Outskirts Press review: what it costs, what the contract says, what authors report

Outskirts Press, also searched as Outskirts Publishing, publishes three package prices for black-and-white and for full-color books (checked 19 October 2026). Its packages page (archived copy) lists:

An ebook alone costs $599. You can start with a $35 deposit, pay in three installments 30 days apart, or pay monthly from $100.

The recurring cost is in the agreement. Clause 19: "Each January following publication, Author agrees to pay an Annual Distribution Subscription Fee in the amount of $35 for each print format". A paperback and a hardback kept in print for ten years cost $700 in fees (derived). For scale, published pay-to-publish packages elsewhere run $999–18,599; see what it costs to publish a book.

Outskirts publishes its print agreement (archived copy), 35 clauses dated September 2026. Clause 1: "AUTHOR RETAINS 100% OF THE RIGHTS AND COPYRIGHT LICENSES to the submitted manuscript". Clause 3 grants Outskirts "a NON-EXCLUSIVE, worldwide license to distribute and sell the manuscript in print format".

Royalties depend on a price Outskirts sets. Clause 5: "Royalties Profit is defined as the difference between the Base Price and the Wholesale Price", and the author gets all of it. You set the retail price and a trade discount of 40–55%; Outskirts sets the base price (clause 10) and may change it every two years (clause 8). Royalties are paid by check within 90 days of each quarter's end, once they reach $25 for US authors (clause 12). Unclaimed royalties revert to Outskirts after two years.

Leaving takes 30 days' written notice (clause 24). Before you approve production, fees are refunded minus a $149 or $249 administrative fee; after approval, "all submitted fees become non-refundable." On termination, "all rights granted within this agreement revert back to the author" and the files leave the distributor within 30 days (clause 28).

Two more clauses matter. Clause 34 lets Outskirts revise the agreement "at any time", with 30 days' notice to affected authors. Clause 35 puts disputes in the District Court of Douglas County, Colorado.

You get a designed, printed and distributed book. Clause 9 says distribution runs through Ingram's feeds to retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which are "under no obligation to stock" every book. Outskirts also sells books in its own online bookstore; its pricing page notes that returns "do not apply to purchases through the Outskirts Press bookstore."

No package includes editing. Economy offers an "Initial manuscript review and guidance", and Ultimate an "Expert manuscript review" with positioning advice. A copyedit, the work of the person who checks every comma, is sold separately: $360 for the first 15,000 words, then "0.024 cents per word". Read as $0.024, an 80,000-word book comes to $1,920; the EFA's 2026 median rates give $2,400–3,200.

The default ISBN carries the Outskirts Press imprint. A private-label ISBN in your own imprint costs $199; Bowker sells one for $125. KDP and IngramSpark charge nothing to set up a print book.

Outskirts Press against IBPA's 11 hybrid publisher criteria

Outskirts calls itself "a full-service self-publishing company", not a hybrid. This is what its pages show against IBPA's criteria, checked 19 October 2026.

Outskirts has an A+ BBB rating and has been BBB-accredited since May 2004 (checked 19 October 2026). The BBB profile shows 3 complaints in the last three years, all marked resolved, and 9 customer reviews averaging 3.22 out of 5. BBB says "Customer reviews are not used in the letter-grade calculation."

• "The contacts are all very professional and personable." (a BBB reviewer, April 2025, on three leadership books)
• "For the life of me, I can't understand their business model of ignore the customer." (a BBB reviewer, February 2026)

Outskirts replied to the second review that its team had answered the same day and that the problem was a short Amazon delivery restriction.

Trustpilot shows an unclaimed profile with 5 reviews and a score of 3.8: two five-star, one two-star and two one-star. One of the five-star reviews (September 2022) is by a reviewer who writes that they have been with Outskirts Press for 15 years and work with its team every day.

• "I've published six books with Outskirts Press and have been consistently pleased with their customer service and overall responsiveness to inquiries." (a Trustpilot reviewer, April 2026)
• "I have called several times over the years and never hear back from this company." (a Trustpilot reviewer, January 2025)

The Alliance of Independent Authors rates Outskirts "Watchdog Advisory" and lists its concerns as quality and value. Writer Beware discussed an Outskirts marketing package in "More Money-Wasting 'Opportunities' For Writers" (22 June 2012).

CourtListener shows one Outskirts Press lawsuit in federal court: Dixon v. Outskirts Press Publishing Corporation, E.D. La., No. 2:21-cv-00729, filed in 2021 and dismissed on 18 March 2022. A Reddit search found no thread about the company, only posts citing books it printed. A news search for 2023–2026 found nothing.

1. Ask for your book's base price before you approve production: it sets both your royalty and what you pay for author copies.
2. Budget the $35 annual fee for each print format; an unpaid fee can end the title after 90 days (clause 19).
3. Treat production approval as the refund line: before it you get your fees back minus $149–249, after it nothing.
4. Price editing separately, since no package includes a copyedit; compare Outskirts' $360-plus rate with a freelance quote.
5. Decide whose imprint goes on the book: the default ISBN names Outskirts Press, and a private-label ISBN costs $199.

• Palmetto Publishing starts "around $1,598", prices editing per word, and ALLi rates it Excellent (Partner).
• BookBaby sells components separately, such as $299 ebook distribution and covers from $399.
• Atmosphere Press costs more ($7,200 and up) but includes developmental feedback and proofreading and says it selects its books.
• Amazon KDP and IngramSpark charge $0 to set up a print book and no annual fee; you pay a designer and an editor yourself.

See the best self-publishing companies, compared, and vanity press vs hybrid publisher for how to tell the models apart.