I've never personally written a book, but I know at least one published author. Ok, not in person, but she's one of my online friends. I've never asked her what kind of publishing company or service she uses. I know she sells her books via her website, so she pretty much controls the book sales. The idea of
self publishing is very intriguing, because it gives the author control over all publishing options. Outskirts Press offers 5 publishing packages, so that authors can choose, and pay for, only the options they want and need, and not any that they don't. Outskirts Press provides professional interior layouts and cover design - so the book doesn't look like someone threw it together on their home printer. It looks like an actual, real live book, something the author can be proud of. Authors can set their own pricing, and they even provide an
online pricing calculator to help figure it out. There's even a whole page on Book Math to explain it all - setting the retail price and calculating the trade discount. It looks like they make it as easy as possible for authors to figure out how much they need to sell their books for in order to accomplish their goals. The author is in control of it, not the publisher.
I would think that, after spending all that time writing, it would be comforting not to have to hand your baby over to someone else and let them make all the decisions. On the other hand, having someone to help you along the way so you're not all on your own would be comforting, too. It sounds like Outskirts Press is really striving to achieve that balance - giving authors as much support and help as they need - first with the publishing and then
marketing, too.
Now, if I could just write a book. Yeah, I'd need help with that, too.
