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Published by Jamie Belt-Outskirts, 2018-01-09 13:12:36

Top-5-Options

Top-5-Options

Book Publishing Tip Sheets publish your passion

The Top 5 Recommended Production Options

The custom publishing services at Outskirts Press offer so many choices, some authors
have a hard time deciding which options are best for their particular book. Selecting a
One-Click Suite is the most convenient solution to this conundrum, but if a One-Click
package is outside of your budget, this list of the Top 5 recommended production options
will help you get the most out of your publishing dollar.

#1 - Professional Copyediting

Without a doubt, the best dollar-for-dollar investment you can make in your book is
having it professionally edited. Without editing, you will invariably find mistakes after
publication that you must then incur revision fees correcting. Or, even more likely, your
friends and family members will find mistakes, which is embarrassing. Or, even more
humiliating still is when readers you don't even know publicly mention mistakes within
their Amazon reviews of your book. Suddenly, those reviews are encouraging other
readers NOT to buy your book, because of a few, small errors that could have been easily
avoided.

Some authors mistakenly believe that the publisher is responsible for editing the book.
That is true for traditional publication from those big New York houses, but it is not true
for independently self-published books. The author is responsible for editing the book. In
the absence of a formal degree in English, it is best to let a professional editor edit your
manuscript before it is published.

If you absolutely cannot afford professional editing, have a second pair of eyes look it over
front to back. And then use an online grammar/spell checker like Online-SpellCheck.com
for a final review before submitting it to us.

Fun Fact: You may often see the term "copy editing" and "copyediting" (with and without publish your passion
the space) used interchangeably, both on the Outskirts Press website and throughout the
publishing industry. Essentially, both are correct. Historically, "copy editing" as two
words has been most often identified with the magazine publishing industry while
"copyediting" as one word has been most often identified with the book publishing
industry. Search engine terminology and "best practices" now play a role in defining
common conventions and popular word use, which is why online businesses sometimes
use both in order to attract visitors who enter either version into a search engine. (Hint:
these are the kinds of things a professional editor keeps in mind when reviewing your
manuscript, too!)

#2 - Professional Custom Cover Design

The only reason editing trumps a custom cover design here is because our customizable
covers are VERY good (if you do them right). Otherwise, a professionally-designed
custom cover is just as important as professional editing, if not more so. Why? Because
someone has to be attracted to your book in the first place to even find any errors that
exist inside. And the over-riding element that attracts a new buyer to a new book is a
fantastic cover. Secondly, there is the consideration of cost versus benefit. A professional
custom cover design is often half the cost of a professional copyedit.

Obviously, the best thing you can do is get both (or simply get a One-Click Publishing
Suite, since all of them include both professional copyediting and professional custom
cover design).

Fun Fact: Our customizable covers are never going to be as awesome as our original,
professional custom covers, but with a little bit of finesse, you can customize an included
cover just enough to arrive upon something great and unique. Unique is the main point,
here; if you don't customize the default theme at all, you run the risk of someone else
having your exact cover (and it's obviously best to avoid that!). So always change the
default color and/or the default image once you select your cover theme.

#3 - Enhanced Interior Formatting

Make no mistake, our standard interior formatting looks great! And it's included with all
our custom, a la carte publishing services. In fact, it is one of the reasons our books look so
good when compared with our competitors.

But another reason our books look so good is because so many of our authors upgrade publish your passion
their interior formatting to the Enhanced version. Here, you will collaborate with your
interior book designer on a "Style Sheet" created just for your book. Your designer will
recommend unique elements like fonts, headers, footers, page numbers, chapter breaks,
graphical elements, etc. You will review, accept, or modify this Style Sheet before the
designer gets to work. The result almost seems like a Custom Interior for a fraction of the
price of a true page-by-page custom layout.

Fun Fact: If you ask your designer nicely, she may be able to incorporate a graphical
element (perhaps as a part of a Chapter Heading, for example) into your Enhanced
Interior Style Sheet. It's an effective way to get some graphics into your book without any
additional image fees.

#4 - Alternate Formats (Hardback & E-Book Editions)

Publishing a book is prestigious. Publishing a book with Outskirts Press is even more
prestigious. And publishing a hardback book with Outskirts Press is the crème de la crème.

You already recognize all the benefits of publishing an actual book instead of just an e-
book, right? You can't sign an e-book at events and you can't wrap an e-book as a present.
Saying your e-book is "in the cloud" just isn't as impressive as saying your paperback is on
Amazon. Let's face it, publishing an e-book all by itself doesn't really count as publishing a
book at all. Don't get us wrong; e-book editions are great complements to hardcopy
publication, and multiple e-book editions should always be published along with your
paperback, but e-book publication should never be a substitute for paperback publication.

On the other end of the spectrum are hardback books. Hardbacks are premium editions
of your book. They're positively gorgeous. They make great gifts. They're magnificent for
leaving your legacy, and declaring in no uncertain terms: You are a published author. They
should not be a substitute for paperback publication either. (For one, they're too
expensive to use as marketing materials).

Writing a book is hard, and publishing one is an investment that typically reaches into the
thousands of dollars. If you can add a gorgeous casebound or dust-jacketed hardback (in
gloss or matte varieties, depending upon your package) for a few hundred dollars more,
that is an outstanding cost-to-benefit value.

Where is Option #5?

It's no coincidence that all our One-Click Publishing Suites include the first three Top
Production Options. In fact, the Children's One-Click package goes two steps further by
including a page-by-page custom interior design AND the hardback edition, too.

But your best 5th production option will depend upon your goals and your book. For some
authors it might be the Private Label ISBN, which allows you to publish your book under
your name or an original, unique Publishing Imprint name exclusive to you. For other
authors, the best option might be the Retail Returns Program, which is basically
mandatory if you plan on aggressively pursuing carriage in brick-n-mortar bookstores.
Still for others, the best production option might be original illustrations, especially if
you've written a children's book but don't yet have the necessary artwork.

What is your best 5th option? Discuss it with your Publishing Consultant and get excited!
You're about to publish the book of your dreams. And Outskirts Press is here to help.

publish your passion


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