Category: Cheri Speaks

Cheri Speaks

More About Using an Imprint

A couple of weeks ago, we discussed the benefit of using your own self-publishing company under your own ISBN and what’s called an imprint.

Some self-publishing authors prefer to secure their own ISBNs for full control over how their books are identified, discovered, and sourced. Using an imprint means designating your Publisher Name as the publisher-of-record for your book. Many authors who produce textbooks must print under their own imprint and ISBN for those special service wholesalers to do business with them.

This imprint also lets your book stand alone in the sea of books available. For instance, if you are using a self-publishing company that publishes many science fiction books and an author opts to bypass copyediting and has a less than appealing cover, an author may not want to be associated with that book, though they want to utilize the services of the publisher. Publishing under your own self-publishing company is ideal is ideal in cases like this.

If you decide to publish under an imprint, we recommend that you thoroughly research the name of your company to make sure that there aren’t any duplicates on the market.

Many companies, such as Outskirts Press, can assist author with the hassles handling book orders and inventory, sales/accounting, etc. but allow the author use their own imprint (publisher name). This will give it more credibility in the marketplace and can become the name under which the author publishes further titles.

Cheri Breeding ABOUT CHERI BREEDING:
Since 2005 Cheri Breeding has been working as the Director of Production for Outskirts Press. In that time, she has been an instrumental component of every aspect of the Production Department, performing the roles of an Author Representative, Book Designer, Customer Service Representative, Title Production Supervisor, Production Manager and, Director of Production. She brings all that experience and knowledge, along with an unparalleled customer-service focus, to help self-publishing authors reach high-quality book publication more efficiently, professionally, and affordably.
Cheri Speaks

POLL: What’s Important to You?

When publishing a book, it’s important to make sure that you have all of the right tools/knowledge at your disposal. To help you acquire those tools/knowledge, we run this blog. From time to time, we like to get your feedback. We’d like to know what published authors wish they had known during the publishing process? What is it that you “kick” yourself about now? What mistakes did you make that you feel that others can learn from?

Also feel free to share things you wish you knew “then” in the comments below. Your feedback will be use to tailor future blog posts to what you want to hear.

Cheri Breeding ABOUT CHERI BREEDING:
Since 2005 Cheri Breeding has been working as the Director of Production for Outskirts Press. In that time, she has been an instrumental component of every aspect of the Production Department, performing the roles of an Author Representative, Book Designer, Customer Service Representative, Title Production Supervisor, Production Manager and, Director of Production. She brings all that experience and knowledge, along with an unparalleled customer-service focus, to help self-publishing authors reach high-quality book publication more efficiently, professionally, and affordably.
Cheri Speaks

Choosing a Genre for Your Book

With so many genres to choose from, how does an author settle on one? Should you be general in your choice or should you be very specific?

From a marketing perspective, books should be marketed to a more narrow niche group, but this advice doesn’t apply to genre selection. For example, if you select a genre of Religious – Agnostic, you can possibly eliminate yourself from consideration by online retailers/bookstores that accept religious books because they are “turned off” by the “Agnostic”. So, to answer the above question – you should be as general as possible with picking your genre. This the case whether you are self publishing a book or especially if you’re going after representation by a literary agent.

It’s important to also make sure that your genre is reflective of your book. For instance, if you’ve written a murder mystery, your shouldn’t select a genre related to romance, and vice versa.

Have you ever experienced any issues with choosing genres or sub-genres?

Cheri Breeding ABOUT CHERI BREEDING:
Since 2005 Cheri Breeding has been working as the Director of Production for Outskirts Press. In that time, she has been an instrumental component of every aspect of the Production Department, performing the roles of an Author Representative, Book Designer, Customer Service Representative, Title Production Supervisor, Production Manager and, Director of Production. She brings all that experience and knowledge, along with an unparalleled customer-service focus, to help self-publishing authors reach high-quality book publication more efficiently, professionally, and affordably.
Cheri Speaks

Avoid Using “Hard Returns” in your Manuscript

A few weeks ago, we told you to why you shouldn’t allow your publisher to format your book. As a matter of fact, we gave you 3 good reasons for this. However, neither of those reasons were relevant for you, so you decided to forgo formatting the book yourself.

Formatting a book is not a task to be taken lightly. If your book is poorly formatted, it can mean that you aren’t taken seriously. That’s why most self-publishing companies include interior formatting services in their fee. It is understood and accepted that authors usually don’t have time to learn the nuances of interior layout. When you allow your publisher to format your manuscript, there is one piece of advice you should keep in mind:

Don’t use hard returns.

A hard return occurs when you use the “Enter” key to break the line instead of letting it wrap naturally. Most word processing programs automatically take text that won’t fit on the current line to the next line.  Because your publisher will most likely be copying/pasting the text of your manuscript into their book design program, those hard returns can often throw off the formatting considerably. Because of this, publishers normally don’t accept manuscripts with hard returns. The only exception here is poetry books and using the “enter” key to go to the next paragraph.

Other than hard returns, can you think of any other things you had to change in order for your publisher to accept your manuscript?

Cheri Breeding ABOUT CHERI BREEDING:
Since 2005 Cheri Breeding has been working as the Director of Production for Outskirts Press. In that time, she has been an instrumental component of every aspect of the Production Department, performing the roles of an Author Representative, Book Designer, Customer Service Representative, Title Production Supervisor, Production Manager and, Director of Production. She brings all that experience and knowledge, along with an unparalleled customer-service focus, to help self-publishing authors reach high-quality book publication more efficiently, professionally, and affordably.
Cheri Speaks

The 5Ws of Trade Discounts

To get the best understanding of your book’s price, you have to first understand that there are many individual entities that make up the pricing equation. One of those entities is the trade discount. That term can confuse authors at time, though the concept is not as difficult as it may initially seem. To give you a snapshot view of what trade discounting is, I’ve prepared a list of the 5Ws (Who, What, When, Where, Why) of Trade Discounts:

  • Who sets the trade discount? Sometimes the publisher sets the trade discount. At Outskirts Press, we allow authors to set their own discount.
  • What is the trade discount? The trade discount is the discount you extend to a retailer that is carrying your book. The discount you offer can range from 0% (no distribution) to 100% (highly unlikely).
  • When do I select my trade discount, and can I change it later? You select your trade discount before your book publishes, and while you can change your discount at any time, we don’t recommend it. Some retailers may not recognize the change for a while, and most likely you will incur additional costs for revising your book. It’s important to research trade discounts beforehand in order to make sure you are making the best decision for you and your book.
  • Where will your book be available when choosing certain trade discounts? The minimum trade discount is 20% for online-only distribution. If you want to penetrate most retail stores, you will want to offer a discount of 40-55% (your book must also be fully-returnable). If you’re targeting wholesale clubs (Sam’s Club, Costco, etc.), you will want to offer a discount between 60-75%.
  • Why do I have to offer a discount at all? Your discount determines the price retailers pay for your book (wholesale price). They then sell the book for more (in most cases) and keep the profit. If the retailer can’t make any profit, what’s the benefit of carrying your book? Keep in mind, though, the higher the trade discount, the lower your royalties. In order to make the transaction go smoothly for both parties, you must choose a happy medium from both perspectives (the retailer and you).

What trade discount have you set for your book? Has it allowed you to penetrate your target market?

Cheri Breeding ABOUT CHERI BREEDING:
Since 2005 Cheri Breeding has been working as the Director of Production for Outskirts Press. In that time, she has been an instrumental component of every aspect of the Production Department, performing the roles of an Author Representative, Book Designer, Customer Service Representative, Title Production Supervisor, Production Manager and, Director of Production. She brings all that experience and knowledge, along with an unparalleled customer-service focus, to help self-publishing authors reach high-quality book publication more efficiently, professionally, and affordably.