Beyond the Scoreboard…Published by Mill City Press

Mill City Press, a self-publishing company out of Minneapolis, MN, is publishing my first book, Beyond the Scoreboard: Examining Teamwork, Tension, and Triumph in High School Athletics.  I am excited about this opportunity and Mill City Press has been nothing short of helpful and professional in this whole process.

After trying to sell my manuscript to several (over 100) traditional publishing houses, I finally made the decision late in 2009 to self-publish my book.   There are hundreds of self-publishers vying to publish books.  The overwhelming amount of choices led me to The Fine Print of Self-Publishing by Mark Levine.  This book begins by giving great advice on how to find a great self-publisher.  Levine then outlines 45 different self-publishing, even categorizing them from best to worst.  The information he provides includes contracts, features, and services of each of these self-publishing companies.  A special bonus to buying Levine’s book is his free 30 minute personal consultation.  Through the research and reading of this extremely helpful book, I zeroed in on five features I was looking for in a great self-publishing company.

1. Communication: Danielle Adelman, Michelle Brown, and Jenni Wheeler of Mill City Press have provided timely feedback and have answered every question I have thrown at them.
2. Professional Look: Michelle Brown was gracious enough to send me a free copy of a book MCP published for me to peruse.  The professional look of their cover and their internal formatting made this an easy choice.
3. Book Availability: I need this book available to people who are interested in reading it.  In this conceptual age that we are living in as consumers I needed to think outside of the box.  While I dream about having my book on the shelves at Barnes and Noble, I believe the book will sell and be the most available from online retailers like Amazon.com.  The Print On Demand feature is extremely important for consumers to make purchases from the comfort of their  living room.  I am working on creating space on this blog for people interested in purchasing the book to make pre-orders.  That will be coming soon!!!
4. Cost: We are always looking for a deal, right?  Self-publishing, for the author, costs money.  I needed to be sure that the money I would be willing to invest in this project would be worthwhile.  The aforementioned features needed to be available to me at a good price.  After all, I can’t make this hobby drain our bank account and chances are I won’t make megabucks on my first book.  MCP provides quality service at a fair price.  While this endeavor is not cheap, and I am not in it to make money yet…maybe just to break even, the cost is fair and worthwhile.
5. A Reputable Company:  I have researched long and hard several companies.   Mill City Press has had GREAT reviews and have answered, quite well I might add, the criticisms.

Right now Beyond the Scoreboard is in the formatting stage.  A release date has not yet been finalized.  When that date becomes available you can be sure I will let you know via this blog.