I’m in the midst of a career change. Moving from a steady paycheck to a life as a freelance and indie author presents a risk to me and my family.
The life of an indie author isn’t easy. Here’s what I’ve learned so far on this journey.
Jack of all Trades
Since fourth grade, I knew I wanted to be an author. My entire life plan has been set up around allowing me to write the stories I wanted to write and try to make a career out of it. Of course, I got a little lost and side-tracked along the way, and writing never paid the bills.
Now that I’m making the jump, I realize that authors, especially indie authors, aren’t just writers. While most of us have a story to tell, it doesn’t just sell itself once the story is written. Indie authors have to be editors, marketers, designers, and more.
My skill set has grown exponentially since I started selling my book.
Getting The Word Out
As I’ve transitioned into the author world, I have found many other indie authors online. I’ve made some great friends that have helped me share things and taught me something.
One of my friends put it very eloquently.
The writing community is both small and large at the same time. The majority of us are broke and can’t afford to market our books with professional advertisements. So, what we do, is the next best thing.. and that is sharing our fellow indie author’s pages/work. It literally costs nothing to share other’s work and I try to do so on a daily basis!
Unfortunately, in the beginning, when we put something out into the world, we put it out into an echo chamber. Everyone in our community is fighting (while working together) for the same headspace.
We don’t have fans yet and are grasping at everything we can to expand our reach.
How Can I Help My Indie Author Friends?
Here are ways that you can help your Indie Author friends!
- Follow Them: Find your author friends on social media. Most of us are juggling accounts on multiple platforms. While we pray for authentic, interactive fans, the number of followers helps us get more eyes on our work
- Share It: If you have a friend that’s an indie author and they post something on social media, do your best to help spread it.
- Interact: Share it, like it, and comment on it. Every interaction helps expand that author’s reach.
- Promote it: If you like something they have written, promote it yourself! Post the cover on Instagram, and don’t forget to tag them.
- Review it: Review their work! Don’t inflate ratings. All of us would love five-star reviews, but we need feedback. Even the negative reviews give us a sense of what we need to improve in the future. Reviews also help change the algorithm on the storefront that you rate it.
So, when you see a post from one of your favorite indie authors or beginning freelancers, do your best to help amplify the message!