The other day I came across a really good blog post by author Sara Barton inspired by a comment she received on a review about her book. "wasn't bad, for an indie"
In the last 18 months I have been thrown into the world of the indie author as I have been assisting a friend with the marketing side of his books.
Have you ever heard or picked up a book by Terry Tyler, Richard Stephenson, Christopher Shields and my friend John Donoghue. Each one is a self-published author who have a large numbers of 5 Star reviews for their books, from the people who have discovered them via word of mouth or social networking site and discovered how talented they are.
I have seen first hand how hard it is for them to get noticed or taken seriously as authors, it isn't because they aren't talented or have a good story to tell, their reviews prove they are and have, it because the majority of the general public (the readers) don't hear about them, because they haven't got a large publishing house behind them, with the financial clot to advertise the product or produce a major marketing campaign.
These author's have to work really hard to market their books so people will notice and pick up a copy to read. I know how just how hard they work, I only do it part time, as I have a full time job, but it takes up most of my spare time, even more so recently, as my friend has just released a new book, to assist him getting the book noticed, I have been working with him in tweeting promos as well as sending publicity emails to magazines and book reviewers etc. in total approximate 120 emails have been send of all of those approximately 10 have replied, as he isn't a mainstream publishing house author. Even though his previous book has over 285 5 star reviews, which indicates those people who have picked up a copy and read it have loved it.
With social networking sites, these author's are at last finding a platform to market their books, which isn't a big strain on their pockets, as well as personally interacting with their readers. But still are being over looked by many, as they aren't publically known. So end up disappearing into the abyss.
Recently, there has been news stories about JK Rowling. Which proves the point that an "unknown" author can easily be over looked. She decided to release her new book called The Cuckoo's Calling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. It is reported that the book only sold 400 copies prior to it being "leaked" it was actually written by JK Rowling. Now is selling fast and receiving 5* reviews. It makes you wonder, if it hadn't been leaked that she wrote it, how many people would have brought a copy with the minimum amount of advertising it was given.
So how can you discover these talented authors and sample their work ? Many of these authors as previously stated market on the social networking sites. If you are an avid reader and want to try something new, you can search these site quite easily.
TWITTER - Enter in #discover search box enter any of these hashtags, #ASMSG #BYNR #AMENL #BOOK this will give you a large amount of tweets from indie authors promoting their books
FACEBOOK - Enter Books, Authors or anything connected with writing, this will bring up a whole list of pages and groups that you can browse.
Remember now days you can open up or download a Free sample read of these books to see if it draws you in or whether it's not for you.
FINALLY If you do find a book you have decided to read from the vast array of talent out there, don't forget to leave a review, there is nothing better for an author than someone reviewing their book. Whether, it be positive or indifferent, as both can be good for an aspiring author.
Here are the links to the indie author's I have mentioned.
And last but not least my good friend
Thank you SO much for this recommendation - I just came across it on your page when looking for something to RT! Most kind of you! You were one of the first people to read my books via my tweets - forever grateful! x
ReplyDeleteThe pleasure is all mine. :-)
Delete