Author: Jodee Thayer

ABOUT JODEE THAYER: With over 20 years of experience in sales and management, Jodee Thayer works as the Manager of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable customer service reps and publishing consultants; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process in order to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Jodee Thayer can put you on the right path.

Jodee Speaks, Uncategorized

In-House vs. Third Party Illustrators for Book Covers

Children’s authors already know the importance of a great graphic artists, but even authors who write for older audiences need to understand the importance of a great artist and how to find one. While your book may not be filled with graphics, there is one image that can make or break your book’s success — your cover.

A great graphic artist will help you great a custom book cover that catches readers’ attention, demonstrates your professionalism as an author, and represents the essence of your book. By using a generic cover or a poorly created one, you may send your readers a negative message about your work and they may be less intrigued to buy and read it. Because a graphic artist is so important to the success of your book, you need to make sure you hire a talented, trustworthy one.

Before hiring a graphic artist, understand that there are two types of custom covers:

1) A custom cover –created by a professional graphic artist

2) An illustrated custom cover – The illustration is created by a professional illustrator and then that illustration is used in a custom cover design created by the professional graphic artist.

It is helpful to know which type of cover you’d like for your book before hiring a graphic artist. Another important decision is whether to use a third party graphic artist or an in-house graphic artist. Using a third party artist can be more expensive and complicated to work with.

It is important to know . . .

Some third-party graphic artists require you to share a portion of your royalties. This creates an ongoing cost instead of a one-time fee for the service.
You need to know what the trim size of your book is prior to the artist beginning work.
The graphic artist needs to know specifications about bleed and gutters for the self-publisher being used.
You should arrange for the graphic artist to provide high-resolution image files, not just hardcopies.
Be sure to get a written contract.

If this sounds like a headache, there is an easier way. Instead of hiring a third-party graphic artist, you could hire an artist through your self-publishing company. To learn more about hiring a graphic artist from your self-publishing company, contact a representative at your publishing company.

ABOUT JODEE THAYER: With over 25 years of experience in sales and management, Jodee Thayer works as the Director of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable customer service reps, publishing consultants and marketing professionals; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process in order to help them publish the book of their dreams and on assisting authors with marketing and promoting their book once published. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Jodee Thayer can put you on the right path.

Jodee Speaks, Uncategorized

It’s Not Too Late to Give (or Get) the Gift of Self-Publishing

Merry Christmas, everyone! With just a few days left until Christmas, you may be rushing to get last minute gifts or to give last minute ideas to people who still need to shop for you. Well, it’s not too late to give or get the gift of self-publishing.

Many self-publishing companies offer gift certificates that can be used towards a variety of publishing and marketing services. For instance, Outskirts Press offers instant gift certificates in the amount of $99. Here is how their process works.

Click the “Add to Cart” button on the page and complete the transaction on a secure server.
Outskirts Press will email the purchaser to find out who the special author is and whether to include any special messaging on the gift notification.
If the writer isn’t yet registered with Outskirts Press, they will create a free account and apply the $99 credit to the new account.
If the author is already registered and/or published with Outskirts Press, they will apply the $99 credit to the existing Publishing Center account.
Once the credit has been applied to the writer’s account, Outskirts Press will notify the writer via email of the special gift using any messaging provided.

The turnaround time is typically 2-business days, and there is no searching for a parking spot at a busy mall, waiting in a long line, or paying expensive shipping charges. Whether you want to make Christmas shopping a little easier for your friends and family or you are looking for the perfect gift for the writer on your shopping list, the gift of self-publishing is a great option.

I’d love to know, what are you asking for this year?

ABOUT JODEE THAYER: With over 20 years of experience in sales and management, Jodee Thayer works as the Manager of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable customer service reps and publishing consultants; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process in order to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Jodee Thayer can put you on the right path.

Jodee Speaks, Uncategorized

Niche Market Books are Perfect for Self-Publishing!

While not all self-published books are successful, the self-publishing market seems to favor niche market books. This is great news for niche authors, since traditional publishers usually prefer books that appeal to a large, general audience. Here are four reasons why niche market books are perfect for self-publishing.

1. Easy Marketing

With niche market books, it’s easy to define your audience and therefore streamline your promotion and marketing efforts. You don’t need a large, traditional publisher to help you reach your audience.

2. Higher Royalties

Because you don’t need the help of a traditional publisher to reach your target audience, you don’t need to share your income and rights with them. Self-publishing authors keep the rights to their content and determine their own royalties.

3. Ideal for Speakers

Self-publishing is great for speakers who do most of their selling in-person at speaking engagements. Having a book helps build their credibility and income, and they can sell print copies directly to attendees during the event. Some self-publishing companies, such as Outskirts Press, even offer special publishing packages for coaches and speakers.

4. Quick Turnaround

If your publishing a book that relates to current issues or a special event, self-publishing offers a quicker turnaround time than traditional publishing. Often, current topics are outdated by the time a traditionally published book makes it into print.

These are just a few of the reasons self-publishing is a perfect option for niche market books. I would love to know, what influenced your publishing decisions for your niche market book?

Jodee Speaks, Uncategorized

Self-Publishing for the Non-Tech Savvy

For many people, self-publishing is a fairly simple process. You type your manuscript. Submit the file to the self-publishing company. Possibly hire an editor or illustrator to improve and polish. Approve the files before publication, and receive your printed book.

However, that process isn’t simple for everyone. There are still plenty of authors who prefer writing with the trusty pen and paper or the classic typewriter. There are also people who have trouble formatting their manuscript to meet self-publishing standards or who encounter other technical issues. These problems can be costly and frustrating. For instance, self-publishing companies may charge for the following services:

Mail-in Fee — If an author does not submit an electronic file, he/she may have the option to mail a hard copy or digital file (such as flashdrive) to the self-publishing company. Because this is not a standard option and creates more work, this often results in an extra fee.
Transcription Fee — If an author doesn’t own a computer or know how to type the manuscript, he/she might pay someone to transcribe the written manuscript into a digital file that can be submitted.
Removal of Hard-Returns — A common formatting mistake is hitting enter at the end of every line while typing. These are called hard-returns. Fixing this formatting issue takes the self-publishing company a great deal of time, so the cost is often passed on to the author.
Photo Fees — If authors choose to mail in hard copies of photos that will be used in the book instead of submitting them electronically, there is often a fee.

There are ways for authors to avoid these problems and avoid spending extra money. These simple solutions can help non-tech savvy writers save time, money, and stress.

Ask a friend, family member, or neighbor to help you prepare a digital file and submit it electronically.
If the manuscript has already been typed and unnecessary hard-returns exist, you could remove them on your own (or with help of a friend or family member) rather than paying the publishing company to do it.
Take hardcopy photos to a local office supply store and ask them to scan them at high-resolution and save to a flashdrive. You can then email them to the publisher.
If the author doesn’t own or use a computer, hire someone to help with the process. Most self-publishing companies will not complete the process via phone or mail. Email is often the main method of communication.

Just because you are not tech-savvy does not mean self-publishing is hard. You may just need to enlist a little extra help to make the process less costly and stressful. With a few minor changes (such as deleting hard-returns), you can have a professionally self-published book in no time.

Choosing a Publisher, Jodee Speaks, Self-Publishing

Comparison: Outskirts Press Diamond Publishing Package vs Createspace Standard Publishing Package

A follower asked if I would compare the Diamond publishing package offered by Outskirts Press with Createspace’s option. He didn’t specify which package he was interested in at Createspace, so I decided to compare the package with a similar price point — the Standard.

I do not envy the author shopping the self-publishing market as it is impossible to do apples-to-apples comparisons since no two packages are going to offer exactly the same features and services. As a professional in the industry, it’s easier for me to cut through the fluff, charts and graphs and distill it down for an author. That’s just what I’ve done here, but remember, offerings change sometimes, so this comparison is current as of the date I did my researcher (November 20th, 2013), and it is limited to information I could obtain on the website of the two companies.

		Outskirts Press Diamond Publishing Package $999	CreateSpace Standard Publishing Package $948
P R O D U C T I O N	Paperback Format	✓	✓
	Customizable Cover (1 stock image)	✓	✓
	Professional Interior Formatting	✓	✓
	Interior images	10 for $49	10 Free
	Interior Charts, Tables, Graphs	10 for $49	$25 each
	Author Copies (Paperback)	10 Copies	0? Not listed on package page
	Free Standard eBook Format	✓
M A R K E T I N G	Standard Press Release	✓	No mention of these items on the Standard package page or comparison chart
	Author Webpage	✓
	Streaming Audio	✓
	Marketing COACH Emails (2 years)	✓

In the above comparison of just the package basics, there are many similarities and really only two differences that stand out:

The Diamond package includes a few marketing options and nothing similar is shown to come with the Standard package.
The Standard package includes the insertion of 10 interior images, while this service costs extra with the Diamond package. If you don’t have any interior images, this won’t matter to you. But, if you have interior elements that are charts, graphs or tables, these are included in the “10 for $49” fee with the Diamond while you may pay $25 for each chart/graph/table with the Standard.

In addition to looking at the upfront cost and package inclusions, it’s important to look at royalties. It’s also imperative that you use the same parameters in determining this pricing information. For my research, I used a 6″ x 9″ paperback, black and white interior with 100 pages and a retail price of $9.95. Here are the results:

The CreateSpace site indicates they will deduct a sales channel %, a fixed charge and a per page charge. The result is the author’s royalty.

If you want Amazon only distribution, then the sales channel % is 40 ($3.98).
If you want expanded distribution, then the sales channel % is 60 ($5.97).
For our parameters, the fixed charge is $2.15 per book.
The per page charge for less than 108 pages is $0.
Therefore, $9.95 retail less $3.98 sales channel, less $2.15 fixed charge nets a royalty of $3.82 if you want Amazon only distribution.
Or, $9.95 retail less $5.97 sales channel, less $2.15 fixed charge nets a royalty of $1.83 if you want distribution beyond Amazon.

Outskirts Press has an easy to use and easy to find pricing calculator on their website. They will deduct the trade discount and a base price. The result is the author’s royalty.

The trade discount is 25% ($2.49) for online distribution (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million and more).
For our parameters, the base price is $4.52.
Therefore, $9.95 retail less $2.49 trade discount, less $4.52 base price nets a royalty of $2.94 – regardless of where the book is sold online.

After comparing the two self-publishing services side-by-side, the winner looks to be Outskirts Press. You’ll pay $51 more upfront, but if you want distribution beyond just Amazon, you’ll reap the long-term benefits with the higher royalties from Outskirts Press.

See all the benefits and features of the Diamond publishing package here.

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