it been since I've updated? A few days at least. A lot is going on. Trying to secure some mutual partnerships with New Novelist and other writing sites and affiliates. Also, the Writer's Digest publication for 2004 is complete, although I can't gauge F & W Publication's interest in promoting it -- which is odd.

Adventures in Publishing and Publishing Gems, the two books I've written that will be published simultaneously at the end of March, continue to march toward their printing dates. I need to have them both finished and "producing" by the end of February. Half a month. That's what's been keeping me so busy. The front of Adventures in Publishing is complete although I don't have a smaller image to share. I'll get on uploaded to this blog soon. The back copy of Publishing Gems is conceptualized, just needs to be laid out. The back copy of Adventures in Publishing takes care of itself -- full color thumbnail images of our 25 cover choices to authors can see the selection. -- These won't include the 18 different color varieties for each one, or the textures that we're adding as an additional sub-option before the book is released.

SEO is a big concern of mine and will start to occupy more of my time once these books are written. A third book has been conceptualized and I'll start on that, too. But in the meantime, just to keep it going, here's the .net and .com links.

I sent the rest of the pre-publication galleys out to reviewers. I was going to include newspapers in that list, but since their turn-around is so quick anyway, I figured it might be more beneficial to send the actual published book (the interior looks SOOO much better). We'll see if that pans out. Who knows.

This blog is jumping all over the place -- so's my brain. I can't decide when/if I want to include this blog on the Author's Center of our website. Is there "too" much information in this thing?

A Board of Directors meeting is this week. I have to get ready for that.

A long day ahead

2005-02-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

Today is a day I get to kick a little ass -- dealing with some Outskirts Press trade name infringement already, but that's going away today. Also continue to deal with breaking through the roadblock that is the Ingram brick-hit-shouse. If they have the capcaity to ride the technological wave, why are they so hesitant to do it? Oh, yeah... half of 'em want to keep their jobs.

Here's the cover to Publishing Gems: Insider Information for the Self-Publishing Writer. I'll post the back when it's finished, too, although it won't be as exciting. Mostly boring text about yours truly, and another testimonial from CIPA President Judith Briles.

Competitor hi-jinx

2005-02-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

I always get a kick out of checking out some of our competitors. There are a couple of dot-com publishers (who I differentiate from the POD publishers since the dot-commers at least understand the necessity of a new pricing model, to some extent). They offer to publish your book for free (with a whopping 3-4 (I think) different formats, rather than the 15 offered by Outskirts Press. But here's the kicker. Your BASE PRICE (the amount you have to pay for each book) is at least $10. At least! Ouch. Who's going to buy that? Oh, right ... nobody, because in addition to gouging you on the price, they don't distribute your book anywhere.

Just for kicks and shingles, I signed up to see how their interface worked. Maybe it was a work in progress, but I was hopelessly confused -- and I'm a relatively savvy fellow in terms of web design AND publishing. Who would deal with them?

Yet, lots of books are being published in that sad, sad manner. I just don't understand.

On a happier note...

Judith Briles, the president of CIPA, will also be providing a cover blurb for PUBLISHING GEMS. I've asked her if she would consider writing the forward -- no word yet.

And just cuz I gotta --- OutskirtsPress.net.

CEO junk

2005-02-10T05:32:00.000-07:00

I'm usually so wrapped up in reporting the day to day minutia within these blogs that I don't step back and report on the strategic steps we're taking every day to not only grow Outskirts Press but help custom publishing become a household concept. I have nearly conceptualized the strategic goals for this year along with (and this is the hard part) the tactical milestones necessary to accomplish those goals. A lot of hinges on the completion and publication of both Publishing Gem: Insider Information for the Self-Publishing Writer and Adventures in Publishing: An Interactive Guide to Publishing Your Book.

Another step hinges on the completion of a project I'll simply call PKRD. Some of the pieces are falling into place; I just have to put them in the correct order.

The interior of Publishing Gems is complete. Our designer did a wonderful job -- it's beautiful. A very fun, inviting inside that's packed with information in an aesthetic manner. Not always easy in just around 70 pages.

Another step begins and grows and adapts OutskirtsPress.net.

Securing Testimonials

2005-02-09T13:59:00.000-07:00

If you're publishing a work of non-fiction, it's always a good idea to secure blurbs from other industry professionals prior to publication. These "cover quotes" or testimonials or endorsements are good for a variety of uses, from enhancing your front cover, to fleshing out the back, to inclusion within sales sheets, press releases, and other promotional materials (postcards, posters, etc). It never hurts to be able to add an industry testimonial to your webpage and/or Amazon.com listing, and the higher profile the endorsee, the better.

How do you get professional testimonials? By asking, of course. The trick is positioning the request in a manner where they see the benefit to them. Well known, high-caliber professionals and "celebrities" are always on the look-out for additional ways they can market themselves -- why do you think they're so well known?

For example, I contact Dan Poynter with a request to offer a testimonial for my upcoming book Publishing Gems: Insider Information for the Self-Publishing Writer. Dan Poynter is the best selling author of The Self-Publishing Manual, as well as a highly sought after public speaker and wildly acclaimed expert on self-publishing. (He "literally wrote the book" so to speak).

So, in given an opportunity to have his name and his book title associated with another book that would be marketed to the same audience (ie, my book), Mr. Poynter graciously offered a generous testimonial for my book. I plan on placing it above the title. After all, Publishing Gems is not yet know, but Dan Poynter is. Thank you Dan.

More later about the other blurb I got from the President of CIPA.

Too much to mention

2005-02-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

To busy to update this thing, lately. As I said before -- the more often a blog is updated, the more boring it tends to be. It's kind of like the boring parts of a vacation. That's when you tend to get the most pictures. How many pictures of grassy hill tops do you seen from a moving car? Billions? That's because the person with the camera is bored.

But beyond lack of boredom comes my commitment to continue to update this and other blogs. Work continues to progress on the Publishing Gems and Publishing Guide. I got the review copies sent out for Publishing Gems, so hopefully we'll be able to secure some reviews or editorials in the trade when it's published in April. I'm going to have advance copies ready at the CIPA College in March. I need to get a Kinko's banner created. I don't know if I'll have time to do that.

Interior layout of Publishing Gems is nearly complete. We'll have the size of the book finalized and then can finalize the cover. We have a great quote to put on the front -- a testimonial blurb from Dan Poynter. He was very gracious to provide it. I'm considering asking him if he's inclined to write the forward. I'll be catching him with him at a CIPA meeting soon, but probably after the book is published. When we have the final cover, I'll post it here.

Adventures in Publishing, also referred to as our publishing guide, is nearly complete. I had to basically rewrite it when we changed the site. The cover concept is complete too -- it closely resembles our current Writer's Digest ads.

Hiring continues with our Author Reps. We have 3 new ones and two more possibilities. They're not taking on as many authors as I would like. We have over 60 active authors currently and more coming every day. We need more reps. It's a great gig. They work from home. What more could you want?

Additional Trim Sizes

2005-02-01T21:38:00.000-07:00

Outskirts Press is adding two new trim sizes to our offerings. A 7 x 10 size and a 6.7 x 9 size. It's still TBD about which packages will get access to the new sizes, although certainly the Diamond Package will, bringing its total format offerings to a whopping 16!

I've registered OutskirtsPress.net and will begin aggressive SEO tactics in the coming months. This is not a process that fulfills immediate gratification. It's long and arduous (i.e. painful), so I'm setting my sites on 365 days for now -- that's when I'll expect to see the fruits of this labor pan out. Longer than it took Aidan to be baked.

He's cute. Here's another picture of him, just cuz I'm a dotting dad.

Oh, by the way, Colleen and Kristin both said no to the Publishing Gems blurb ;-( but perhaps we'll see some excerpts of the book in future issues of Writer's Digest. I'll finalize the editing and layout in the next two weeks, and the hopefully we'll have some blurbs from Dan and Judith by then.

Publisher's Weekly

2005-02-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Busy busy. In collaboration with Publisher's Weekly and Publisher's Marketing Association, we're offering an opportunity for our published books to be mentioned/promoted within the pages (or on the cover) of Publisher's Weekly. The details are within our free email newsletter, which comes out every 10 days. Here's the story:

Your Book on the Cover of PUBLISHER'S
WEEKLY

Would you like to see your published book on
the cover of the March 7th, 2005 issue of Publisher's Weekly?

Outskirts Press has an exciting offer for you
in association with the Publisher's Marketing Association.

10-12 covers will be featured on the cover of
the premier publishing industry publication. Publisher's Weekly
will also feature 8-10 titles per page on subsequent pages throughout
the magazine.

Each title placement includes a picture of your
cover and ordering information about your book, including your
OP Webpage, ISBN, and price.

If you have published your book with Outskirts
Press and would like to participate, we need to receive your reservation
by no later than February 5, 2005.

Please note: We CANNOT guarantee placement on
the cover since only 10-12 titles will be featured on the cover.

All other titles will be placed in their specific
genre directly following the front cover. All books will be displayed
in 4-color. We will inform you by no later than February 25 if
your book is among those chosen for the cover.

Cost for this opportunity is $600 per title.
If you would like to request the front cover of Publisher's
Weekly, there will be an additional $500 fee involved, bringing
the total cost to $1100 if your cover is one selected for the
cover.

We will refund the $500 cover fee if your book
is not chosen for the cover. We will refund your payment in full
if your book is not chosen to be included in the the publication.

If you would like to participate, please notify
us at info@outskirtspress.com
and we will update your author's center for secure payment. Indicate
in the email whether you want the Front Cover option. We must
receive payment prior to February 5 if you wish to see your cover
in the pages (or on the cover) of Publisher's Weekly.

Here's the link to our newsletter in its entirety. You can subscribe for free from our website. February 1 Newsletter.

Other updates on the Writer's Digest publication, their contest sponsorship, my book, getting blurbs, press releases, and more... coming... later.... to .... much... to .... do.

Adventures in Publishing

2005-01-31T16:18:00.000-07:00

I'm determined to have Adventures in Publishing published and available at the CIPA show in March. Here's where I am right this second:

HELP! I MAY HAVE COPYRIGHT ISSUES

If your manuscript appears to contain images and/or pas-sages of text that are problematic during the pre-publication process, your Author Representative may mention potential copyright issues.

If your manuscript contains any images and/or text that you did not personally create as original material, you may not have the legal right to include such material in your publication. Such material includes lyrics to songs; excerpts from published stories, books, or poems; published and commercially produced images; images containing the likeness of someone you do not know person-ally (living or dead); and photographs taken by someone other than you or an immediate family member.

Writer's Digest Ad

2005-01-29T21:55:00.000-07:00

April's ad for Writer's Digest is already due. They're that far out. This is a month Outskirts Press is running a full page ad. I've put it below, although I had to degrade it quite a bit so it didn't take forever to load.

We're also dealing with book review issues -- we use experts from CIPA for our reviews and they're indicating they can't keep up with the workload. We'll have to do something -- it was one of our promotions at the end of last year and those books are just starting to finish up. Plus, they have to review MY book. The review copies of Publishing Gems will be delivered early next week -- I probably didn't get enough, because in addition to the ones I need to send to all the usual suspects, I also want to try to get Colleen Cannon from Writer's Digest to provide a blurb (and possibly an intro. I may ask her), and Patricia at SPAWN, although I have communicated with her yet. Things to do this week...

Perhaps I'll hear from Dan, too -- I asked him for a testimonial on Friday and he seemed receptive to the idea. Plus, a writer at CIPA, who will be moderating a panel at this year's DIY Convention in LA received the pre-galley ebook file of Publishing Gems and asked if she could mention some of the Insider Tips to her audience. Of course.

Issues With Copyright

2005-01-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

This is an ongoing problem that's worth mentioning. It's interesting to me that authors who would be extremely agitated if someone stole their work seem to have no problem "borrowing" the work of others.

Outskirts Press on a daily basis receives manuscripts filled with copyright infringements. It is our policy not to publish such material. We receive justification ranging from "Bibliography Use" to "Fair Use" claims -- but rarely hear arguments containing the flip side of the coin - the fact that copyright infringement is illegal and could ruin an author's reputation as well as bank account.

Why do colleges encourage this copyright infringement abated with their "bibliography" requirement, which then leads professionals to believe that they can copy as much of somebody's work as they want, provided they "reference" it within the form of foot notes or bibliographies. Perhaps for college papers that is true, but for professional works that are sold for profit, that is not allowed. This should be something professors and teachers inform their students.

I wonder if the POD guys have this problem -- or if they even care about it. Things that make you go hmmm...

Better Business Bureau

2005-01-28T15:12:00.000-07:00

Outskirts Press is a member of the Better Business Bureau. Jeanine and I attended a reception last night to receive our Gold Star Award from the Denver Chapter of the BBB.

The Gold Star is in recognition of zero customer complaints.

Although, I have a complaint. Our award certificate wasn't there when we arrived. We were informed they would locate it and send it to us.

Hmmmm..... maybe I should complain to the Better Business Bureau about that.

Why Blogs Are Boring

2005-01-28T03:00:00.000-07:00

Blogs are inherently boring by nature. If you have time to write in a blog, nothing very exciting is happening to you. On the other hand, if anything noteworthy is taking place, you probably don't have time to write about it.

That said, I'll try to concentrate on the overall weekly occurrences that transpire, rather than keeping the updates on a daily, chronological basis.

Re-Org

Some new hires and reorganizations have taken place this week at Outskirts Press. For those of us keeping score (probably just me), here's the new scorecard:

Brent - President/CEO/CMB
Jeanine - COO/BM
Lynn - CFO/BM
Tony - BM

Chris - Started as an author rep, and will still handle some of those responsibilities, although core efforts are now focused on marketing, both for the company and select authors/books.

Amy - Customer Service / Author Rep back-up

Vicky - Customer Service / Author Rep back-up

Mary - New hire, Author Rep

Deni - New hire, Author Rep

Professional portrait

2005-01-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

My board advised me that I need a professional portrait taken. What? Don't they like my "perspective" shot (see right)-- you know, the one with the goofy grin. I'll look into getting one and my deadline is in time to place it on the back of the Publishing Gems book. The pre-edit galley draft when to the printer today and we'll be able to forward galley review copies to pertinent publications in time for them to consider a review before the book's official publication in April. I'm trying to have our Publishing Guide complete by then, too. The first draft was complete and all board members had a chance to provide their .02, but then we changed the orientation of Outskirts Press from pure POD to custom publishing with more flexibility. That changes much of the content (although much of it also stays the same -- we're just as advantageous as before, only more so. "More so" is easy to add to the book).

So, I mention both because I'm trying to aim for a synchronous publication because I allude to being the author of Publishing Gems on Adventures in Publishing, and I mention that I'm the author of Adventures in Publishing on Publishing Gems. It would be best to hit a window where both are true as fast as possible.

All this brings to mind one of the chapters of Publishing Gems, which is about establishing one's self as an expert. I'm trying to follow my own advice. Step one is writing the book. Check (almost).

Here's a tentative cover for publishing Gems. I think it's going to change a bit. The COO thought the "self publishing" part was too difficult to read. What do YOU think?

We're also going to change the title just slightly. The subtitle is Insider Information for the Self-Publishing Writer. Oooh... insider info. Very la-de-da!

Author Rep Training

2005-01-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

The operating officer and I worked on the training manual today for the Author Reps. -- A CD full of contracts, emails, instructions, forms, and more that each of our Author Reps receive in preparation for helping authors through the publishing process. Only by writing down each step does one realize just how involved of a process this is. Each book must be tracked like a project, with nearly infinite variables, and an online and offline database are updated for the book and author. Our CFO is working on consolidating all the data into a SQL / Access database and that will be nice.

Speaking of which, she's also finalizing profit payments for our authors for 4th quarter 2004. It's always fun to see our authors money. It's nice to be in a business that is so gratifying.

Adventures in Publishing

2005-01-24T14:08:00.000-07:00

Now that the Publishing Gems book is complete (I've passed it to our production department for interior layout and galley cover design), I've been able to focus more on the true Outskirts Press publishing guide, entitled Adventured in Publishing, An Interactive Guide to Publishing Your Book. Don't have a date on that, yet. Publishing Gems will have an official publishing date in April to allow enough time for reviews to be posted and published, but a sneak peek of the published book will be available at the CIPA college in March. I haven't decided whether to charge or give it away yet. I visualize the cover, and will be able to post the .jpg of it here, soon. Finally I've gotten ahead of the day-to-day concerns with the website, hosting, and production and have been able to concentrate more on the CEO's job -- building the company. These publishing guides are designed to do just that, as well as provide content fodder for other publications, websites, and newsletters. Thinking custom publishing? Think Outskirts Press. That's the idea, at least.

9 Steps for Plotting Fiction

2005-01-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

Between a weekend of birthday parties and get the review edition of our Publishing book done, I haven't had time to post. Publishing Gems, Insider Hints for the Self-Publishing Writer is finished and will be printed for review copies this week. I'll send out the galley's to all the usual suspects and then work on the cover. We'll get the author proofs going for Writer's Digest 2004 winners, too, which we're publishing as part of our partnership and sponsorship. Here's a section from the book, about how to plot fiction:

NINE STEPS FOR PLOTTING A FICTION FOUNDATION

Start with a piece of paper. It should be large enough to write on. 8.5 x 11 is perfect. Draw two parallel lines both vertically and horizontally across the page, creating 9 comparable boxes, as if you were starting a game of tic-tac-toe. These boxes represent either chapters, scenes, or sections, depending upon your book’s intended length.

Number the boxes, starting from the upper left: 1, 2, 3.
Next row, starting from the left: 4, 5, 6.
Last row: 7, 8, 9.
Title each box…

Box 1) Triggering Event

First thing’s first. What happens? Why have you bothered to write a book, and more importantly, why should a reader invest time flipping through its pages. Your “triggering event” is the answer to those questions, so make it a good one. Also, don’t make the reader wait very long for it. First sentence, first paragraph, first page. These are good spots for a triggering event.

Box 2) Characterization

Generally, books succeed or fail on the strength of their characters more so than on the strength of their plots. While your protagonist may have been involved in the “triggering event” there wasn’t time in Box 1 to characterize him or her. Here’s where you explore what makes your protagonist tick. No, this isn’t an excuse for drawn out exposition, history, or back story. If your “triggering event” is captivating, the reader will discover enough about the protagonist in Box 2 simply by reading how he or she reacts to Box 1.

Box 3) First Turning Point

By now, your plot is picking up steam, and because of Box 2, the reader is invested in the ride. Time to throw a monkey wrench into the works. This turning point can be either a positive event for your protagonist, or a negative one, but it should be directly related to either a character flaw or trait your protagonist demonstrates in Box 2 (see, there’s a reason these boxes are touching one another – keep this in mind when you get to Box 6).

Box 4) Exposition

You’ve earned some time to fill the reader in on important data. Since this box touches Box 1, here’s where you shed some light on that “triggering event” and since it also touches Box 7, you get to foreshadow your protagonist’s darkest hour. In common cases, for example, Box 4 can reveal a relationship dynamic or a character flaw that contributes to the dark times in ahead.

Box 5) Connect the Dots

Box 5 represents the trickiest part of fiction, and is often where plots fall apart, or where authors experience massive writer’s block. Since Box 5 is the center of the book, it touches, and therefore must relate to, all the boxes around it. Kind of like a nucleus at the center of an atom bomb, Box 5 should tick systematically upon elements introduced in Box 2 and Box 4. And like the calm before the storm, Box 5 should give the false impression of resolution before heading like a freight train to Box 6. Most importantly, it needs to provide subtle, foreshadowing support for the protagonist’s revelation in Box 8.

Box 6) Negative Turning Point

Here’s where that atom bomb explodes and all hell breaks loose. It’s a shock to the reader, and yet, it makes perfect sense due to the foundation built in Box 3.

Box 7) Antagonist Wins

The protagonist is defeated here, and the antagonist is going to “win.” Even though the reader may have seen Box 6 coming, the protagonist didn’t=. How the protagonist deals with the defeat in Box 7 will depend upon the traits and/or story developed in Box 4, and will lead to Box 8.

Box 8) Revelation

Of course! The protagonist’s revelation turns the tide. Here is where the protagonist connects the dots here, just like the reader did in Box 5. Part of the fun of a great fiction novel is allowing the reader to be just one step ahead of the protagonist, who overcomes the obstacles in Box 8 via the devise introduced in Box 5.

9) Protagonist Wins

The “negative” turning point in Box 6 is rectified while the character’s resolve from Box 8 is brought into full bloom.

Congratulations! Another great tale told greatly.

Birthday

2005-01-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

Oh, I forgot to mention. Wednesday was my birthday.

Pre-Pres Hustle

2005-01-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

Trying to get some last minute releases and follow up conducted before the media blackout tomorrow when the eyes of the media will be focuses squarely on Bush, and not much else. I think we'll resend the release to select local media again next week. Today I personally contact representatives of our associations (CIPA, SPAN, SPAWN, and SPCO-OP). Three out of four contacted back and indicated they'd pick up the announcement. Didn't hear back from Small Press yet -- Haven't heard much from them at all, in fact. Good thing it was free to join them.

Also busy trying to supplement these others blogs so they work together. The Outskirts Press Blog at http://outskirtspress.blogspot.com will feature information and testimonials about our authors and their books. A little extra exposure for them never hurts.

Blog Results in Search Engines

2005-01-19T21:44:00.000-07:00

So, Google owns Blogger. That must be why blogs don't appear as highly on Google as on other search engines -- which is kind of like cutting off your nose for two in the bush. This blog, after less than a month of posting, appears as number 6 overall on Yahoo when conducting a keyword search for Custom Book Publishing.

Yet, the same search doesn't reveal this blog in the first two pages of listings on Google!

Regardless, #6 on Yahoo is nothing to sneeze at, and I can presume the results of our other blogs-under-way will only help search engine matters. We've secured outskirtspress, self-publishing, on demand, and others on blogger, and each will be posted from various perspectives and additional commentary, insight, and possibilities toward promotion.

SEO W/ BLOG

2005-01-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

Search engine optimization was one of the motivating factors for my taking the time and effort to start a blog for Outskirts Press.

It seems to be working. I've been posted 1-3 posts a day since January 4th (it's now the 19th), and this blog comes up number 6 overall on a Yahoo search for Custom Book Publishing based solely upon content.

The beauty of XML and other "feed" blogs is they generate links dynamically and automatically, one of the difficulties in creating valid search engine optimization for algorithms like Google.
Another advantage is that, while "Custom Publishing" was taken as a domain name, it was available as a sub-domain name for my blog. So were "self-publishing" -- a highly sought after position for our industry. Now it's ours and we'll soon contribute to that blog to create contextual search engine placement.

I'm contemplating open a general blog for all Outskirts Press authors so they can all log in and post their promotions, or thoughts, or feedback. While there's no shortage of positives for doing this, the potential negatives are making me think it out more thoroughly. For one, from what I can tell of this Blooger.com service, once a person has access, they can re-edit previous posts to their hearts' content. Fine for me since I like being able to adjust my typos, but bad if Joe Schmo logs in and places his post and then alters Jasmine's. I could program our own blog for Outskirts Press, and this may be ultimately what we end up doing so I can have full control over the look and functionality, but that's waaaay--aaayyy down on the to-do list.

Coming next, more tips on Blog submission, including a neat-o "ping" site that re-pings the feed with each update.

Why, yes, now that you ask, this is a publishing company, but a lot of the promotion for an internet site is technical, and blog readers are probably more technical that not, so as any writer knows, you write for your audience.

Further Press Releases

2005-01-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

Press release distribution isn't a one hour (or even one day) exercise. More like one week. We're doing more on our Writer's Digest press release today. Plus we're prospecting new places to send it, like Publisher's Weekly and Foreword -- I know, I know, you'd think they'd already be on an Outskirts Press list

Also doing more blog stuff, and analyzing how it's helping our website search engine rankings. Looks very promising so far and future blogs will details successful steps I've take so far.

It's weird -- when you know people are actually reading this, you have a tendency to censor yourself. My first few posts I just let loose -- I've got to work to maintain that. And you definitely have a tendency to spell-check. Some errors in my first few posts continue to annoy me, and yet, I'm sure there will be more.

Press Release Distribution

2005-01-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

It's a day of PR at Outskirts Press. Wide net release and more tactical distribution with personal follow-up for the local markets. Plus, applicable magazines such as Publisher's Weekly, Foreword, and others, and the usual suspects of writing websites.

I need to finish our publishing guide, but I can't motivate myself to do it today. Finally all the issues with website migration and pay-per-click problems have been resolved. Author's are joining are free writing community by starting their own Author's Center in record numbers. I'm contemplating whether I should add access to this blog for author members to see from the site. Then I might have to censor myself when it comes to discussing our strategic partners. Naaa.

Writer's Digest Press Release

2005-01-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

It's going out tomorrow:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WRITER’S DIGEST MAGAZINE PARTNERS WITH
OUTSKIRTS PRESS CUSTOM PUBLISHING FOR 2005 COMPILATION

January 17, 2005. Denver, Colorado and Cincinnati, Ohio – F & W Publications, Inc. and Outskirts Press, Inc. today jointly announced a 1-year partnership focusing on Writer’s Digest’s most established writing competition. Specifically, the 74th Annual Writing Competition Compilation will be published by Outskirts Press and made available for retail and wholesale distribution in November of 2005.

“Writer’s Digest magazine sponsors one of the oldest, most prestigious annual writing competitions in the country,” says Writer’s Digest publisher Colleen Cannon. “Winning this competition can help launch a writer’s career.”

Ms. Cannon believes the magazine’s partnership with Outskirts Press will help Writer’s Digest and its competition winners gain even more recognition. “The 2005 Compilation published by Outskirts Press will showcase our competition winners in a more significant way than ever before,” she says. “Broader distribution opportunities and aggressive marketing of the compilation will increase visibility of the Writer’s Digest brand in the publishing community.”

“Outskirts Press is excited to be publishing the 2005 compilation,” states Outskirts Press CEO Brent Sampson. “Not only is Writer’s Digest the premier writing magazine, but the 2005 publication enables us to demonstrate the advantages of custom publishing to our target audience – writers.”

Such advantages as single ISBN assignment and distribution via Ingram, Amazon, and elsewhere may target individual authors, but this 1-year partnership also demonstrates custom publishing’s business-to-business applicability. In addition to the 2005 publication and year-long promotion and marketing commitments via print and web, the deal also includes the retroactive publishing of Writer’s Digest’s 2004 compilation.

States Mr. Sampson: “By utilizing Outskirts Press services for previous contests, F & W Publications can re-open additional revenue streams and promotional opportunities. The republication of archived annual compilations requires no warehouse space, no inventory management, and zero fulfillment services. It’s a win for Writer’s Digest, plus previous contest winners will never be out of print again.”

About Writer’s Digest
Writer’s Digest, the world’s leading magazine for writers, is published by F+W Publications, Inc., one of the world’s largest publishers of books and magazines for enthusiasts. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, F+W employs approximately 1,000 associates worldwide and operates offices in Devon (England), Boston, Denver, New York City, Savannah, Herndon (Virginia) and Iola (Wisconsin). The Company’s publications target hobbyists and enthusiasts in categories such as writing, fine art, equestrian, genealogy, crafts, antiques, various collectibles, coins and the outdoors.

About Outskirts Press
Located in Parker, Colorado, and online at www.outskirtspress.com Outskirts Press publishes high quality paperback and hardback books for individual writers as well as businesses. Through its turn-key, customized book publishing services, Outskirts Press offers unprecedented power to the author, including creative control, pricing authority, and quantity influence.

Contact

Jeanine Sampson
Outskirts Press, Inc.
10940 S. Parker Rd. – 515
Parker, CO 80134
OutskirtsPress.com

Tara Blom
F & W Publications, Inc.
4700 East Galbraith Road
Cincinnati, OH 45236
WritersDigest.com

Google AdWords

2005-01-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

There are currently two major Pay-Per-Click players: Overture and Google. Microsoft will soon join the fray and, as a result, Overture and Google may need to reexamine its practices. But for the time being, they're apathetic about maintaining good-will with customers.

At least threatening to take away $20,000 in revenue is enough to earn a call back from a Google employee. That's saying something, right? And 2 quick minutes later, my previous week of frustration was resolved. Now, was that so hard? So, without further ado, here's Google's (apparently) "top secret" pay-per-click customer service phone number: 866-246-6543.

Imagine how much more business you're going to get, Google, now that people can actually call you. I'll contact you for my percentage soon.

Promoting the Blog

2005-01-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

Lots of things on the to-do list for this week. First and foremost, I have to work on promoting this blog now that I have a few entries.

Also, we're sending out our press release regarding the partnership we've forged with Writer's Digest to publish their competition compilation. Then we need to locate a contractor company to conduct follow-up on that release. We'll send it via our international syndicate, but also fax blast the local media with phone follow-up to try and secure interviews or exposure on newscasts for Outskirts Press.

Our full page ad in Writer's Digest is due, so we'll examine the results of the full page that ran in January and February's issue and make some adjustments. The February issue just came out, so the results will be preliminary. It's like throwing pudding at a donkey (?) -- soon, there will come a time when affiliate marketing is common place in magazines like it is online -- and soon thereafter, results oriented marketing like pay-per-click campaigns will allow more accurate assessment of marketing initiatives. Whenever I've tried to introduce these concepts to old-fashioned magazine advertisers, they shy away from it. Well, no wonder! They know advertising isn't as effective as their prices make it out to be.

Does anybody know the customer service number for Google and Overture. We spend an atrocious amount of money with them each month and we don't have a way to talk to a human being. I'll be anxious for MSN to launch if, for no other reason, they may have the incentive to offer better customer service. So far, they both suck, but they're a necessary evil. Unfortunately, they act as if they know and believe that second part. I'd love to take my business from them.

Daily Frustration: See above.

So also on the to-do list is finding that contact information and resolving some last minute web host migration issues that are affecting a few of our key word clicks. Also to be fixed is the affiliate and pay-per-click cookie tracking. The new site didn't like my cookie coding, so we have to resolve that ASAP. This will get the affiliates working again and enable us to track the keywords we're using on our PPCs.

Our new brochures will arrive in the mail on Thursday and we're conducting some direct marketing mailings to our prospect list and the SPAN membership file.

I'll also investigate other opportunities of SPAN to time an article in their newsletter with the receipt of the brochures. Our full page ad in their directory is being published soon.

PMA will probably have to wait.

Wal-Mart Concept

2005-01-15T17:43:00.000-07:00

The CEO of Wal-Mart recently wrote a letter addressing the public's perception of his company's employment practices. That letter then ran in the form of an ad in a number of national publications.

With that in mind, here's a similar slant addressing some writers' misconceptions about POD publishing.

Dear Writer:

Choosing the right words can be difficult. Thank goodness somebody invented the thesaurus. As a writer, I would be lost without it. The thesaurus is an invaluable tool assisting in the success of my craft.

When Peter Mark first published the thesaurus in 1852, die-hard dictionary-purists most likely refused to recognize its value. Now the thesaurus and dictionary coexist in harmony. No one thinks twice about using whichever one is appropriate.

It would be silly to enter into a debate about which one is better – the dictionary or the thesaurus. They serve different functions. If I want several definitions of a word, I’ll turn to a dictionary. If I want a better word, I’ll use a thesaurus.

Think of Outskirts Press as a thesaurus. Those big publishing houses in New York are the dictionaries. One isn’t better than the other – they’re different. But all writers, even dictionary-purists, would do well to consider using both.

Sure, I still reach for the dictionary. I personally submit every book I start to those “real” publishers first. I’ve started many books and received many rejection letters. I keep on trying, though, because I share that elusive dream of fame, fortune, and Oprah!

Guess what? I’ve never been accepted. Not once. I started submitting sample chapters with a synopsis when I was in ninth grade, and nearly twenty years later, I still submit sample chapters with a synopsis.

Picking up that dictionary is becoming increasingly difficult when I know a paper cut awaits me. Might be easier to start mispeling stuff.

I started Outskirts Press because I wanted a “thesaurus” for the publishing world. No, we’re not going to put the dictionaries out of business, as some other thesaurus’ would have you believe.

But we are helping writers get published, and we are helping them make money from their writing.

Most importantly, we are motivating them to continue using that dictionary in spite of the paper cuts.

It’s true that every book I’ve started, I’ve submitted to a publisher. But every book I’ve published, I’ve submitted to Outskirts Press. We will publish your book, too.

Sincerely,

Brent Sampson
CEO/President
Outskirts Press, Inc.
OutskirtsPress.com.

Back in the Swing of Things

2005-01-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

Readers of my blog will know that this week has been rife with frustration surrounding our website migration. All big elements have been fixed (like .php files opening up in code in Netscape, for example, and pay-per-click links going to dead-ends, even though we were paying for them).

Now we're tightening the screws on small things like Author Webpage details. Outskirts Press offers a free webpage to every one of our published authors, and depending upon the package selected, they have up to 16 different styles and formats to choose from. Our Diamond authors even have webpages that include "Contact the Author" buttons as well as an "Other books by" section which grows as more of their books are published by Outskirts Press. Those two functions entails very specific coding on that section of the webpage since it obviously needed to determine the author's email address and or other books by that authors from within our database. But this morning we got that functionality back online.

Next week will be an exciting week as we distribute our Writer's Digest Partnership press release. Outskirts Press is proud to be the 2005 sponsor of their 74th Annual Writing Contest Compilation. The collection of winning entries will be published exclusively by Outskirts Press, which enables Writer's Digest to feature a full color cover, perfect bound publication rather than the 2-color, stapled booklet they've published in the past. It is my hope that other business recognize the value Outskirts Press can bring to their organization by leveraging our custom publishing techniques.
Not only is that my hope, it's my plan as we grow in 2005. In fact, Writer’s Digest likes the idea of opening an additional revenue stream and will be retroactively publishing their 2004 book through us as well. I'll include a cover shot here when it gets closer to publication.

Website Migration

2005-01-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

A very frustrating week is coming to a close. Thankfully. Migrating websites from one host to another is such an enormous pain that it almost makes you want to stay with the bad host just to avoid the hassle. In fact, I'm positive many sub-par web hosting companies maintain their business simply because the webmasters don't want the hassle of moving their site to a better company.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we've moved the OutskirtsPress.com website a number of times as we've grown and learned what elements of a host are non-negotiable (customer service is number one in my book) -- it's something I've instilled in my company.

Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to "take my ball and go home" -- or, in other words, stop paying the previous host since we've now successfully completed the migration, I find myself wanting a complete back-up of the site on a different host entirely, just to avoid downtime (longer than the DNS switch takes, at any rate). So, not only was I not satisfied with their responsiveness, but I have to keep paying them just so we have a backup site. And yes, I finally remembered the bad host. NetInfoLink. Yes, you. Bad customer service haunts you.

I was out and about on business most of the week, which is the reason (but not excuse) for the poor posting performance this week. But now I'm back to the grindstone and back to my family. Isn't my boy cute?

That's a rhetorical question. Of course he is.

So, speaking of website migration, the difficulty with moving to another host was exasperated by the change in PHP versions. The new one has 4.0. I saved all our files in 3.0. So I had to rename all the files to 4.0, and then change all the links in the site to point to the new files. Not an easy thing. Relatively annoying, in fact. What's more perturbing, this only affected Netscape and Mozilla browsers. Explorer was fine.

Believe it or not, the live-chat customer service representative (let's call him... Frank) actually suggested this as a solution: Just tell all your visitors to use Explorer. They shouldn't be using Netscape, anyway.

So, yes, even GOOD customer service is remarkably bad.

But alls well that ends well. The site is fully operational now, even though we experienced a drought in terms of new business this week. That's what happens when a page is down or a graphic is missing. If you're asking an author to trust you with their manuscript and livelihood, your website has to demonstrate the highest degree of competence. I'm always surprised when I look at some of our competitors sites that they can manage to convince anyone to publish with them. If their website looks crappy, doesn't that reflect on the quality of the book they're going to produce?

At OutskirtsPress.com we're proud of the sophistication and intuitiveness we've brought to the site, and hopefully it communicates the quality of our work with publishing our authors' books.

Netscape & Mozilla

2005-01-10T22:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry this post is so late and short. On a business trip but dealing with everything anyway. Why does PHP that works in Explorer not work in Netscape? Ack! Daily frustration: Everything. More later.

Why is PHP so fickle?

2005-01-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

I'll be the first to admit that computer progamming is not my strongest suit. I've personally built the website for Outskirts Press out of necessity more than desire. Now that I have help with graphics and our current transition to a larger, more rubust SQL database that will be integrated off-line with Access, I'm still surprised by how like things likes "platform migrations" can alter a 100% fully-funtioning site into a pile of goo.

Said "goo" ocurred when the migration finalized (see my blog from two posts ago). Two things happened. For one, more than half our CGI programs began failing because I made an itsy bitsy error in the coding which, for some reason, was fine with the previous host but was unacceptable to this one (a later version of Perl, presumably.)

See if you can find the mistake from these 6 lines of CGI. (We had to find the error from among 2,000 lines):

-- well -- nevermind, this blog isn't going to let me cut and paste code in here.

If you said, "That 'at' thingy in the email address needs a 'slashy' thingy" then congratulations, you win.

So once we resolved that (and random other incongruities in some of the programs, that -- honestly -- didn't make any sense to me) in the 60 individual CGI programs used within the OP site, we were back in business, with the exception of mail function from PHP.

If I know this much CGI then I know this much PHP .

As a result, finding the error in the CGI was much simpler because my understanding was/is broader. I'm still trying to figure out the problem with our sendmail in PHP, and that's my daily frustration for the day. Yes -- I have one of those every day. Will I have a heart attack at 40 or 39? Any guesses?

So, in the interest of seeking help, here's the PHP problem:

info@outskirtspress.com>"; $subject="Outskirts Press - Thank you for registering!"; $mime_boundary="==Multipart_Boundary_x".md5(mt_rand())."x"; $headers = "From: $from\r\n"; $headers.= "From: $from\r\n"; $message = \n\n"; if (mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)) echo "";?>

What to look for in a book publisher

2005-01-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

Finding the right publisher for your book is an important element of success. Maybe these questions (and the answers that result from asking them) will help.

Regardless of whether you're electing the vanity printing route, POD publishing, or holding out for an old-fashioned publishing contract, here are 10 questions you should ask yourself, and then ask them:

1 - How much will it cost to turn your manuscript into a published book?
2 - What is the minimum number of books you have to purchase, and what does each book cost you?
3 - How much input do you have in the final design, layout, and cover of your book?
4 - How much input do you have on the content? Will it be edited to a point where even YOU don't recognize it?
5 - How will your book be bound? (Retailers typically won't stock books that are not perfect bound).
6 - Who determines your retail price? How much is it?
7 - Who determines your wholesale price? How much is it?
8 - Who determines how much money you make from each book?
9 - Do you have the ability to revise your book after publication? If so, how much does that cost?
10 - Do you retain all the rights to your book?

OutskirtsPress.com

2005-01-07T21:26:00.000-07:00

Daily Frustration : Website hosting

Our website at OutskirtsPress.com has gone through three major renovations, and beginning this weekend will be hosted by its upteenth hosting company.

This is party due to growth, and partly due to web hosting incompetence. Why is finding a good web host so hard?

I designed the first version of the site in 2000, I think (hell, I can't remember) when Outskirts Press officially went "live" with that moniker. Prior to that, business was conducted through On the Outskirts, my off-shoot web design company. The first version of the site (below) featured many of the elements we still offer today, including a password protected "Author Center" for every one of our writers.

From my web design and hosting days, I was using a company that I liked a lot, and unfortunately, cannot recall the name of right now -- but right as I was launching Outskirts Press, they were bought by another company and their transition was very ugly. Sites were down for days on end, they had zero customer support, and I found the entire ordeal completely unacceptable. I supposed once they recovered from their transition, they would have returned to normal, but the ridiculous way in which they disregarded all elements of customer service vowed me off them forever. It taught me a valuable lesson about customers, though -- they can be fiercly loyal if you treat them right -- and vindictive to a fault if you don't.

So, in despair and desperate to replace my host quickly because my business was booming (ha! -- I didn't even have one book yet), I found some quickie fly-by-night operation who proved immediately that you often get what you pay for. In this case, their sendmail function didn't work with my CGI scripts, and since half my site was built around constant, automatic communication with the author, that was unacceptable.

Later, I discovered many hosting companies were having issues with sendmail because ISPs were shutting down that capability, or blacklisting many hosts, because sendmail was being hacked for aliases and spam. (Excuse me if I don't know the true technical terms for it -- but "pain in my ass" is technical enough).

At any rate, I ended up dealing with that frustration for nearly 6 months anyway, just because switching hosts is such a royal pain. Into the middle of 2003 Outskirts Press had published 10 books or so but the web hosting was still a royal case of annoyance. I started a year long account with NetFirms -- but their customer service sucked, too. My cousin generously offered to give me a great deal on hosting, but his Red-Hat based account experienced the same sendmail difficulties I was trying to avoid, so that didn't pan out, although I greatly appreciated the gesture, and ironically, even now I don't use sendmail via CGI -- but rather, had to teach myself PHP to solve the problem.

I switched to NetInfoLink sometime in 2004, near the beginning I think, but perhaps as long ago as Nov 2003. Right about then, we were switching the site again, with the intention of incorporating some automation and additional features in response to our authors. The template is below.

I liked NetInfoLink because it offered me a Reseller account so I could host not only OP, but also the other websites I was working on for a variety of other clients (including myself). The CPanel has some nice features. By and large, they seemed to be "up" more often than not, and for a while, everything looked good. But, halfway through 2004, the site dropped more than I would have liked and the consistency of the email started becoming suspect. There were times it seemed like we didn't get email and other times when the email flat out stopped working for 24 hours or more. Again, I put up with it longer than I should have because it's a super duper pain to move websites. Especially when they contain dynamic databases that authors can update themselves. Transitioning a live database from one host to another without losing data or causing "downtime" is quite a chess match.

Nevertheless, right about the time we were finishing off the third and final (so far) version of the site (below), I resigned myself to finding a better host - even if it meant spending more money. We were successful enough where a low monthly rate wasn't my top priority. My top priority was now finding a company that I could call during business hours and actually speak with a live human being (a luxury my last three hosts had not afforded).

And now -- today, and this weekend -- this long quest that began nearly 4 years ago is reaching a new milestone, and one that hopefully lasts longer than a year. Knock on wood.

Mascots are harder than you can imagine

2005-01-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of the phrase herding cats? That's what it's like trying to get a consensus on a mascot. Our board of directors and COO both disliked the first attempt at a mascot, feeling the realistic nature of the suit and body failed to generate a personality. Here's another, more stylized attempt that we'll pursue for agreement on Friday and next week. But I'll unveil it here first. Thoughts?

As if I haven't said enough about distribution, here are some further thoughts. This is actually a portion of the e-Gems series, the mascot above for which will be the official... well... mascot. The article will also be a part of a publishing handbook that's in the works as we speak (write).

Enhancing Your Book Distribution Through Retail Margin
Part I

Retail margin is basically the difference between your book’s wholesale price and your book’s retail price. For example, a book with a cover price of $10 and a wholesale price of $5 has a 50% retail margin.

Wholesale price is what the wholesaler pays for your book. Outskirts Press uses the wholesale price to determine the selling price to its distributors like Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and others. For example, a book with a cover price of $10 and a retail margin of 50% will be sold to a distributor for $5.

Retail Price is the same as Cover Price or Selling Price. This is the cost of the book to the end consumer (the reader). The retail price is typically printed on the cover of the book and also “embedded” within the barcode on the back. For example, a book with a wholesale price of $5 and a retail margin of 50% will have a retail price of $10.

As you can see, retail margin, wholesale price, and retail price are interconnected. By having two figures, the third can always be calculated.

Outskirts Press introduces two concepts that piggy-back on the foundation above. The first is Base Price and the second is Book Profit.

Base Price is the minimum cost of each book to be produced. This is what authors pay for their books. Base Price is calculated most directly by the length of the book.

Book Profit is defined by the author as the amount of money he or she wants to make for each book sold. The difference between the base price and the wholesale price is the book profit. Outskirts Press authors keep 100% of the book profit.

By allowing Outskirts Press authors to define their book profit and retail margin, authors can instantly see what their wholesale and retail prices are. Understanding the difference between these terms, and how they are connected with one another, will help empower you to more sales with your book.

More About Frustrating Book Distribution

2005-01-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

Since I mentioned Ingram in my last post I figured I might as well delve a little deeper into some of the growing pains that all POD and custom publishing companies are experiencing when dealing with old-fashioned corporations struggling under this new paradigm shift.

One of the advantages of POD is zero-inventory management that allows books to exist virtually rather than physically. Wholesalers, distributors, and even most bookstores seem to have a hard time getting their wits around the concept of a book that exists unless they hold it in their hand. I often wonder how these people own bank accounts, because the philosophy is exactly the same.

Mr. Book Bookbuyer, when your bank account says you have $5,000, those are just numbers. There isn't actually a little vault in the bank with your name that contains 5,000 crisp $1 bills. If you want that money, you have to request it from the bank.

Same thing with POD, and yet many retailers assume zero-inventory management is synonymous with no availability. It also doesn't help that distributors aren't doing their part to reeducate retailers on this new inventory model.

Up until 2nd Quarter 2004, Ingram printed "stock" copies of every Print-on-Demand book it handled, in order for online inventory management programs like I-page to list the book as available. I-page is used by Barnes & Noble and other bookstores to check on book availability. Unfortunately, most BN employees are conditioned to disregard a book that doesn't demonstrate a number higher than 5 or 10. And rather than "back ordering" a book "or special ordering it" they find it easier to tell the consumer the book is out of print. The problem is, POD books don’t "exist" in physical matter in quantities as high as 5 or 10 until they've been purchased.

Do you see the chicken and the egg thing happening here?

As if that wasn't enough, here's what then exasperated an already unwieldy problem. Ingram decided to stop printing stock copies altogether. There were simply too many books, even at only 1-2 copies apiece. As a result, some publisher's books began appearing as unavailable, at least, to the old-fashioned eye.

Fortunately, by March 31, 2005 (yes, the gauntlet has been dropped), Ingram (and presumably other distributors if applicable) will begin presenting "pseudo" inventory numbers to book retailers. Time will tell if this is an affective solution. Part of me thinks distributors and wholesalers are purposely being obtuse because it's been suggested that the Internet, direct retailers like Amazon.com, Google Print, and Random House going direct are all signs that the old fashioned publisher / distributor / retailer days are numbered.

Ingram Book Group

2005-01-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

There are necessary evils in life. And in business. For Outskirts Press, our necessary evil right now is Ingram.

Daily Frustration: Ingram.

Picture a big yummy pie. You're hungry and you want it all to yourself. Unfortunately, your parents are making you share the pie with your siblings. You have two older brothers and a younger sister. The eldest brother is somewhat of a control freak and would normally divide the pie himself. But since you baked the pie, you get to take the first piece. You take as much as you want, realizing that the remainder has to be divided up among your brothers and sister.

Your oldest brother takes the remaining pie from you. He takes a piece and then hands the rest to your other brother.

Now, this brother is kind of a pig. He'd eat pie all day long if he could. He looks longingly at his brother's pie, and longingly at your piece. Then, before leaving the crumbs for your little sister, he takes nearly all of what's left.

As you see your little sister licking the bottom of the pie tie for morsels of crust and filling, you wonder to yourself if she would have received more if you had taken less. Or would your pig-of-a-brother simply helped himself to the extra, no matter how small of a piece you took?

Asking your brother that question is pointless. He was born without a tongue. Boy can he eat, though.

Kind of makes you wish you were an only child, doesn't it?

What do you think of this corporate mascot?

2005-01-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

One of the secrets of any successful endeavor is discipline, so I'll make an effort to add to this blog twice a day, once during lunch time and once in the evening. (Stating your goals publicly is also a secret...)

Growing this company is filled with daily (ha! hourly) frustrations, so maybe here's something you'll see "blogged" from time to time:

Daily Frustration:

Our COO doesn't like the logo-treatment mascot our designers arrived at based upon my requests. I wanted to spark the current logo with personality and character within a manipulatable form, so "he" could perform a series of ongoing tasks on our website at OutskirtsPress.com and throughout many of our online and offline marketing initiatives.

What do you think of it? His name is "Gem."

"E-Gems" are the free tips, articles, and suggestions sent free of charge to writers and authors interested in learning more about publishing and promotion. It's currently a 20-week series, but will most likely be expanded. To subscribe completely free to see what I'm talking about, just send a blank email to egems@outskirtspress.com.

Insomnia & Workaholism

2005-01-05T04:49:00.000-07:00

I'm an insomniac and a workaholic -- two traits that contribute to my productivity, but are also probably going to contribute to poor heatlh. So far I seem fairly healthy, although I have a sneaking suspicion I have Type III diabetes (if there even is such a thing -- Type II sounds too foreboding).

Fortunately, my 4-month son, Aidan, relishes my knack for staying awake with him at night. He's probably going to acquire carpal tunnel before he can walk since I work at the computer while he "punch punch punch kicks kicks kicks" in my arms. (Baby Experts call that "Active Alert" but it lacks the rhythm to say).

I'll probably post all the pictures we've taken here from time to time because I'm preparing to make a website. It's on my "to do" list, along with everything else -- all which needs to be completed "immediately."

Turning our trademarked logo into a mascot -- a la Wal-Mart and AOL
Finishing the edits and 2nd draft of our publishng guide
Writing the custom handbook
Compiling the e-Gem series into a published handbook
Canceling my book with iUniverse so Outskirts Press can publish my book of art and poetry the way it was supposed to be -- in color.
Making author orders automatic from our Author Center
Program a press release auto-generator
Finalize our ad for Writer's Digest's e-newsletter
Mention this blog site to all our current and prospective authors. What a tool!
Create Aidan's website <--- see, there it is.

More on all these items later...

What IS custom book publishing?

2005-01-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

Everywhere you go, it's "custom" this and "custom" that. Now, finally, you can customize your publishing goals.

Custom book publishing empowers authors with custom pricing, custom quantities, and custom options. Plus, the writer keeps all rights and the book never goes out of print!

But what is custom publishing?

How does it compare to the old-fashioned business model of traditional publishing? Is it more user-friendly than self-publishing? Or less restrictive than print-on-demand?
Compare for yourself with the chart below. Publishing is an adventure, not a mystery. And your choice is clear.

Worried about your rights? Custom publishing allows you to keep all the rights to your work.
Worried about the contract? Custom publishing features non-exclusive contracts that allow you to pursue other opportunities at any time.
Worried about the high cover prices? The author determines the retail cover price.
Worried about distribution? Authors determine the Retail Margin, from 0% to 55% for distribution through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Amazon, and more.
Worried about royalties? I don't know about you, but I'd rather not split my profits with any publisher. Custom publishing lets the author set their own Book Profit and keep 100% of it.

Custom Book Publishing with OutskirtsPress.com

Book of the Year Finalists

Outskirts Press Officially Nominates 38 Published Books for 13th Annual EVVY Awards

BrentSampson.com Website Launched

Outskirts Press and Writer’s Digest Partner for 76th Writing Competition Collection

PRINT ON DEMAND PUBLISHERS ANSWER GORE’S PLEA FOR CONSERVATION

6 Tips for Establishing Your Expertise

Writers Digest and Outskirts Press Together Again

WRITER’S DIGESTMAGAZINE PARTNERS WITHOUTSKIRTS PRESS FOR THE 2007WRITING COMPETITION COLLECTION

New Year's Resolutions for Writers

Press Release: Increase author royalties by 300%

2005 A Year in Review for Outskirts Press

Free Publishing Package Giveaway

Happy Halloween. October in review

Aidan's Birthday

Self-Publishing Simplified

New Writer's Digest ad

Self-Publishing Simplified

Website Focus Group

No Apologies

Self-Publishing Conspiracy

Denver Business Journal

Writing Associations

A Day Before CIPA

A busy week

Ti-i-i-ime...Isn't On My Side

CEO Monotony

Publishing Gems Final Cover

Submitting your book to news stations

Publisher's Weekly

Board of Directors

Adventures in Publishing update

Adventures in Publishing

Strategic Alliances

A long day ahead

Competitor hi-jinx

CEO junk

Securing Testimonials

Too much to mention

Additional Trim Sizes

Publisher's Weekly

Your Book on the Cover of PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

Adventures in Publishing

Writer's Digest Ad

Issues With Copyright

Better Business Bureau

Why Blogs Are Boring

Professional portrait

Author Rep Training

Adventures in Publishing

9 Steps for Plotting Fiction

Birthday

Pre-Pres Hustle

Blog Results in Search Engines

SEO W/ BLOG

Further Press Releases

Press Release Distribution

Writer's Digest Press Release

Google AdWords

Promoting the Blog

Wal-Mart Concept

Back in the Swing of Things

Website Migration

Netscape & Mozilla

Why is PHP so fickle?

What to look for in a book publisher

OutskirtsPress.com

Mascots are harder than you can imagine

More About Frustrating Book Distribution

Ingram Book Group

What do you think of this corporate mascot?

Insomnia & Workaholism

What IS custom book publishing?

WRITER’S DIGEST
MAGAZINE PARTNERS WITH

OUTSKIRTS PRESS FOR THE 2007

WRITING COMPETITION COLLECTION

Your Book on the Cover of PUBLISHER'S
WEEKLY