What is Indie Life?
How: Sign up on the Linky at the bottom of this page
When: Post on the second Wednesday of the month (starting 1/9/2013)
What: Write anything indie related: something that will inspire or help a fellow indie; something that celebrates a release or a milestone; something that talks about the ups and downs, joys and heartaches of Being Indie.
Grab: The banner above to include in your posts!
One of the most important things about being an Indie Author, is to give back to the people who help you the most - other authors (eg: your blogger contacts within your circles).
Even if it is in some small way, I believe this contribution goes a long way in helping to promote your own work and to build a network base. By becoming involved in the release hype of other writer's work you create larger networks, which is a very important step towards making friends and contacts.
The old saying: You reap what you sow, is so very true!
Ensure you make your network strong, by commenting on other blogs, being interested and involved in what others are promoting and when you make a commitment to help with a web activity, ensure you follow it through. Don't let others down, make people feel important and invaluable.
There are so many ways to support and encourage your writer friends. You can sign up to be a host to promote a new release, become a beta reader or critique partner, always leave a review of the books you read at the various publishing sites, visit other blogs and leave comments as often as possible, involve yourself in blog hops and memes, etc, as often as you can.
But most importantly, remember you are running a business and every comment, input and post you create, reflects upon your commercial face. Make sure the image you present is the one you wish to develop and expose.
12 comments:
Great points, and another old saying (cliche?) also applies - what goes around comes around. If you're interested in others they'll be interested in you. Not to mention, it is great fun to be involved!
Great advice. Sometimes I forget to give back because I get so caught up in my own stuff. Thankfully, there are easy ways to give back, like sharing and tweeting so when I do finally remember my friends need my help too, I don't waste time finding some way to help.
There is eventually a cross over when you, the artist, must become you, the entrepreneur, to really sell the book.It's a lot of work from what I've seen!
Very true, Ms. Brown. I couldn't agree more.
So very true! The ancient Romans had the idea of reciprocity or manus manum lavat (one hand washes the other). You definitely get out what you put into the community. :)
Amen!
Besides, it's more fun to give back.
It's very important to help fellow writers and I'm happy to say the gift cards I won helped me to actually by ebooks by a few of them including Jen Nauman, Carrie Butler and Kelley Lynn. Thanks for sharing and keeping to your commitments and keeping yourself relevant are essential.
You hit on a lot of great points and the reminder that we're all working together; it's not a competition. Giving back is always the best way to get help.
Excellent advice! People think it's so easy to sell a book, but without putting the time and effort in to help others, it's impossible. Indie writers rock!
Great advice! My Indie Life post was about critiquing and beta readers, actually. And I have supported other authors since I started blogging, almost three years ago. So I'm doing okay! Yey!
Shah X
Good points to bear in mind and act on.
This is really great advice. Thanks for visiting my blog and I'm going to email you!
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