OutstandingAuthors.com offers authors outlet for collaborative marketing, promotion

A new Web site is striving to multiply the power of individual authors and small publishers looking to promote themselves and their works by providing a springboard for collaborative endeavors.

ST. PETERS, MO - August 6, 2001 - A new Web site is striving to multiply the power of individual authors and small publishers looking to promote themselves and their works by providing a springboard for collaborative endeavors.

OutstandingAuthors.com, an online marketing cooperative for authors and small publishing companies, is scheduled to launch operations Aug. 15. In addition to hosting Web sites and resources for authors, the site also sponsors a wide range of marketing programs, provides educational information and opportunities and hosts a consignment bookstore complete with a shopping cart and order processing and fulfillment.

John and Judy Coker created OutstandingAuthors.com with the specific needs of authors and small publishers in mind. The idea for the site sprang from their experiences in self-publishing several books and marketing their works and those of other publishers online from their Web site. They had also begun designing Web sites for authors, small publishers and small businesses - so the OutstandingAuthors.com site was a natural next step.

"There's no doubt about it -- promoting yourself and your books is hard work. It can also cost a lot of money and time, especially if you try to do it all on your own," said Judy Coker. "But sharing the cost of marketing and publicity with other authors or small publishing companies makes marketing avenues that would otherwise be too expensive for you to pursue alone affordable."

Each OutstandingAuthors.com member has the opportunity to select from a range of Web Centers, each based on a different target audience - be it readers, speakers, reading groups or the media.

Web Centers have simple, easy-to-remember URLs that always stay the same and are easily indexed by all search engines. They are also promoted through OutstandingAuthors.com's opt-in e-mail newsletters to reach event planners, the media and readers.

With membership in OutstandingAuthors.com, members receive their selected Web Centers and access to the Members' Center. There they will find educational articles, cooperative marketing and publicity programs, a members' message board and many other unique features.

OutstandingAuthors.com can put authors in touch with other authors and small publishing companies with whom they can share costs to reach a particular target market. The site also offers low-cost, cooperative online marketing and publicity programs to help members reach readers, event planners and media outlets. It can facilitate or sponsor traditional marketing programs such as direct mail to the library market or group ads in magazines, e-newsletters and e-zines.

Members can also participate in OutstandingAuthors.com's syndication program for online or offline syndication of articles, e-books or a regular column. Authors can complement their Web Centers with a Newsline, where members' press releases, fillers and print-quality images are easily accessible to the media 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The site also offers the OutstandingAuthors.com Newswire, which is picked up automatically by news gatherers several times a day and is available to Webmasters for inclusion on other Web sites.

Authors participating on the site have granted OutstandingAuthors.com accolades even before its launch:

"Although teachers tend to model reading as a solitary act, the full pleasure of books is often realized most in social settings. Through its special appeal to reading groups and the discussion boards set up for readers and writers, OutstandingAuthors.com emphasizes the way great stories have been received by whole societies from the earliest times," said Michael Lund, a college teacher of literature and composition whose second novel will be released this fall. "I look forward to meeting -- electronically or in person -- with people who get together to read and to enjoy each other." (Lund's forthcoming novel is "Route 66 Kids," the second in his Route 66 series.)

"The way the site is organized it would appear to create an avenue and link between readers, media and myself. I would like to do more talk radio regarding my children's interactive workbook designed to build self-esteem and self-image," said Linda Beattie Inlow, an author, publisher and mother. "I am hoping this site will open a few doors. I have heard nothing but great things about Judy Coker and our correspondence has been forthright, expedient and helpful." (Beattie Inlows's new book is "Becoming Me: An Autobiography for the Reader to Complete.")

Becoming an OutstandingAuthors.com member includes an initial cost for membership and the design of selected Web Centers, with annual renewal fees of $20.00 (U.S.) for each Center. Optional items, such as additional Web pages within a Center, services and interactive elements are available on a per-item basis.